India-bound Porsche Taycan & Audi e-tron elicit excellent response [Update]

Audi has set a sales target of 40,000 units for the e-tron this year, the company’s CEO Markus Duesmann has told handelsblatt.com. 17,000+ units have already been sold in the year’s first half and the e-tron is leading the electric SUV sales in the Old Continent.

20 July 2020 –

Porsche has stated that it sold 4,480 units of the Taycan electric sedan in the first half of 2020. The company’s total sales during this period were 39,245 units, with the Taycan contributing 11.42%. With global markets reopening and the rollout of the cheaper, RWD variant announced in China last month, the Taycan should notice a significant demand improvement in the second half of the year and 2021.

The Taycan RWD, like the Taycan 4S, comes in 79.2 kWh and 93.4 kWh battery pack variants. The single motor generates 350 kW (475.87 PS), and a 0-100 km/h sprint takes 5.4 seconds, while the top speed is 230 km/h.

17 July 2020 –

Audi has announced that its e-tron electric SUV is now the world market leader in its segment. The electric SUV segment is gradually turning out to be a fast-growing market, and Audi is capitalizing on the opportunity with the e-tron, e-tron Sportback and the upcoming Q4 SUV family.

Following the launch in May of 2019, Audi managed to achieve deliveries of 18,382 e-tron units during 2019 in the European market. For context, competing products like the Jaguar I-Pace managed 12,232 examples and the Mercedes-Benz EQC managing a mere 1,413 vehicles, as per web reports. It isn’t clear how many Tesla Model X cars were sold in the period, but the number is believed to be well below 10,000.

Coming to 2020, Audi has delivered 17,641 e-tron models to customers around the world in the first half of the year. This equates to an 86.8 per cent increase when compared to the previous year. The sale of 7,987 units of e-trons in Q1 2020 is an important milestone. It comes close to the sales figures of some mainstream models, including the Volkswagen e-Golf, Peugeot e-208 and the Nissan Leaf despite the challenging market situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Audi e-tron is the overall top-selling electric SUV in Europe by some margin. Particularly in the Scandinavian and Norwegian markets where people welcome electric mobility, the e-tron continues to remain popular and corresponds to it making up 92 per cent of the volume of Audi models delivered in Norway. The e-tron also achieves similar numbers in countries like Iceland (93 per cent), Sweden (12 per cent), and Israel (14 per cent). In the American market, the e-tron saw an increase of over 50 per cent compared to last year.

March 18, 2020 –

Volkswagen Group has reported the sales numbers for 2019, which reveals that Porsche has received over 15,000 orders for Taycan and Audi has sold 32,000 e-tron models globally, a commendable feat for the first-timers in the electric vehicle market.

In 2019, Porsche has sold 274,463 units across its range with Taycan accounting for 1,386 units. The company has also stated that it has received over 15,000 orders for its all-electric Taycan and the pre-orders stand around 20,000.

Porsche Taycan

Porsche Taycan is available in three variants – Taycan 4S, Taycan Turbo and the flagship Taycan Turbo S. The Taycan 4S can be had in two battery packs – Performance battery and Performance battery Plus, which make a maximum output of 390 kW (530 PS) and 420 kW (571 PS) respectively. Both variants of the 4S can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.0 seconds and have a top speed of 250 km/h. The Taycan 4S Performance battery offers a range of 407 km (WLTP) and the Taycan 4S Performance battery Plus returns up to 463 km in a single charge.

The Taycan Turbo and Turbo S come with the Performance battery Plus with an overall capacity of 93.4 kWh. The Turbo S, with the combination of Launch Control, makes up to 560 kW (761 PS) while the Turbo makes 500 kW (680 PS), and the 0 to 100 km/h sprint gets completed in 2.8 seconds and 3.2 seconds respectively. Both the models have a top speed of 260 km/h and offer a travel range of 412 km (Turbo S) and 450 km (Turbo). The Performance battery pack can support fast charging up to 225 kW and the Performance battery Plus pack can support up to 270 kW.

Audi e-tron

Audi is also enjoying a good response for its first electric car – the e-tron SUV. Audi e-tron was launched in late 2018 and the company has so far sold over 32,000 units of e-tron globally. The total production number of e-tron stood at 2,425 units in 2018 and 43,376 units in 2019.

The e-tron is packed with a 95 kWh battery mounted under the passenger compartment and powers two electric motors placed on either axle, producing a total output of up to 300 kW. The e-tron can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds, on to a top speed of 200 km/h and returns a range of up to 387 km in a single charge. Audi e-tron supports fast-charging up to 150 kW, with which it can be charged to 80 per cent in 30 minutes.

Audi e-tron & Porsche Taycan – Launch in India

In the first week of February when the impact of the COVID-19 on the automotive supply chain was at a nascent stage, EVW reported that the Porsche Taycan would launch in India in late-2020. Recently Audi India’s CEO confirmed that the e-tron would certainly launch in India.