Porsche Taycan to Drive Farther, Charge Faster

(Bloomberg) -- Porsche’s all-electric Taycan model, due next year, will let drivers travel about 400 kilometers (250 miles) after charging the vehicle for less than 20 minutes, Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume told Welt am Sonntag in an interview.

A new 800 volt electricity supply system will power a car for about 100 kilometers after a four-minute charge, Blume said. The next generation of battery technology, available in about a decade, will again double the reach to about 1,000 kilometers and cut the time for charging, the CEO said.

The company has joined with BMW, Daimler, Ford and Audi to develop infrastructure to allow fast charging of electrically powered vehicles across Europe, he said.

Porsche faces pressure from Tesla and government initiatives to eventually phase out combustion engines in favor of electric cars, and Blume said he has the “highest respect” for Tesla’s chief Elon Musk for creating a new segment within the industry. While the company expects about half its newly sold vehicles to be hybrid or electric by 2025, it will continue to offer its 911 model with a combustion engine “for as long as possible.”

The next 911 will include a conventional engine, but designed to eventually house a hybrid power plant, Blume said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Erhard Krasny at ekrasny@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann

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