Pure electric Porsche struggles in US testing According to the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency in the USA, Porsche’s Taycan EV is the least efficient electric car ever in its efficiency testing. The EPA is the US body that tests and rates cars for efficiency and emissions.
The EPA found that the Taycan Turbo returned 69MPGe, a test that rates electric cars for MPG equivalence. For context, the Long range version of the Tesla Model S achieves 111MPGe in the same test. The GM EV1, an early electric car that was on sale in the late ’90s, is rated at 85MPGe by the EPA. The Taycan Turbo did poorly in the EPA’s range testing, achieving 201 miles to the Tesla’s 373. In Europe, the Turbo is rated at 280 miles in the WLTP test.
EPA test results tend to be lower than WLTP when it comes to range. But not by the amount that the Taycan suffered. It’s unclear exactly why the Taycan did so poorly. Part of the explanation is Porsche’s conservative battery management. Lithium batteries are likely to suffer wear when being either fully charged or fully discharged. For this reason, Porsche prevents both full charges and full discharges of the Taycan battery, reducing its capacity from 93.4kWh to an effective 83.7kWh.
By contrast, Tesla allows both full charge and discharge of the Model S’s slightly larger 100kWh battery. Porsche is not disputing the EPA’s figures, but nevertheless hired an external firm, AMCI, to conduct independent testing. AMCI found the Taycan Turbo had a real-world range of 275 miles. Even with these improved figures, the Taycan’s range remains well off that of Tesla’s big battery models.
