It's good news for future Taycan owners.
The Porsche Taycan looks like the most serious competitor the Tesla Model S has ever seen but in one important regard, Tesla still has Porsche beat - charging. Yes, the Taycan boasts impressive charging ability with a 3.4-kWh battery pack capable of going from 5 percent to 80 percent charged in just 22.5 minutes, but your options for finding a fast-charging station will be far more limited than it will be in a Tesla.
Tesla's supercharger network is vast, giving owners many convenient places to charge their car. But the Taycan has a secret weapon in the form of Electrify America, a charger network partially owned by Porsche's parent company, the Volkswagen Group.
VW has already invested over $2 billion in Electrify America to build charging stations across the US. Today, Electrify America has announced its stations will be capable of charging the Taycan at 270 kilowatts, the fastest charging speed for any electric vehicle on the market (yes, even faster than Tesla).
Following the Taycan's launch on September 4, an early example was charged at Electrify America's Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania station after driving approximately 250 miles from Niagara Falls. The road trip was meant to show the practical side of the Taycan and the Electrify America charging network.
"When Electrify America was formed, the idea of ultra-fast public charging was still very theoretical, and no 350 kW chargers were available to electric vehicle drivers," said Giovanni Palazzo, chief executive officer, Electrify America. "Today we are proud to showcase our network's diligent engineering capability through successful, real-world 270 kW DC fast charging examples, finally making ultra-fast public charging a true reality."
Electrify American still has a ways to go before matching the availability of Tesla's Supercharger network but with enough time and investment, it will be a major factor in helping EVs reach acceptability. And unlike Tesla's Superchargers, which only work for Tesla vehicles, the Electrify America plugs will work for non-VW Group cars.
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