The Porsche Taycan can now be equipped with a new, more powerful onboard charger that nearly halves the charging times when topping up at home.
According to Porsche’s official press release, the 19.2 kW AC on-board charger (OBC) can be retrofitted to any Taycan built until now and sold in the United States, and has the added benefit of enabling Plug and Charge for 2020 model year cars. New and potential customers can add the higher capacity OBC by selecting the KB4 option in the online configurator.
With the retrofit installed, a Taycan with the Performance battery can charge from 0-100% in 4.8 hours, compared to 9.5 hours with the previous charger. For cars equipped with the Performance battery plus, a complete charge will take 5.3 hours versus 10.5 hours before.
These times can be achieved only when the car is charged via a 19.2 kW wall charger, and guess what? Porsche has a new one of these as well.
The OBC retrofit retails for $1,850.15 plus 12 hours of labor time, while the 19.2 kW Wall Charger Connect has a retail price of $1,586, plus whatever it costs for the actual installation and wiring to a 100-amp circuit.
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In Europe, the Taycan has been available from launch with a standard 11 kW on-board charger, and a 22 kW OBC became available as an optional extra from the end of 2020.
The Porsche Taycan is available in the US in regular and Cross Turismo body styles, and has a starting price of $86,700. For the money, you get a 300 kW (402 horsepower) powertrain, an estimated range of 242 miles, and a 0-60 mph time of 5.1 seconds. But, if money is no object, you can always go for a Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo, which starts at $190,000 and offers an estimated range of 222 miles, a total power output of 560 kW (750 hp), and a 0-60 mph time of 2.7 seconds. Of course, with this being Porsche, the options list is quite long and you can easily get over $200,000.
What’s your take on this – has the Taycan become a more desirable EV now that it can charge faster at home? Let us know in the comments.
