Porsche’s first all-electric sports car is said to be the hottest anticipated vehicle of 2019, while even Tesla owners are sparking interest. During a recent interview with CNET, Porsche North America president and CEO Klaus Zellmer said if those who placed a deposit to pre-order the car and actually purchases it, then the Taycan will be sold out in its first year of production.
Wondering who these early reservation clients are? According to Zellmer, more than half have never owned a Porsche – and even more specifically – potential customers coming from Tesla.
“Typically, if we look at our source of business, people coming from other brands, it’s Audi, BMW, or Mercedes. The no. 1 brand now is Tesla,” said Zellmer. “That’s pretty interesting, to see that people that were curious about the Tesla for very good reasons obviously don’t stop being curious.”
Porsche previously planned to produce about 20,000 Taycans per year, though the company hasn’t released many details on the production, and it’s unclear how many deposits have been made. Porsche CEO Oliver Blume told WirtschaftsWoche in November that the demand for the Taycan is extreme, prompting the automaker to further increase production capacity without mentioning how much more of an increase.
“When it’s about being competitive, it’s something that really has to fully speak Porsche,” Zellmer said. “If you drive a Macan, you know that we share a platform [with Audi], but it’s a completely different car. And that’s exactly what has to happen and I’m sure Audi has followed a same path.”
The Taycan is expected to launch by the end of 2019, while we can’t wait to see if it raises the bar as we witness more and more EVs emerging in 2019.