Blog Porsche Announces Cheaper Version of the All-Electric Taycan

Porsche has announced a lower-priced version of its highly-anticipated Taycan electric vehicle, which could further entice consumers to stray from Tesla.

The model is called the Porsche Taycan 4S, which will carry the same battery size as the Taycan Turbo and Turbo S that were previously announced. 

The 4S will be offered with the “Performance Battery” (390 kW) for $103,800 and the “Performance Battery Plus” (420 kW) for $110,380. Compare that with the $150,900 Taycan Turbo and $185,000 Taycan Turbo S, the 4S becomes accessible to a larger swath of consumers.

The two versions of the Taycan 4S will pack 522 horsepower and 563 horsepower, respectively. The Taycan 4S will have a 0-60 mph time of 3.8 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph.

The Taycan 4S is scheduled to arrive in U.S. dealerships in spring 2020.

 

[MightyHawk]

Porsche is always good and highly reliable. I feel sorry for people who can only afford Tesla. But that's life.

I feel sorry for people who feel the need to belittle others. What are they missing from their lives, I wonder, that makes them feel better putting others down.

 

[UTMB]

Porsche is always good and highly reliable. I feel sorry for people who can only afford Tesla. But that's life.

View attachment 467907 View attachment 467908

Danng! I should have gotten a Buick Lacrosse.
All joking aside, those top models made my eyes water a bit. Mini Cooper and Dodge most reliable?

 

[CSFTN]

April 2018, 25k miles. Zero service center visit. Have not done my annual service yet.

When I turned my 2015 P85D in, it had never in 4 years *needed* service. Not once. I did have it in to adjust a few minor things, and to get the L upgrade, and to get an annual service just because.

PS I forgot that my driver door handle did stop presenting in 2018. One call, mechanic came to my house replaced it in my driveway.

 

[CSFTN]

Well, a lone service center not knowing what they're talking about isn't too rare, unfortunately. I had a sales center that wouldn't sell me a LR RWD and only would sell me an SR+, AWD, or Performance, so it's really not that shocking to hear you were told to scram. Not that I would personally ever pay $400 for a service I can do myself. I'm pretty sure between my owners manual (which I read end to end) and Rich's Electrified Garage, one can easily confirm that there is indeed a good amount of evidence to back up a service that occurs annually, IE: an annual service.

I brought both my Model S and my wife's Model 3 in for service in February. They had called and emailed me several times but I had never checked, the Model 3 does NOT have annual service - it is every 2 years. The Model S, at least in February 2019 , still had an annual service.

 

[Magellan55]

Latest Owner's manual for the S has removed any mention of annual service other than tire rotation, unless you live where they salt the roads. And my SC tells me they usually don't rotate tires on AWD vehicles anyway. Here's what it says now, p. 163:

Service Intervals
Your vehicle should generally be serviced on an as-needed basis. However, Tesla recommends the following maintenance items and intervals, as applicable to your vehicle, to ensure continued reliability and efficiency of your Model S.
• Brake fluid health check every 2 years (replace if necessary)
• A/C desiccant bag replacement every 2 years
• Cabin air filter replacement every 2 years
• HEPA filter replacement every 3 years
• Clean and lubricate brake calipers every year or 12,500 miles (if in an area where roads are salted during the Winter)
• Rotate tires every 10,000-12,000 miles (16,000-20,000 km) or if tread depth difference is 2/32 in (1.5 mm) or greater

Note: The above intervals are based on normal driving behaviors and scenarios. Additionally, the above list should not be considered comprehensive and does not include consumable parts such as windshield wipers, brake pads, etc.

 

[brianman]

View attachment 467907

How can you compare anything on the chart (Porsche) with anything that's literally off the chart (Tesla)?

You can't. The data isn't there to do so. Same goes for any other rankings they give if the data simply isn't available.

Maybe next month though for "dealership sales award"...
2019 Tesla Motors J.D. Power Awards | J.D. Power
… or not because Tesla doesn't have dealerships and a data set of zero remains uninteresting.

Looks like Feb 2020 and later we might get something useful about Tesla from J.D. Power.

 

[AdamMacDon]

I brought both my Model S and my wife's Model 3 in for service in February. They had called and emailed me several times but I had never checked, the Model 3 does NOT have annual service - it is every 2 years. The Model S, at least in February 2019 , still had an annual service.

I mean personally I'll still rotate my tires, clean the brakes, and check over the suspension annually, but my car sees about 25,000km of hard city driving per year, so your mileage will vary. It really depends on where you live, how you drive, and a bunch of other variables. Tesla seems to change their stance on it fairly often, and depending who you talk to, haha.

 

[R1Fast]

This will definitely eat into Model S sales. Tesla has inferior build quality, poor initial quality as rated by Consumer Reports and the hundreds of complaints in this forum, poor battery/electric design (see this #batterygate and #chargegate thread for what will eventually happen), lacks true sport suspension, and has an interior only a mother could love. Tesla is pretty freaked out by Porsche as witnessed by Tesla rushing an experimental powertrain to Nurburgring right after the Porsche Taycan announcement. The Nurburgring Tesla broke down and needed to be towed.

• If you want to participate in an experiment by a company more interested in video games and fart noises than cars, buy Tesla.
• If you don't mind holding 45 minutes to talk with a human and waiting 30 days for a service appointment, buy Tesla.
• If you prefer Uber credits to a loaner car after waiting 30 days for a service appointment, buy Tesla.
• If you love having your car in service 5-10 times per year for issues nobody else has to worry about, buy Tesla.
• If you like having features removed from your vehicle without your permission, including battery capacity and acceleration, buy Tesla.
• If you like crappy, beta software full of bugs, buy Tesla.
• If you want a CEO's personal problems to affect your ownership experience, buy Tesla.

Buy Porsche if you want a well built car that actually performs as advertised and offers the fit/finish expected at the price. At least Porsche knows how to properly build and service a car and take care of its customers.

Wow - It's a little cryptic but I'd almost conclude by reading your comment that you don't like Tesla! Then why the hell are you on this forum?

 

[Electroman]

Amped has become increasingly very acerbic and negative. Some of the phrases and words he uses are quite TSLAQ trollish.

Tesla freaked out by Porsche
Model S has to be towed in the ring
Car is typically serviced 5 to 10 times a year.
CEO has personal problems.
Poor fit and finish

Yada yada .. all punch lines and sound bytes you will hear from CNBC or Business Insider Tesla haters masquerading as journalists.

Irony is Amped has been a TMC member for a long time. So he is not a troll.... unless he turned into one recently.

 

[hydro 481]

I think the 4S could prove to be more vital for Porsche than the higher end models. This is the “mainstream” model that will directly compete with the Model S. Main concern would be range. They are way behind Tesla in that aspect. But still, I think it’s a compelling option and one I will be considering in a few years.

 

[SUN-day Driver]

Irony is Amped has been a TMC member for a long time. So he is not a troll.... unless he turned into one recently.

Like many early owners, he has probably seen the company going downhill from what it was when we early owners got our first Model S.

The UI in 2013 was much better for usability while driving than the current one is. A series of gradual UI decisions to make things harder to see, harder to get to, etc. followed by Version 9 which made impossible the way many drivers liked to use their screens, was a big letdown.

We've seen a company that was responsive to its users become one where you can't reach anyone when you need to.

We've seen a parts backlog that keeps cars in body shops for months.

We've seen the CEO indulging in what was then an illegal drug during an interview, and we've seen him baselessly publicly accuse a hero of being a pedophile. Things the CEO does affects the company.

So it is understandable that some long time owners who have been on this forum for years, at first in exuberant support of Tesla, now have soured.

 

[hydro 481]

Like many early owners, he has probably seen the company going downhill from what it was when we early owners got our first Model S.

The UI in 2013 was much better for usability while driving than the current one is. A series of gradual UI decisions to make things harder to see, harder to get to, etc. followed by Version 9 which made impossible the way many drivers liked to use their screens, was a big letdown.

We've seen a company that was responsive to its users become one where you can't reach anyone when you need to.

We've seen a parts backlog that keeps cars in body shops for months.

We've seen the CEO indulging in what was then an illegal drug during an interview, and we've seen him baselessly publicly accuse a hero of being a pedophile. Things the CEO does affects the company.

So it is understandable that some long time owners who have been on this forum for years, at first in exuberant support of Tesla, now have soured.

Marijuana was already legalized in California when he appeared on the podcast.

 

[Magellan55]

I think the 4S could prove to be more vital for Porsche than the higher end models. This is the “mainstream” model that will directly compete with the Model S. Main concern would be range. They are way behind Tesla in that aspect. But still, I think it’s a compelling option and one I will be considering in a few years.

Agree, though there is still the base model to come. Supposed to be RWD / single motor, and start ~$80K. Pricewise it will be the most direct Model S competitor, though not in range or performance (0-60 in maybe 5s, sort of like the S75). No direct knowledge, but I'll bet the base models of their ICE cars and SUV's outsell their 4S models, but both bring in the lion's share of the revenue compared to the turbos.