How long are you planning to keep your Taycan?

[Archimedes]

Released in 2019

The Mission E concept was released in 2015 and the battery tech shown therein is the battery tech in my 22 4S. They claimed we'd get 310 miles; we seem to all get on average about 250 on a good day. I wouldn't say that Porsche's battery technology is advancing all that quickly.

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[Archimedes]

the operative word is FUNCTIONALLY. my 2013 RWD tesla model S was rendered functionally obsolete when tesla introduced both a AWD version and AP1 which was a game changer.

So your 2013 stopped working when they offered those new features? The car clearly wasn't functionally obsolete to everyone, just to you for your intended use.

Definition of functional obsolescence:
The reduction of an object's usefulness or desirability because of an outdated design feature that cannot be easily changed or updated.

So RWD Teslas became less useful or desirable? Don't tell that to all the folks buying RWD Taycans.

 

[Taytayshayshay]

Has anyone done an analysis that a lease is a safer bet than a purchase if you only plan to keep the car around 4 years? I'd love to have some people smarter than me chime in on that topic....

 

[Jhenson29]

I've had my Tesla Model S for 8.5 years. I won't keep another electric car beyond the battery warranty. So, I'll keep the Taycan for 4 years.

But battery warranty is 8 years.

 

[NewPdude]

Newer battery tech (Quantumscape) will most likely cause big depreciation for us first-gen owners but I don't care. I'll keep mine as long as it's running tip top and the battery capacity doesn't give up the ghost to early.

What is the chance that (Quantumscape or any other solid state battery producer) will have a mass produced battery out before the end of the decade? This is my primary concern as well. But I think if I can secure some sort of extended warranty I won‘t really care what quantum does since this car is destined to be a classic…

 

[CygnusX-1]

But battery warranty is 8 years.

Then I'll keep it at least 4 years

 

[Archimedes]

What is the chance that (Quantumscape or any other solid state battery producer) will have a mass produced battery out before the end of the decade? This is my primary concern as well. But I think if I can secure some sort of extended warranty I won‘t really care what quantum does since this car is destined to be a classic…

QS is still years away from producing its first battery, much less scaling up for volume production in support of an actual production vehicle. I wouldn't stay up nights worrying about that. I imagine my Taycan will have over 100k miles on it by the time QS is a major player in the market.

 

[atebit]

Until the 718 BEV is available.

Edit: In Racing Yellow.

 

[Deleted member 6348]

Electric car lifecycles will be different than ICE cars. With ICE cars, folks typically unload them when maintenance gets too expensive. There’s just not as much that can fail on an EV.

Yes, if you’re planning on holding onto the car for like a decade, there’s probably a battery replacement down the road, but if the Leaf aftermarket is any indication, there will be interesting replacements and upgrades.

I love the way that the Taycan looks. It’s fun to drive. I have no idea how long I am going to hold onto it. It could be two years. It could be ten. Life is short. It’s just a car.

 

[Deleted member 6348]

I won‘t really care what quantum does since this car is destined to be a classic…

As Porsche’s first EV, I agree 100%. First generation Taycans will be a classic. I have no doubt. Unique styling while still adhering to Porsche design language. Love it.

 

[Deleted member 6348]

Has anyone done an analysis that a lease is a safer bet than a purchase if you only plan to keep the car around 4 years? I'd love to have some people smarter than me chime in on that topic....

Porsche doesn’t subsidize the leases on these cars. You can only lease from Porsche Financial, the money factor is terrible, and the residuals ensure that the house always wins. Unless you have a specific tax reason, they are cheaper to buy, even if your intention is to hold onto the car for a short period.

Folks may suggest that leasing will save you the depreciation from an accident, but that accident is already priced into the higher cost of the lease.

 

[schad]

I think battery tech will advance faster than the combustion engine did in the last 100 years. Similar to computer advancement speed.

There's a really interesting paper on improvements in battery tech:

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d0ee02681f

It's a lengthy read, and rather technical, but it's got some nice charts that are pretty approachable to laymen.

In short, though, there hasn't been much improvement in energy density since 2010. Nearly all battery improvements are taking the form of reduced cost, and costs are in fact going down at a rate of something like 13% per year.

Which is fantastic for the transition to EVs, but also completely irrelevant to those of us who already own an EV.

 

[Evpower]

Taycan is a stopgap car for me. As soon as Porsche makes a compelling electric two door - ideally a sportscar - I'm trading in.

We are on the same page.

 

[hkarthik]

I bought a dealer demo 2021 Taycan 4S with an un-punched warranty and I negotiated CPO on top so I have a full 6 years.

Next car that replaces it will be a 911 or 718 electric. Hopefully by then they will have been out a few years and most of the kinks worked out.

 

[RingoDingo]

On paper it does everything I need and want it to and more. The only question becomes whether I get bored and something else comes along that gets me excited.

The obsolescence argument is nonsense. Who are we competing with? Who cares if battery range increases 3x? How does that change anything related to whether my car is useful to me? And other than battery range/life, what else is there in a Taycan that's going to magically advance so much as to render the existing platform 'obsolete'?

Oh and someone please tell Carrera GT owners that their 18 year old cars are obsolete so I can buy one.

This is where I’m at. Does it need to accelerate faster than it already does? No. Do I need more range? I don’t.
Battery tech for me influences moreso whether we get an electric for our family SUV (as we do need it for the occasional road-trip) and whether we can get the weight down and the performance up for track cars so that electric cars can compete on race tracks. That’s where I need battery tech - weight savings.

and none of that is going to impact my Taycan ownership such that I expect the newer ones to be that much better than what I’m now driving.

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