Porsche has christened its first electric sports car. The German automaker announced today (June 8) that its first all-electric supercar, which was called the Mission E in development, will be known as the Taycan, an Eurasian name which roughly translates as “lively young horse.”
It’s a nod to the black horse—originally from the Stuttgart coat of arms—rearing up in the middle of Porsche’s brand logo, which has been unchanged since 1952.
“Our new electric sports car is strong and dependable; it’s a vehicle that can consistently cover long distances and that epitomizes freedom,” Porsche executive board chairman Oliver Blume said at a ceremony in Stuttgart celebrating the company’s 70th anniversary.
The prancing Taycan isn’t short of oomph: its 600-horsepowers can launch it from 0-to-60 mph (96km/h) in under 3.5 seconds, and it should travel over 300 miles on a single charge. For comparison, the Tesla S can do 0-to-60 in under 3 seconds in “Ludicrous” mode. The Porsche is expected to have a similar price to the Model S too, somewhere north of $80,000.
Porsche says its car names are meant to reflect the models’ characteristics: the Cayenne is about fieriness, the Cayman is about sharpness and agility, and the Macan comes from the Indonesian word for tiger.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s naming strategy is racier in a different way: He was shooting to have the Model Line up read S, E, X, Y, until Ford scuppered his “E.” Ford claimed the Model E was too close in sound to the original Ford Model T, and threatened to sue, so Musk went with the number 3 instead to make “S3XY.”
Porsche is doubling down on electric cars, saying it will pour over €6 billion (about $7.1 billion) into electromobility by 2022. The Taycan should hit showrooms towards the end of next year.