Base rear-wheel-drive 2021 Porsche Taycan coming to United States for $81,250

While the Taycan Turbo S, Taycan Turbo and Taycan 4S are feature all-wheel drive, the new entry-level derivative's electric powertrain drives the rear axle only. Done and done: Porsche says it's already on sale in the United States. The 2021 Taycan is expected to arrive at USA dealerships starting early Spring 2021. Taycan buyers will be able to track the progress of their vehicle from their smartphone, from build to delivery, through the Porsche Track Your Dream service, also available for the 911.

Now, what we didn't predict this morning was the price, which we figured would be under $100,000. For context, the Taycan 4S can hit 143MPH, while the Turbo and Turbo S are capable of reaching 161MPH.

Taycan buyers are potentially eligible for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, so it amounts to an effective price of $73,750 for those who can claim it. This variant differentiates itself through its rear-wheel-drive layout - removing the front power unit takes approximately 200 pounds of weight from the front of the vehicle.

The permanently excited synchronous motor (Porsche's words, not ours) is identical to that found in the 4S, and produces either 312bhp or 374bhp, depending on if the smaller or larger battery capacity has been chosen, with respective overboost figures of 402bhp and 469bhp. The regenerative braking is the same.

Standard equipment includes LED headlights, 19-inch "Taycan Aero" alloy wheels (enabling a 0.22Cd drag coefficient), steel coil suspension and aluminium brakes measuring 360mm up front with six-piston calipers, and 358mm at the rear with four-piston calipers. This lifts battery capacity from 79.2kWh up to 93.4kWh, and increases available power to 375hp (469hp with overboost). (The latest V3 Supercharger from Tesla peaks out at 250 kW.) Also, the bigger battery will gain you back 170 of those pounds.

However, this new model is slower than the other Taycan models.

In either case, the base Porsche Taycan will sprint to 60 miles per hour (96 kilometers per hour) in 5.1 seconds - the larger, heavier battery likely hampers off-the-line response, but it comes into its own on the quarter mile, where it cuts 0.2-second from the base setup's 13.7-second time. That's versus the Performance Battery Plus version's 469 hp and 263 lb-ft in its launch control mode. They also share the same top speed of 143 miles per hour.

The Taycan RWD retains the 4S variant's rear motor hooked up to a 79.2kWh battery pack, which is good for 300kW and pushing you to 100km/h from rest in 5.4 seconds. The infotainment features available on all the other Taycans are standard here, as are over-the-air updates and three years of Electrify America charging privileges.