Porsche has a reputation for making powerful sports cars. The company excels at designing vehicles that look sleek, roar when the driver steps on the accelerator, stop almost instantly, and have an insane 0-60 acceleration. It’s also a brand that also has a hefty price tag. While that’s not going to completely change, Porsche recently revealed the Taycan, an electric vehicle that will change the way you think about Porsche. With the Taycan, Porsche has the ability to put some serious pressure on Tesla, the brand that until now has cornered the electric car market.

Porsche hopes that the Taycan will help it usher in a new era.

An Affordable Porsche Taycan

The Porsche Taycan Turbo is poised to hit the streets soon. That vehicle will have the kind of price tag that allows most of us to just dream of driving it. The good news is that Porsche doesn’t intend on stopping there. They’re planning on launching a more affordable version of the Taycan next year. The price tag attached to it will be a little more realistic for regular folk who don’t want to spend more on a car then they do their house.

The starting price Porsche has attached to the Taycan Turbo is $150,900. The fully loaded version is expected to sell for as much as $241,500. That doesn’t include processing fees, licensing, and tax. That’s more than most of us can justify spending on a sports car. Many were surprised when the CEO of Porsche Cars in North America, Klaus Zellmer, used the 2019 Frankfurt Auto Show to announce that it wouldn’t be long before we’d see another, more affordable version of the Taycan. He felt that the lower-priced version of the Taycan would become available shortly but offered no definitive date.

Creating a more economically friendly car is certainly a departure from Porsche’s norms.

The Porsche Taycan

It’s easy to understand why people are so excited about the Porsche Taycan. This is a vehicle that’s going to provide some serious competition for the Tesla Model S. The design is very similar to the one that Tesla used. The battery pack is on the bottom of the car, which helps improve handling, space, and the aerodynamics of the vehicle. The battery will provide the vehicle with 90 kilowatt-hours. One of the things that Porsche did differently then Tesla was equip the vehicle with a “permanently excited synchronous” motor which creates more torque. The different motor is supposed to help improve the Taycan’s energy consumption’

Don’t assume that just because the Taycan is an entirely electric vehicle that it won’t have the power and thrill Porsches gas-powered vehicles have. It does, just not quite as much. The Taycan might not be able to keep up with the gas-powered Porsches, but it isn’t shy about letting drivers know that it’s a sports car. The Taycan can go from 0-62 mph in 3.5 seconds. And the speed doesn’t drop off. The vehicle is powerful enough to make an entire lap around the Nürburgring in a mere eight seconds. It handles smooth, is a very agile vehicle, and is equipped with high-performance brakes that won’t let you down.

You don’t have to worry about spending all day to recharge the Taycan’s battery. The battery can be partially charged (enough to make the vehicle drivable) in fifteen minutes. One a single full charge you should be able to drive about 500 kilometers (approximately 300 miles.)

The Taycan won’t be widely available in the United States. Porsche only intends for 189 U.S. dealerships to sell the vehicle.