Porsche has released an update on numbers for the company’s first electric car, the Porsche Taycan. With clients able to register their interest, Porsche has collected almost as many pre-orders as they plan to produce electric vehicles.

++ Kindly see our update regarding job creation below this article. ++

The Handelsblatt quotes Porsches HR Director Andreas Haffner on the status of registrations to order the manufacturer’s first electric model. Says Haffner: “There are 30,000 orders for the Taycan.”

That is 10,000 more pre-orders than previously reported. And, better take these numbers seriously. Potential customers have had themselves entered in a list for an option programme with a down payment of 2,500 euros.

The high interest has led to Porsche increasing its production capacity from 20,000 to 40,000 electric cars per year this January. Andrew Lennon, responsible for product communications at Porsche North America, told CNBC back then, that they “could increase capacity from the beginning”. Still, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume in a recent interview reaffirmed that interest is well above what was initially expected and more so before anybody has seen the electric car. Says Blume: “Normally, the run only starts when the first driving reports are available when the vehicle is presented, and the driver can take to the wheel.”

The Porsche Taycan will be presented on 4 September and is scheduled for launch shortly after. The cheapest of four planned variants is expected to cost around 90,000 euros. For this price, owners get a battery with a capacity of 80 kWh and an electric motor at the rear axle that is supposed to deliver between 240 and 280 kW — possible designation: Taycan S.

The top model, however, has two electric motors with 160 kW on the front axle and 300 kW on the rear axle. The maximum range is over 500 kilometres (NEDC), and thanks to the vehicle’s 800-volt architecture, charging energy for 100 kilometres takes about four minutes at a correspondingly high power charging station. According to information made available to electrive, the DC charging capacity will be 250 kW.

Update 30 July: Porsche will employ 1,500 more people for the newly set up electric car production in Stuttgart Zuffenhausen. Over a thousand new staff members have arrived already in one of the broadest re-training operations in the company’s history. Qualification can take up to six months with 45 different paths to choose from and built from 350 training modules. This requires Porsche to reserve whole halls for the courses to make future employees fit for various roles.

While the Taycan will roll-off a so-called Flexi-Line, Porsche says the human remains central to the process and that they are looking for a broad range of employees with various skills.

However, for the 500 remaining positions, Porsche has received 32,000 applications. The company is looking for skilled workers with an affinity for the car industry – if you are among those who are going for it, best of luck!

handelsblatt.com (in German)