This article was funny (in a sad way) and points out that Porsche is in trouble:
Since I found myself sitting across from the Porsche Taycan’s P.R. manager, Mayk Wienkötter, last week, I had to ask him about all of this. The first thing I wanted to know was what he thought about Elon’s tweets. “Free P.R. for us,” he told me. “I’m not sure everyone was aware of the Taycan,” he continued, mentioning Musk’s enormous Twitter following.
I don’t think having a car still awaiting production ramp, whose specs are almost all inferior to a competitor’s, at twice the price, and losing significantly to a car expected to be in production in a year, that will still be cheaper, and whose specs will be better at every level, is good PR. Not sure if that’s a run-on sentence, but there. I said it.
So he’s right. Free PR, but I doubt it’s the good kind. Besides, anyone following Musk is probably already playing on Team Musk.
With that said, if Tesla does release a production vehicle that outdoes the Taycan’s lap, Porsche will respond, with Wienkötter saying: “We will definitely try to give an answer,” before saying: “If another apple is better than our apple, we will have to find an answer.”
The problem is, if your team is always playing defense, you will lose. This mindset here is about responding. Not leading.
Like I said earlier, skating to where the puck is instead of where it will be.
“Turbo S,” he said, “is really the pinnacle of the model,” he said before stating outright that there is no dual motor or high-performance variant of the Taycan currently in the plans. Porsche’s project manager for the Taycan’s high voltage systems, Benjamin Passenberg cited space, weight, and cost as three factors working against a dual rear-motor Taycan.
From the horse’s mouth. No, they don’t plan on going faster. Puts risk on the ICE lineup.
And whuh? Cost? It’s already a freakin $200,000+ car and COST is a limiting factor of a three-motor design?
Yep, if this PR guy accurately reflects the company’s views, Porsche is doomed. They still seem to be underestimating Musk.
It’s a shame. Some of their cars look cool...
After I asked if the Turbo S could be 20 seconds faster than the Turbo, Wienkötter responded said “Doubt it. Twenty seconds is a lot,” and went on to mention that, though there’s still some room for improvement, the Turbo and Turbo S are positioned really closely, and that “the gap you would gain [with a Turbo S over a Turbo] is not that significant.”
As we suspected. The Turbo S is not really much faster on a track. Short burst for a slightly faster (but still slower than Raven) trip to 60 mph, but not too useful on the track.
Hmm. I want to drop $200k even less now.