Dyefrog

How many test Taycan's were there doing all these miles? Even if there were 4, that would be 1 million miles each in a year with hardly any spy photos.
I have no idea how many test miles Jaguar did on the i-pace or Hyundai did on the Kona but I didn't hear of any fires there either, until I did.

https://electrek.co/2018/12/10/jagua...igating-cause/
https://electrek.co/2019/07/27/hyund...wing-door-off/

Not sayin' the Taycan is at fault, just sayin'.

CarMaven

Porsche had about 130 prototypes all of the world IIRC.

Even if it's not 130. It's way more than four. I can tell you that.

Like I said. I'm not saying anything either way. However, if the Taycan had a propensity to catch fire or some flaw. You would think, we would have heard about somehow, someway, at some point (with it all over the world the way it was)?

Just saying?

Bob Roberts

Testing 4 cars at 1 million miles each says little about the reliability of the manufacturing process compared to testing 1000 cars at 4000 miles each and then analyzing their performance. Note that the car did not travel 1,000,000 miles before burning in the fire. But you knew that and are just being disingenuous.

CarMaven

PS: There were lots of spy photos and various articles of the Taycan done all over the world (by both photographers; Porsche and publications) over the years during it's development. However, you must have not noticed or been interested.

CarMaven

Yeah. I hear ya.
As I said previously to him: Porsche had about 130 mules of the Taycan trekking the globe over the years, IIRC.

Dyefrog

Oh, I completely agree, I was only curious how they accumulated so many miles with a prototype or 130 as you claim. I just didn't realize Porsche had that many prototypes on the road for a year and we didn't hear much about it that's all.

Wiley Hodges

I know that I constantly saw spy photos of Taycan mules and prototypes on blogs and websites that I follow, so I wouldn't say that we didn't hear much about it.

Dyefrog

I'm just skeptical of the 130 number, that's all. I too saw spy photo's and such but not necessarily more than other prototypes. 130 may be the norm. I honestly didn't know.

acoste

In Germany Porsche registered 104, 170 and 641 prototype EVs in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.


Audi prototype EVs registered:
982 in 2018
115 in 2017

VW has 420 for 2019

Dyefrog

Registered meaning on the road, correct?
I think Tesla has 1 prototype Cybertruck and Roadster. Maybe a handful (<20) of Y's. I wonder why that is?

acoste

Yes, registration is needed in order to drive them on public roads. They are costly because they can't be sold later. But there is always someone who gives it a try https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/v...ar-us-lawsuit/

acoste

Here is a video of what happens to them

CarMaven

Because, Porsche has a lot of money; experience and expertise. And they can charge/tack on whatever price for Profit margin if they hit the nail on the head with their ethos/what customers come to expect from them.

I'm sure, Tesla will have more than one mule for the Cyber Truck FWIW.

If there's only one right now. It's cause they're not in the road going stage yet. The one you're talking about is probably for show and promotion.

PS: The Mules-Prototypes were on the road from 2014-2019. It just wasn't one year. Also keep in mind: They didn't start with complete vehicles. The first prototype was very crude. Most looked like Panamera's and other Porsche's. And I'm sure they had some in the beginning that only tested different aspects of the car (cooling; battering temperature; handling dynamics due to weight, etc.), when they were gathering initial real world information after their computer simulations.

You didn't see actual Taycan's with camo and masking tape until 2018-2019. Many, thought they were hideous, cause they couldn't see past the camo. And even at that time. You still had some that looked like Panamera's floating around. LOL

Whoopsy

Tesla don't have the money and resources to do a lot of running prototypes that's why. Manufacturers crush them when they are done testing. That's a lot of money crushed. Tesla mostly uses simulators to do testing I think, much cheaper, every other manufacturers do that too, but simulators can only do so much, nothing beats real world experiences.

Back in the days, Porsche had over 20 prototypes of 918s running around, once production started they destroyed all but one, that's the record car that's sitting inside the Porsche Museum.

Most manufacturers runs a fleet of prototype during testing, you seen them routinely in the desert, in the arctic, etc. They may not all be running the same settings, there could be a fleet of 10 cars and 10 different configurations, that way they can gather 10 times the data within a testing period.

Needsdecaf

This is all just whistling in the dark past the graveyard for now. The important thing is that what really happened is known by those who need to know, and any changes needed to make the cars safer are implemented as soon as possible.