Porsche Taycan Design Sketches Provide Yet Another Teaser For The EV

Porsche seems determined to show us as much as it can of the new Taycan without spoiling the full reveal. A few months ago we were shown a camouflage-wrapped prototype of the Porsche’s first fully-electric vehicle, and now, with three months to go until the Taycan’s debut, the company has released some design sketches.

They’re by Michael Mauer, Porsche’s head of styling. And while they are inevitably a little exaggerated, showing a low, squat stance and giant wheels, we can expect the real deal to look very much like this.

Mauer calls designing the car as “one of the most exciting yet challenging tasks, simply because there was nothing to build on”. It wasn’t ever going to have an entirely fresh aesthetic, however. “We didn’t start from scratch because we knew that this new model had to be recognisable as a Porsche at first glance,” he explains.

Porsche has worked hard to make sure the Taycan has a sports car-like short and wide shape, something that isn’t easy with an electric car. Normally, you’d have the occupants sitting on top of a large ‘skateboard’ of batteries, which pushes the roofline up.

The answer came in the creation of “foot garages” in the floor where there are no battery cells, allowing people to sit lower in the car.

As well as presenting challenges like this, designing an EV also gives greater freedom in other areas. Take the front end: it doesn’t need a big radiator grille. Instead, Porsche has opted for a pair of air intakes, in which the headlights are integrated.

As for what’s under the skin, we can expect several electric powertrain options producing somewhere in the region of 400, 500 and 600bhp, each using two-speed transmissions.

Weirdly, the range-topping version will be christened the ‘Taycan Turbo’. We’ll forgive it for being thusly named despite, you know, not actually having a turbocharger, because it’ll be fast - 0-62mph will happen in just 3.5 seconds, with 124mph arriving just 12 seconds after leaving the line.

The Taycan will make its world debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.