When Porsche unveiled their Taycan Turbo and Taycan Turbo S in September last year, many were surprised at the eye-popping prices which came in higher than anticipated, starting at $213,000 CAD for the Turbo S, and with options easily pushing $300,000 CAD.
Soon after Porsche announced a cheaper and slower Taycan 4S variant, which starts at a slightly more reasonable $119,400 CAD.
According to a recent interview with Car Magazine, Porsche R&D chief Michael Steiner, the German automaker now has plans to release a cheaper, rear-wheel drive (RWD) option that will also come with a smaller battery.
The larger battery sizes haven’t helped the Turbo and Turbo S Taycans. The Turbo received a poor EPA rating of just 323km (201 miles) on a full charge. The Turbo S fared even worse, with an EPA rating of 308km (192 miles).
The RWD Taycan is likely to first be released in China, which Steiner notes is a market where AWD is not really needed.
Steiner did not confirm when the new RWD version of the Taycan will become available, nor did he comment on how much it will cost.
Porsche recently released their Q1 2020 sales numbers, revealing that overall sales were down 5% compared to the same quarter in 2019. In total, Porsche was able to sell 1,391 Taycan EVs around the world in the first quarter.
