Porsche Taycan sets four-door electric Nurburgring record

With its official debut on September 4th merely a week away, Porsche has completed the last and arguably most important test of its upcoming Taycan electric sedan, setting a lap time on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Using a pre-production prototype, Porsche managed to set a lap time of 7min 42sec on the 20.6km course.

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For comparison, that lap time places the prototype ahead of the Honda Civic Type-R and Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, though behind the likes of the tweaked track-focused record-holders such as the Renault Megane RS Trophy-R and Jaguar XE SV Project 8.

“The Taycan is also suitable for race tracks and it convincingly proved that here on the world’s most challenging circuit,” test driver, Lars Kern, explained.

“Again and again, I am impressed at how stable the all-electric sports car handles in high-speed sections, such as Kesselchen, and how neutrally it accelerates from tight sections, such as Adenauer Forst.”

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The Taycan’s Nürburgring jaunt is the third and final part of Porsche’s “Triple Endurance Run”, which includes performance 26 successive 0-200km/h acceleration runs to prove the reproducibility of its performance, and completing 3425km within 24 hours on Volkswagen’s Nardo test circuit without issue.

Porsche credits the Taycan’s two electric motors on both axles that provide all-wheel drive, “4D-Chassis Control” that synchronises all chassis electronics, an 800V electric system that delivers consistent performance, and driving modes that are specifically tailored to managing the car’s “battery cooling and heating strategy”, for its remarkable turn of speed.

That being said, with the lap done with a pre-production mule, it is uncertain how much that would count towards the production Taycan’s performance mantle, though considering how full-electric cars like the Nio EP9 and the Volkswagen I.D. R have been laying down impressive lap times, it is likely that the production Taycan would be able to hit or surpass that 7min 42sec mark.