Many automakers from around the world have used the infamous Nürburgring-Nordschleife in Germany's Eifel region as a benchmark that can demonstrate the impressive performance of their latest sports cars. As the entire industry quickly shifts its focus towards the development of battery-powered electric cars, the incredibly fast Tesla Model S Plaid and former EV king of the legendary race track has now been beaten by the aspiring Porsche Taycan, which has already performed admirably in a recent 160-mph test drive on the German autobahn.
According to an official press release published by the Stuttgart-based automaker, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S recently managed to beat the lap time of the aforementioned Tesla Model S Plaid by just two seconds, which is a fairly small margin considering the enormous length of this track. This specific Porsche Taycan Turbo S was equipped with a new Germany-exclusive performance package and grippy Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires, which propelled the luxury EV to a lap time of just seven minutes and 33.3 seconds on the 12.9 mile long Nürburgring-Nordschleife. This is a new record for a regular electric production vehicle, only the limited-production Nio EP9 was even faster according to an article by InsideEVs.
This remarkable result is particularly impressive because the Porsche Taycan Turbo S has a performance disadvantage compared to the Tesla Model S Plaid, at least on paper. With a peak output of 625 metric horsepower, the German sports car has approximately 400 horsepower less than Tesla's Model S flagship. However, the continuously available power may be more important when racing on a long track like the Nordschleife, which means that the electric Porsche Taycan Turbo S pays tribute to the company’s long presence in numerous motorsport series around the world. If you would like to experience this record-setting drive of Porsche development driver Lars Kern, a corresponding on-board video can be found in the aforementioned press release.