Thanks to the ongoing popularity of the Model S, Tesla has handily dominated the EV luxury sedan market for years. Of course, the mainstream success enjoyed by the Model S quickly prompted more traditional automakers to shift their product roadmaps and throw more and more resources at EV development.
Looking ahead, Tesla is poised to face some of its stiffest competition yet as compelling new vehicles from the likes of Porsche and Volvo look to give the Model S a run for its money. Porsche, of course, is planning to roll out its highly-anticipated Taycan later this year. And Volvo, meanwhile, is planning to begin mass production on its all-electric Polestar 2 sometime in early 2020.
With the Taycan release creeping up on us, Porsche over the past few days has provided us with increasingly detailed looks at the current Taycan prototype. The video below, which was recently filmed in Shanghai, provides us with our closest look yet at what the current Taycan design brings to the table.
Even more recently, a Porsche Taycan and Polestar 2 prototype — in something of a wild coincidence — were both spotted at a charging station in Germany. Video of the chance encounter can be viewed below.
Once the Taycan becomes available for purchase, it will certainly be interesting to see how the vehicle impacts Model S sales. Aesthetically, the Taycan is undoubtedly stunning. Further, the specs on the Taycan are impressive and may persuade prospective Model S buyers to jump sides. Specifically, the Taycan will likely be able to go about 300 miles on a single charge and will likely boast a 0-62 MPH time in the 3.5-second range. The Taycan will also boast a top speed in excess of 155 MPH. Lastly, Porsche has also been working on a network of charging stations that will reportedly enable Taycan owners to charge back up to 250 miles in just 20 minutes.
All that said, it’s worth noting that early demand for the Taycan has been so strong that Porsche earlier in the year decided to double its initial production run from 10,000 to 20,000 units.
As for the Polestar 2, precise details remain a bit murky since production is still many months away. Still, Volvo has said that the car will cost about $50,000 and may boast an impressive range of ~300 miles on a single charge. Incidentally, Volvo is also working on the Polestar 3, a vehicle designed to be a crossover version of the Polestar 2, following a strategy we saw Tesla implement with the Model X.
