Porsche unveils its very first electric car



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(Bloomberg) – Porsche has selected Niagara Falls, a Chinese wind farm and solar power plant in Germany, to unveil its first 100% electric sports car, highlighting the new Taycan's central role in developing Volkswagen AG's parent company as the world's leading battery sales company Vehicles.

After a chaotic start for the sister brand Audi, the e-Tron, the Taycan, whose price is estimated at around $ 90,000, remains for the moment the featured carrier of VW's huge attempt to replace the pioneer of the e-car, Tesla Inc. At simultaneous events in its three largest markets, where Porsche – which has been producing roaring sports cars for seven decades – will plunge the new car into a backdrop. images of lasting power.

Despite its technical genius as the world's largest automaker, VW is struggling to slow down Tesla's pace. The debut of e-Tron, a challenger for the Model X sport utility vehicle, was marked by delays and a recall. Tesla's chief, Elon Musk, has expanded his market with the less expensive model 3, which started selling in Europe this year and is about to start producing in China.

The Taycan and the VW ID.3 Mass will be on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show next week and are expected to go into production later this year, underscoring the efforts of more than 30 billion euros (33 euros). billions of dollars) from VW to produce car batteries in all price segments. It is a plan that the German manufacturer can hardly afford to fail.

The Taycan "represents a turning point for Porsche and the industry because it raises the level of technicality of electric vehicles beyond Tesla," said Michael Dean, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, in a report. Taycan should "be profitable from launch, given Porsche's proven pricing power, although its margins are considerably lower than gasoline models."

The latest news, the Taycan, an elegant four-door sedan, had attracted about 30,000 deposits, a figure that should be updated later Wednesday. The car is partly funded by a green bill of euros billion ($ 1.1 billion), the first for a carmaker. It may well be that the iconic 911 that has made Porsche one of the richest in the world for decades is better sold.

The sophisticated-technology car will pair with Tesla's aging Model S after Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Audi have chosen SUVs to boost their electric car offerings. Tesla is concerned about the possibility of making sustainable profits despite declining demand for its older models, while sales increase for the less expensive model 3.

"The volumes of the S and X models have fallen over the past two quarters and have weighed heavily on Tesla's recent financial data," said Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi in a note. He identified a number of potential factors, including model 3 cannibalization, aging product design and new competition.

Acceptable Returns

The jury also questions whether Porsche can generate acceptable returns on cars designed to maintain the manufacturer's healthy margins in moving to stricter emission rules. He enters the battle of gross health as VW's most profitable brand.

Demand for the Cayenne SUV contributed to the 2% increase in sales in the first half, despite the slowdown in the market. Maintaining healthy operational returns – at 16.5% in the first six months – is essential to fund VW's unprecedented move into this new era.

The German manufacturer in Stuttgart has chosen the three Taycan event venues to showcase green energy sources: hydroelectric power falls in Niagara Falls, North America, a solar park outside Berlin and a wind farm in China near the city of Fuzhou. As manufacturers gradually move towards battery-powered cars, the energy used to recharge them often comes from non-renewable sources, such as coal-fired power plants.

Hybrid promise

Porsche has seen promising sales of plug-in hybrid versions of existing models such as the four-door Panamera coupe, with more than half of European customers opting for partially emission-free options. To alleviate the concerns of using all-electric, the manufacturer installs fast chargers at dealerships in the United States and Europe.

VW is also participating in Ionity, which is deploying a network of high speed charging points on European motorways. The Taycan can recharge 100 kilometers (62 miles) in four minutes and has a total range of 500 kilometers.

High-tech products include a horizontal touch screen that extends to the passenger side, with a separate control panel. The infotainment incorporates the Apple Music software that allows drivers to capture a song on the radio and add it to their playlists. (Android phone owners are out of luck – Porsche's infotainment system only works with Apple.)

– With the help of Gabrielle Coppola and Chunying Zhang.

To contact the reporter about this story: Christoph Rauwald in Frankfurt at [email protected]

To contact the makers of this story: Anthony Palazzo at [email protected], Elisabeth Behrmann

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