A Porsche Taycan Just Lapped the Nürburgring in 7:07.55
Porsche development driver Lars Kern has taken an unnamed pre-production Porsche Taycan variant around the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 7:07.55, beating the fastest existing time for a Porsche electric vehicle by 26 seconds. The Taycan is not quite the fastest production EV to ever lap the track, but the super sedan is just two seconds off the Rimac Nevera hypercar's existing record.
Although neither sedan could match the Nevera's time, the new Taycan's lap time decisively ends a long battle between the current Taycan and Tesla Model S Plaid. The old Taycan Turbo held the record at 7:42 until Tesla set a time of 7:35 with the basic Plaid. Porsche in turn reached 7:33 with a Taycan Turbo S equipped with a unique performance package before a Tesla with its own track package completed the lap in 7:25.
The latest lap time is in another league ahead of anything either electric sedan has accomplished in the past. If the laps had started at the same time, Porsche says the Turbo S would have finished more than three-quarters of a mile behind the unnamed Taycan that set this record. Not only does this make the latest Taycan the fastest electric sedan to ever record a lap at the 'Ring, it is the fastest claimed lap by a sedan of any sort.
While Porsche has not revealed what exactly the new Taycan is or what it will be called, the new variant is clearly much faster on a track than the current Turbo S. That likely means more power, which could mean a switch from the current two-motor setup to a three-motor design. Battery and inverter technology may have also been changed. No matter how the car has changed, one core trait of the Taycan remains: Porsche says the car was able to run "several" laps in the range of the record time, suggesting that this is still an EV with a unique ability to stay at peak performance throughout a long stint on track.
The automaker says that a video of the lap will be revealed in mid-March. Since the upcoming Taycan model still has not actually been revealed, the final car that set the time could be shown for the first time then, too.
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