It seems that Porsche is really quite hooked onto its naming structure, evidenced by the fact that the automaker’s first fully-electric vehicle, confirmed to be called the Taycan, will have a range-topping variant called the ‘Turbo’.
The news comes from The Drive’s Alex Roy, who upon placing an order for a new Porsche EV, received an email response from one of Porsche’s brand ambassadors for North America, who explained that the base rear-drive model will be called simply ‘Taycan’, an all-wheel drive version is to be called the Taycan 4S, and the ‘performance’ variant is to be dubbed the Taycan Turbo. Most confusing.
This is, of course, in accordance with their current line-up of vehicles such as the 911, Panamera, and Cayenne, all of which use name to signify its most powerful, most advanced, and often fastest variant. However, they also have another thing in common: they actually have functioning turbochargers (as do all Porsche’s apart from some of their GT cars).
Because the name has lost some of its impact after being used time and time again, Porsche has had to resort to other monikers such as ‘RS’, ‘R’, and ‘Turbo S’ to add more vigour to something so familiar, especially given that so many other automakers have used it as well.
The marketing craze of the late 1980s and 90s showed that just about any word could be grafted onto any number of products, no matter how little it had to do with its raw definition. The word ‘turbo’ sprung into the minds of many not because of its function within the realm of internal combustion, but because of it being thoughtlessly plastered everywhere to denote some kind of edge or modernity - from dishwashing liquid to Power Rangers.
That said, for such a distinguished member of the automotive guild as Porsche to attach the word ‘Turbo’ to a car that is antithetical to the actual use of turbochargers seems odd and strangely self-absorbed - as if the Stuttgart automaker has some rightful claim over the word itself. They do not.
Roy argues that the reasoning behind Porsche’s insistence to reuse exact nomenclature for their fully electric Taycan from their combustion-powered cars might stem from the company’s background and brand familiarity.
Perhaps prospective buyers will be more easily understand the product hierarchy if it mimicked existing Porsche cars, and also because the ‘Turbo’ badge has been used to signify the highest end version of a given car of theirs for over 40 years. At this point, whether this is the right course of action is purely conjecture, and it could be the case that only the Taycan will be saddled with this legacy name given its pioneering role for Porsche.
What we do know for now is that the Taycan will feature two permanently synchronous electric motors with a combined system output of 440kW and is able to sprint to 100km/h from rest in 3.5 seconds. When fully juiced, its battery array can run the car for 500km before requiring a recharge which, in tandem with its 800-volt electrical architecture, can be replenished to 80 percent capacity in just 15 minutes when connected to a compatible high speed charger. Porsche is due to show off a production-ready example of the Taycan some time this year.
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