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The price of entry into a new Porsche Taycan just got $23,900 cheaper. Porsche introduced its new rear-wheel-drive base-model 2021 Taycan, which starts at $81,250—undercutting even the $88,550 base-model Panamera‘s price.
There is one big upside to going rear-wheel-drive aside from (hopefully!) the sub-$100K price and the ease of doing sweet electric drifts: the front end of the new base Taycan weighs 200 pounds less than the all-wheel-drive Taycans thanks to the removal of the power unit from the front axle.
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It keeps the same rear power unit and battery architecture as the previous least expensive Taycan, the $105,150 Taycan 4S. A permanent magnet synchronous electric motor with a 600-amp pulse inverter, and a 130-mm-long, 245-mm-diamater rotor puts the power to the base Taycan’s rear wheels through the Taycan’s unique two-speed transaxle.
There are two battery configurations for the new base Taycan: a 79.2-kWh Performance Battery and a 93.4-kWh Performance Battery Plus, which can charge up to 225 kW and 270 kW respectively. Both battery packs take 22.5 minutes to charge up from 5% to 80% at a high-speed DC charger.
The Performance Battery Plus pack is a $5,780 upgrade that weighs roughly 170 lbs more, but is the clear choice if you’re looking for a bit more capacity and performance. With the standard Performance Battery, you get 402 horsepower and 254 pound-feet of torque, making it the most powerful base-model Porsche ever made. The Performance Battery Plus nudges that up to 469 hp and 263 lb-ft of torque. Both have a top speed of 143 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 5.1 seconds. The difference is in the quarter-mile times, with a 13.7-second time for the standard battery and a 13.5-second time for the upgrade.
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The standard kit isn’t a slouch, either, with 19-inch silver Taycan Aero wheels, LED headlights, and black-caliper six-piston front brakes and four-piston rear brakes. As with the other Taycans, the base model features regenerative braking with a 265-kW recuperation rate and Porsche Active Suspension Management that can change the suspension based on road conditions and/or your intended use. As with the other Taycans, the base model still gets three years of free Electrify America charging.
You can even track your Taycan order from build to delivery through the Porsche Track Your Dream service. Then please go track your dream—at a race track. Hey, we’re just as curious as anybody else as to how this car performs.
Granted, this new RWD Taycan is still $10,630 more expensive the cheapest $70,620 Tesla Model S, which packs all-wheel-drive and a bit more range. That being said, if you’d rather get a car with more options for personalization made by an automaker who’s been putting out cars for far longer, the extra cash for the Taycan may be worth it for you. That being said, the Porsche is still eligible for an EPA federal tax credit of $7,500, which Tesla already exhausted.
The new base-model Taycan arrives in U.S. dealerships in early Spring 2021.
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