Upcoming Porsche Taycan flagship sets new EV Nurburgring record

03 January 2024 - 09:04
By TIMESLIVE
The upcoming Taycan top dog lapped the Nurburgring a whopping 26 seconds faster than the Taycan Turbo S.
Image: Supplied The upcoming Taycan top dog lapped the Nurburgring a whopping 26 seconds faster than the Taycan Turbo S.

A new pre-production Porsche Taycan flagship has become the fastest four-door electric car to lap the Nurburgring Nordschleife, and the second quickest EV overall.

Porsche development driver Lars Kern posted a lap time of 7:07.55 minutes — a whopping 26 seconds faster than he was on his last record drive, in a Taycan Turbo S sport sedan equipped with a performance package in August 2022. This is no mean feat given the Turbo S is a 460kW beast that blazes the 0-100km/h sprint in just 2.8 seconds and has a 260km/h top speed.

The latest feat is also 17.7 seconds better than the next-fastest four-door car around the track: the Tesla Model S Plaid. The Porsche narrowly missed the outright Nordschleife lap record for a production EV, which is held by the Rimac Nevera hypercar with a 7:05:298. 

Porsche has not yet confirmed what the new range-topping Taycan will be called (it’s rumoured to be the Taycan Turbo GT) or what the power outputs are, but was thrilled by the car’s achievement at the iconic German racetrack. 

“Twenty-six seconds is half an eternity in motorsport. Lars’ lap time of 7:07.55 minutes on the Nordschleife is sensational, putting the Taycan in the same league as electric hypercars,” said head of the model line, Kevin Giek. “And the impressive thing about it is that over several laps, Lars clocked almost exactly the same time.”

An on-board video of the complete lap will be published in mid-March.