Porsche doubles Taycan production to 40,000 a year

Luxury carmaker Porsche has confirmed it will be doubling production of its all-electric sports car – before it has even begun production of the prestige EV – from the previously planned 20,000 units to 40,000 units.

The Taycan is Porsche’s first all-electric vehicle was made available for pre-order last year. But the luxury carmaker is anticipating demand will be much greater than it first thought.

The unconfirmed news was first reported on German auto site Automobilewoche, alongside a rumour that Audi would also increase capacity of its all-electric e-tron – which is also not yet on the market.

The German carmaker has now confirmed that it will ramp up production of the Taycan two-fold, with Andrew Lennon, a manager in product comms for Porsche telling CNBC that, “”We had been ready for it.”

“We had the ability to increase capacity from the beginning, and executives recently made the decision to go ahead,” he said.

For now, Porsche plans to produce all 40,000 Taycans at its Zuffenhausen factory in southern Germany but it is thought that if demand exceeds production the carmaker may have to consider expanding Taycan production to include a second site.

That site would most likely be Porsche’s Liepzig factory, analysts report.

While the Taycan is not yet in production, Sydney-siders got the chance to see the Porsche’s Mission E concept which the Taycan will be based on, in October 2018.

The high performance concept boasts a pretty decent range of over 500km, with a massive 440kW power output to its dual motor drivetrain and acceleration from 0 to 100km/hr in under 3.5 seconds.

While the sports style sedan will appeal to lovers of the finer things in the EV world – speed, power and torque – Porsche is hedging its bets with the addition of a crossover variant of the Mission E.

The Mission E Cross Turismo is aimed undoubtedly to draw in the fans of the popular SUV segment, with a wagon rear end and better ground clearance than the original concept, while sharing the same powertrain.

The Taycan will be available in Australia from the first half of 2020, with the Mission E Cross Turismo is due to be launched in the same year.