A brace of gongs for Porsche’s ground-breaking electric sports car
This year’s World Car of the Year Awards may have been held in unusual circumstances, but global lockdown didn’t stop the all-electric Taycan seeing the chequered flag in two categories: World Luxury Car and the highly contested World Performance Car of the Year.
Michael Steiner, Member of the Executive Board, Porsche Research and Development, received the awards. “This double win underlines what we wanted to achieve with the Taycan project,” he said. “It was our aim to create a driver-focused, fully electric sports car capable of taking on any performance car in the world, regardless of its power source. At the same time, the design and engineering experts working on the Taycan project kept everyday usability and contemporary comfort, not to mention digital luxury for four passengers, a priority. Needless to say, we were delighted when the World Car of the Year Awards jury recognised the outstanding efforts of our talented team.”
At this rate, the Taycan is going to need a second trophy cabinet — already, since model launch at the back end of last year, the sensational speed machine has won forty international prizes, including Top Gear’s Car of the Year award, the same outlet’s Game Changer of the Year silverware, the Chinese Car of the Year competition’s coveted Green Car of the Year gong, and the German Car of the Year jury’s top honours. Dozens of other awards have come from the world’s most popular automotive technology and engineering associations.
“We are beyond happy to have been awarded these prizes,” smiled Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG. “We see ourselves as pioneers of sustainable mobility and have brought an emotive, as well as highly innovative, sports car to the road with Taycan, a fully electric product and one hundred percent Porsche.”
The Taycan was picked from an initial entry list of thirteen cars from all over the world. A shortlist of three finalists was announced on March 3rd. Amazingly, the 2020 Top Three in the World award finalists were all Porsches: the 718 Spyder 982 / Cayman GT4 982C, the Taycan and the 992-generation 911.
STIFF COMPETITION
Candidates eligible for World Performance Car must be produced in volumes of at least two-thousand units per year, must be overtly performance focused in nature and must be available to purchase on a minimum of two continents between 1st January 2019 and 31st May 2020. Vehicles were selected and voted on by an international jury panel comprising eighty-six prominent automotive journalists from twenty-four different countries around the world. Each juror was appointed by the World Car Steering Committee on the basis of his or her expertise, experience, credibility, and influence. The international accounting firm, KPMG, tabulated the jurors’ ballots. 2020 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the World Car Awards partnership with the renowned New York International Auto Show. The highly anticipated event has, regrettably, been postponed until August due to the global health crisis. Media preview days are now scheduled to take place on 26th and 27th August, before the show gets into full swing until 6th September. The World Car Awards will launch its 2021 programme at the same show, instead of at the previously planned start in Paris. The launch will include a preliminary list of all eligible vehicles for the 2021 season’s highly prized trophies.
“The overwhelming interest in the Taycan shows us that our customers and brand loyalists are just as excited about the first Porsche electric athlete as we are. With twenty thousand people around the world registering serious interest in buying a Taycan, we’ve dramatically increased our production capacities,” confirmed Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG. “The Taycan is the most sporty and most technically advanced vehicle in its segment. In this respect, it’s a true Porsche,” he added, echoing sentiments expressed by Blume.
Six billion euros in investments and 1,200 new employees for the launch of the Taycan alone — not to mention the ongoing development of Porsche Production 4.0 and an unparalleled knowledge campaign rolled out throughout the entire company — demonstrates Porsche’s commitment to electric mobility, but also the manufacturer’s determination to see through a process of major change in its engineering practices, thereby safeguarding the brand’s future. The extended rollout of IONITY charging stations is another key factor in what looks set to be an exciting new chapter in the Porsche story.
