Despite what the EPA might have you believe, the Porsche Taycan is a mightily impressive electric car. Starting at over $105,000 for the base 4S version, though, all of that electric German excellence certainly does not come cheap. Luckily, Porsche is preparing to introduce an entry-level Taycan with one less driven axle, a smaller battery, and a lower starting price.
Speaking to the U.K.'s CAR magazine, Porsche R&D boss Michael Steiner said, "There will be entry-level models coming off the Taycan. There will be a rear-wheel-drive model with a smaller battery to make it more accessible price-wise, especially for markets that don't need 4WD—places like China, where weather conditions mean you don't need it."
When The Drive reached out to the company to ask whether or not a Taycan "2S" would be available on our shores, a Porsche Cars North America spokesperson cryptically replied, "although we do not speak about future products, you can be sure our electrification initiative does not stop with just three Taycan variants," referencing the 4S, Turbo, and Turbo S models that make up the current Taycan stable. All three are all-wheel-drive, with each axle being powered by its own permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor.
Naturally, expect the cheaper electric Porsche to come with less range and straight-line speed than its existing siblings. As a reference, the Taycan 4S gets from zero to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds and, according to the EPA at least, will travel 203 miles on a single charge. We have a hunch that in real-world conditions, rear-drive Taycans will handily beat whatever the EPA eventually says they'll do but that's another story for another time.
If Porsche's existing nomenclature is anything to go by, expect the less expensive variants to be simply be called the Taycan and/or Taycan S. Whatever they end up being named, CAR says the cheaper, rear-wheel-drive Porsche Taycans are due to be released sometime within the next 12 months...provided the world doesn't devolve into a full-on apocalypse before then.
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h/t: Motor1