When Tesla revealed the 1,000+ horsepower Model S Plaid’s performance numbers, our collective jaws hit the floor. It could out-accelerate a Formula 1 car, and it was only defeated by the many times more expensive and nearly twice as powerful Rimac Nevera electric hypercar.
The fact that a practical, comfortable family sedan had a claimed two-second sprint time to sixty miles per hour was hard to process at first, but as the drag racing videos of the Plaid easily walking away from some very serious performance cars started pouring in, we got used to it. One of the vehicles it had no trouble defeating for outright acceleration was the Porsche Taycan, which even in its top Turbo S guise simply didn’t have enough power to keep up with the bonkers Plaid, especially before its facelift.
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The Porsche Taycan was always good around the bends
With the introduction of the Taycan Turbo GT, Porsche now finally has a version of its fantastic electric sedan that can hold its own against the Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air Sapphire in a straight line.
However, Porsche was having none of that, so it went back to the drawing board to create a version of the Taycan capable of defeating the Plaid. That’s why the Taycan Turbo GT was created, with specs that clearly show it was designed to outperform a Model S Plaid. It does arrive almost three years after the Plaid was introduced, but it looks like it has the firepower to dethrone it.
And let’s not forget that there is an even more powerful and quicker electric sedan than the Model S Plaid in the form of the Lucid Air Sapphire. It outaccelerates the Plaid and is faster at the top end too, despite its extra weight, so the Taycan Turbo GT has some very stiff competition, at least when it comes to on-paper performance figures.
Spec Wars
We know Porsche benchmarked the Taycan Turbo GT against the Model S Plaid because it has almost the same peak power. The Turbo GT’s two motors can produce 1,019 horsepower when launch control is enabled, or up to 1,092 horsepower for a few seconds thanks to a temporary overboost function (calculated by Porsche according to its own peak power measurement method).
That’s 100 more peak horsepower than the facelifted 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo S, and it’s enough to catapult the car from a standstill to sixty in 2.3 seconds. Torque rises from the Turbo S’ already strong 818 pound-feet to 988 pound-feet, which gives the Turbo GT neck-snapping pickup from any speed.
The base power figure for the Turbo GT is 777 horsepower or just 13 more horsepower than the Turbo S.
You will also be able to specify an optional Weissach package that shaves two tenths off sprint time, which drops to 2.1 seconds. The pack makes the Turbo GT 157 pounds lighter than a Turbo S mainly by removing the rear seats, and it also adds aerodynamic aids including a big fixed carbon fiber rear wing along with other elements, which add 485 pounds of extra downforce and help the car deliver better lap times.
With the Weissach pack, the Turbo GT therefore weighs a little over 4,900 pounds, which still makes it heavier than the Tesla Model S Plaid, whose total mass is reported at 4,766 pounds. Its three motors make a combined 1,020 horsepower—340 horsepower going to the front wheels and 680 horsepower going to the rears.
Maximum torque is also higher in the Tesla, with a peak rating of 1,050 pound-feet, so between this and its lower weight, it will put an even bigger strain on your neck muscles as you try to keep your head straight under hard acceleration.
Thanks to its lower weight and better torque, the Plaid is a couple of tenths quicker to accelerate to 60 mph than the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, achieving the benchmark sprint in a claimed sub-2 seconds. If you get the Tesla with the optional track pack, not only does it get better brakes, lighter wheels, and some additional aero, but its top speed is raised from 175 mph to 200 mph. This makes the Plaid considerably faster at the top end than the Taycan, even with the Weissach pack, which ups its top speed to 190 mph.
The Lucid Air Sapphire is both quicker and faster. Its three motors produce 1,234 horsepower and a mountain-moving 1,430 pound-feet of torque. Weighing in at a claimed 5,336 pounds, the Sapphire is 570 pounds heavier than the Model S Plaid and 436 pounds heavier than the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach. Even so, it launches itself from a standstill to 60 mph in just 1.89 seconds, and it doesn’t stop accelerating until it hits its 205 mph limiter.
It’s worth noting that both the Lucid and the Tesla have a one-foot rollout factored into their claimed sprint times to 60 mph, while the Porsche doesn’t, so in reality, the acceleration difference is smaller.
Track Time Tally
All three manufacturers say these flagship performance models have been honed for track driving, but the two American manufacturers’ experience pales in comparison to Porsche’s decades of racing experience. That’s why it’s no surprise that the Taycan Turbo GT (in pre-production form and with the Weissach pack) was able to complete a lap of the 12.9-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife in 7 minutes and 07.55 seconds, which is about 26 seconds faster than the 2022 model-year Taycan Turbo S equipped with the track pack.
It’s also quicker by almost 18 seconds than the Tesla Model S Plaid Track Pack, which briefly held the Nordschleife production EV lap record with a time of 7 minutes, 25.231 seconds. Lucid hasn’t released any official Ring lap times for the Air Sapphire, but one was spotted lapping the fabled track in September 2023.
Porsche also released the lap time for the Taycan Turbo GT around Laguna Seca, where it managed to stop the clock after 1 minute, 27.87 seconds. Interestingly, that’s quicker than the 2021 lap time set by Randy Pobst in the Tesla Model S Plaid, known as “Dark Helmet,” tuned by Unplugged Performance. It was heavily modified and won the Exhibition class at that year’s Pikes Peak hillclimb, so it had a completely stripped-out interior and slick tires, which allowed it to pull up to 2.5 lateral Gs through the corners; it completed its quickest lap in 1 minute and 28.213 seconds.
According to Porsche development driver Lars Kern, the Taycan Turbo GT can do three flat-out laps of Laguna Seca before the battery pack and motors get too hot and thermal throttling intervenes to cut the power. He noted that this can be extended to more laps if you do cooldown runs in between.
In stock form, a Tesla Model S Plaid is capable of completing a lap of Laguna Secan in a little over 1 minute and 30 seconds.
Lucid has not published any official lap times for the production Air Sapphire, but when it was revealed, the manufacturer emphatically noted that it was “significantly faster than many renowned hypercars.” In 2020, Lucid shared a video of a tri-motor Air prototype going around the track in 1 minute, 31.3 seconds, which means it’s slightly slower than the Plaid, but not by much.
Porsche No Longer Playing Catch-Up
Even though the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT still isn’t a match for the Tesla Model S Plaid or the Lucid Air Sapphire in a straight line, the performance difference in the two American sedans’ favor isn’t huge. Even with lower power and torque as well as more weight than the Plaid, it should be considerably quicker around a track. If previous versions are anything to go by, it should also enthrall the keen driver in a way the Tesla simply can’t match.
Picture these three 1,000+ horsepower electric sedans on the start line at Laguna Seca. The Lucid will shoot off the line first, with the Tesla close on its heels. The Porsche won’t be far behind, but as the first corner approaches, the more powerful cars’ extra oomph won’t matter, and the Porsche’s superior braking and cornering ability (especially in Weissach trim with the extra aero) should allow it to just cruise past and then extend its lead throughout the lap.
The Taycan Turbo S was already quick enough for people who wanted the performance electric sedan with the best track performance. The only reason Porsche made the more extreme Turbo GT variant and also went the extra mile with the Weissach pack was to have headline figures to match the Plaid. However, its base power is lower than the Tesla’s and there are a couple of asterisks attached to the advertised peak power figure.
Porsche wanted to prove that it too could make a 1,000+ horsepower electric sedan, but it does not need that much power to be quicker around a track than the Tesla. Outright acceleration and speed were never explicit priorities, and even though it had a few years to study and try to beat the Plaid in all metrics, Porsche focused on what it knows best: making cars faster than everybody else around a track.
If bang for the buck is a prime concern, then the Tesla Model S Plaid, which starts at just under $115,000, remains unbeatable, since both the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and the Lucid Air Sapphire are over double the price. You can find used Plaids for under $70,000 these days, which sounds like an amazing deal given the level of performance you’re getting from a vehicle that’s still only a couple of years old.
