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n 2004, Elon Musk—his pockets full of
PayPal profits—walked into the offices
of AC Propulsion in the L.A. suburb
of San Dimas with some questions.
Among them was whether they’d
convert his Porsche 911 Turbo into an
electric car. He was willing to pay a pretty
penny (reportedly $250,000) for it. But
Alan Cocconi, AC’s live-wire founder, said
sorry, no thanks. So Tom Gage, Cocconi’s
(likely bewildered) business partner,
referred Musk to a promising EV startup
they both knew of.
And that, kids, is (approximately)
where the Tesla saga began. Would Tesla
exist today if Elon had simply gotten his
damn electric 911 from Cocconi?
Now Elon can finally drive an electric
Porsche Turbo S, and at a billionaire’s-
bargain price of $186,350. (Our tester
rings up at $205,360.) But it would be
dreadful optics, because the Wizard ofWatts would be driving the Taycan Turbo
S—Stuttgart’s four-door, four-seat coun-
terattack against Tesla’s recurring, gauche
habit of crashing the private soirées of
Europe’s gasoline-combusting elite. But
Stuttgart appears to have taken careful
notes on this Silicon Valley upstart.
The Taycan Turbo S traces the Model S’
(probably unavoidable) broad-brush blue-
print: dual motors—one front, another
in back—all-wheel drive, a battery floor,
ludicrous performance (that’s Lächerlich
in German), a frunk up front, all envel-
oped in a slick, fuselage skin.
The Taycan’s panoramic, fixed glass
roof imitates the Tesla’s copper color
when sprinkled with rain (due to the
same UV-reflective layer). And traveling
Taycans are mainly replenished by a
respectable knockoff of Tesla’s Super-
charger oases—the fast-expanding Elec-
trify America network.But in the other category—the ways in
which they’re different—they’re starkly
different. These days, the Model S’ front
motor is basically the Model 3’s perma-
nent-magnet rear motor (part of what
defines the latest Raven architecture).
Its rear one is the slightly less efficient
inductive type—but it offers the neat trick
of being de-energizable (defeatable) so it
can freewheel during light-load cruising,
making it more efficient.
In contrast, both of the Porsche’s motors
(a combined 750 hp) feature permanent
magnets, so the rear motor’s decoupling
(in efficient Range mode) is mechanical,
and moreover, bundled with a two-speed
transmission to improve both low- and
high-speed performance. Tesla tried that
with its original Roadster a decade ago; the
struggle to tame the gearshift’s hammering56 MOTORTREND.COM MAY 2020FIRST TEST/TRACK TEST I 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S