Porsche Taycan gets praise from Tesla’s Elon Musk on Nürburgring record

Following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s subtle jab at Porsche Taycan’s moniker, it appears that he has taken a friendlier stance toward the German carmaker’s first all-electric high-performance sedan after giving it high regards and labeling its record-setting run on the famed Nürburgring racetrack as “great”.

“But Taycan does seem like a good car.  Nürburgring track time is great”, Musk tweeted on September 7, after posting his initial tweet about the vehicle. The Taycan hit the iconic Nürburgring in late August, where the vehicle’s Turbo S trim scored an impressive 7-minute 42 second time.

But Taycan does seem like a good car. Nürburgring track time is great.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2019

The Tesla CEO’s acknowledgment of the Taycan gives EV fans something to be excited about: a non-Tesla EV that Elon Musk praised publicly. Mentioning the Taycan by name and praising its ability to perform in a track shows respect to Porsche’s capability to create a good electric vehicle. Musk has always encouraged people to buy EV’s, even if they are not Teslas. But, he has been critical of other vehicles in the past, including the Audi E-Tron.

“Stop sending me this étron” – Audi https://t.co/maschsi6HB

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2019

Musk announced last week that the Model S would be making its way to the famous German racetrack, which has been nicknamed “The Green Hell.”  It will be the first official test for the Model S, though the vehicle did make an unofficial appearance in 2014 when an independent owner ran a roughly 10-minute lap.

The Porsche Taycan is the German automaker’s introductory electric car and sports a 750 horsepower Dual Motor AWD powertrain that will set customers back at least $150,000 for the Turbo variant. The Taycan is a capable electric car with a 0-60 time of 2.6 seconds for the Turbo S variant. The vehicle is also equipped with up to five displays which could be customized by the driver.

The Tesla Model S will hit the Nürburgring track in the near future, with former Formula One champion Nico Rosberg behind the wheel. Rosberg, an EV enthusiast, made himself available for Musk via Twitter, where the two had a brief conversation and agreed that it would be beneficial for him to drive the Performance trim of Tesla’s flagship sedan around the track.

While the term “Tesla Killer” is thrown around quite often, Musk has always considered gas-powered vehicles as his competition, not electric cars. “Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day,” Musk wrote in a tweet in January.

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