It's an important new product for Porsche, pushing the German automaker toward electrification, and it's crucial to the overall electric vehicle market. The 2020 Taycan is also the first proper Tesla Model S competitor. In the weeks after Porsche revealed the EV sedan, Tesla went to the Nürburgring in an attempt to beat the Taycan's lap time. It's been a tit-for-tat among divided EV fans, putting every benchmark and metric under scrutiny between the two rivals. One such number is the Taycan's top speed. Porsche claims the Taycan's top speed is 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour). However, the folks at The Fast Lane Car discovered that might be a conservative figure.

The video, while long, opens with a failed top-speed attempt. With the battery low on power, the Taycan limited its top speed to a still-respectable 151 mph (244 kph). After a quick recharge back to 100 percent, the Taycan takes off again, this time going even faster. The Taycan hit 167 mph (268 kph). This is similar to the top speed achieved in our first-drive review where that car also hit 167 mph – 5 mph higher than the Taycan's claimed top speed. The extra pep is on the house. Telsa advertises the Model S with a 155 mph (250 kph) top speed. 

Right now, the Taycan comes in two flavors – Turbo and Turbo S. Both produce the same 616 horsepower (460 kilowatts). However, Launch Control and the Overboost function allow the Turbo to make up to 671 hp (500 kW) and the Turbo S 751 hp (560 kW). The Turbo S makes more power, but it comes at the cost of range. The Turbo gets 280 miles (450 kilometers) while the Turbo S returns 256 miles (412 km) of range. Both ranges are from the European WLTP cycle.