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The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

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Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you're looking for the best car on paper, Porsche is probably not for you.

Well in terms of looks, charging network, city driving, autopilot, price and drag racing I'll take the Tesla. So far we've just seen a bunch of hand waving about how Taycan is better on the track... looks like there is a Model S being sent to Nurburgring to lay that to rest.

sounds like you're the target audience for tesla. nothing wrong with that, but everyone has their own taste. for the money, I'd much rather have the new GT4, but that's neither here nor there.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#102
Currently there is no reason to put transmissions into EV's. More money should be put into the improvement of electric motors and battery tech. People care about range and reliability. While acceleration is awesome, Tesla can already achieve sub 2.5s 0-60 which is more than most anyone can handle. Adding a transmission to an EV just adds one more thing to fail and replace fluid every few years.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#103

In dual-motor (front, rear) Tesla vehicles, each motor is on a different gear ratio for optimal power bands.

I wonder if this is part of why their dual-motor models get better range. I could see it being better for regenerative braking, too.

Not sure on the S or X but my model 3 AWD has less range than RWD. AWD is quicker by 10%.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#104
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>True, and the Taycan may well be a better car in many ways. But a discussion of the gearbox has nothing to do with handling or sports car feeling. There isn't a single published metric in which the Performance Model S doesn't trounce the Taycan.

Nurburgring Ring times. P100D has terrible thermal management and goes into limp mode before completing the course. If people really cared about 0 to 60 times, we see a lot more Dodge Demons on the road instead of 911s and Corvettes. If Porsche can get price point for a regular Taycan below $100k, i'll gladly trade in my Porsche and Tesla for one because it does everything i want. I can drive canyon roads and never h…

From road and track: """At launch, Porsche will offer two versions of the Taycan—the Turbo and Turbo S. The Turbo will carry an MSRP of $153,510 at launch, while the Turbo S will cost $187,610. Both of those numbers are minus destination charge."""

I suppose that leaves room for a non-turbo (lol) Taycan closer to your prices sometime in the future.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#105

In dual-motor (front, rear) Tesla vehicles, each motor is on a different gear ratio for optimal power bands.

I wonder if this is part of why their dual-motor models get better range. I could see it being better for regenerative braking, too.

The single motors get better range.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#106

Currently there is no reason to put transmissions into EV's. More money should be put into the improvement of electric motors and battery tech. People care about range and reliability. While acceleration is awesome, Tesla can already achieve sub 2.5s 0-60 which is more than most anyone can handle. Adding a transmission to an EV just adds one more thing to fail and replace fluid every few years.

Are saying that Porsche--which is spending billions of dollars on the Taycan and its transmission--is doing this for no good reason?

"People care about range and reliability."--Certainly some, perhaps most people, do. And Tesla serves that market very well.

But that isn't Porsche's market. Porsche's target market cares a lot about handling, and performance in track-like conditions.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#107
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leaving all the other cars next to you in the dust is quite antisocial behavior actually. For the most part, I want to accelerate with everyone else when that green light goes off (except for Trucks: I wanna leave Trucks in the dust and get away from them ASAP). The 30mph to 60mph acceleration of off-ramp into freeway cruising speed however, is pretty important. A lot of things are going on when I merge onto a freewa…

That's ridiculous. The more cars you drive near, the more likely there is to be a collision. I take off from lights to get away from the pack, and I drive away from the packs on the highway. If there's nobody near you, you can't hit them.

Motorcycles do this too, and the drawback is that you are much more likely to run into someone who's just missing the red light in the other direction. And that will be a high-speed differential collision, not anything like contacting the people who are going in the same direction as you.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The #1 factor in collisions is actually speed differential. If you are driving at a dramatically different speed than everyone else, you increase the chance of collision. I'm not saying drive like grandma: I'm saying drive the same speed as everyone else, to minimize the risk of collision. If you're too slow, you are as dangerous as going too quickly. Someone going 40 mph in a 60mph zone is just as dangerous as someo…

Speed differential when driving in traffic, OP said to get away from traffic. There is no differential when there is no car near you

A rare road indeed where all other traffic is behind you...

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#109
The level of hubris here is pretty high. "No reason"? "No performance benefit"?

Porsche is spending billions of dollars to bring a very high performance track-focused sports-sedan to the market. Hundreds of extremely good engineers are getting paid millions of dollars to figure this problem out.

I'm sure the transmission is a giant set of engineering tradeoffs (what project isn't), and maybe it won't work out and will end up being the wrong solution.

But it can't be so obvious that random Joe-and-Jane HackerNews know the answer off the top of their heads and Porsche doesn't after all the resources it has spent to figure out the problem.

Re: The Porsche Taycan's Two-Speed Gearbox

#110
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nurburgring Ring times. P100D has terrible thermal management and goes into limp mode before completing the course. If people really cared about 0 to 60 times, we see a lot more Dodge Demons on the road instead of 911s and Corvettes. If Porsche can get price point for a regular Taycan below $100k, i'll gladly trade in my Porsche and Tesla for one because it does everything i want. I can drive canyon roads and never h…

From road and track: """At launch, Porsche will offer two versions of the Taycan—the Turbo and Turbo S. The Turbo will carry an MSRP of $153,510 at launch, while the Turbo S will cost $187,610. Both of those numbers are minus destination charge.""" I suppose that leaves room for a non-turbo (lol) Taycan closer to your prices sometime in the future.

What's the turbo doing?
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