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Exclusive: Porsche’s electric heart beats in the Taycan’s Zuffenhausen factory
Beside the red-bricked walls of Porsche’s headquarters at Zuffenhausen, an electric transformation is taking place. It is a transformation that echoes back to its earliest days, despite the company’s pedigree with the internal combustion engine. Tall, modern-looking buildings sit side-by-side with older factories and shops that have literally witnessed history. The faint sounds of heavy machinery are audible in the distance, a reminder that work in the historic site is ongoing.
“We’re building a factory within a factory within a city with residences close by, hardly any space, and this in high speed,” says Porsche representative of the project David Tryggvason, lightly pointing out that the timeframe of the project is very Porsche-like: Sporty.
Porsche is actively engaged in a massive construction project in its Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen site, roughly 120 miles from Frankfurt, with the company running full throttle as it prepares for the production of the Taycan. The result of these efforts could only be described as a rebirth of sorts, since the company that started with an electric car is now pushing itself to re-embrace all-electric vehicles, perhaps just as intended by its founder, Ferdinand Porsche, more than a hundred years ago.
An electric transition
A lot is riding on the Porsche Taycan. During the company’s annual press conference, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board Lutz Meschke emphasized how all-electric vehicles like the Taycan and its lineup of hybrid cars are pertinent for the company’s future. In a statement, Meschke noted that by 2030, vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine would likely be the exception to the rule.
“One thing is clear: from 2030 onwards; there probably won’t be any vehicle model from Porsche without an electric variant. I actually presume that by 2025, we will have electrified significantly more than half of our entire model range. But the combustion engine will still be around in 2030. Our 911 will hopefully still be driving with them for a long time to come. Conventionally powered vehicles will at that point be the niche in our electric fleet,” he said.
Before it can produce a successful electric vehicle, Porsche needs to ensure that it has the facilities necessary to build a completely different type of car. The veteran automaker opted to construct several new facilities to accommodate the Taycan’s production, and it had to overcome numerous challenges to make the buildout possible. The Zuffenhausen site is a stone’s throw away from a residential neighborhood, and the site itself is split by a four-lane road. With space being scarce, Tryggvason notes that the company did the only thing it can do: it built up. Overall, building the Taycan is complex. Setting up the facility even more so. For the project manager, the challenges were worth it. “We believe in the product,” David said.
A high-stakes, collective effort
The company’s bet on the Taycan is evident in its investment for the vehicle and the actions of its own employees. Porsche is spending about 6 billion euros (around $6.81 billion) for the development of its electric mobility initiatives. Porsche Production 4.0, a campaign aimed at ushering in a new era of vehicle production, is also underway. Accelerating these developments is a deal that the carmaker struck with its employees, who agreed to forego a small part of their collective salary increase in exchange for their participation in the Taycan’s production and release.
David Tryggvason and Porsche Press Spokesman Jorg Walz later directed me to the roof of one of the new buildings, and I was able to get a pretty good view of the factory itself. They pointed out how the Taycan starts its life by having its electric motors, batteries, and axles assembled. The electric car’s body then gets put together, painted, and transported across a long conveyor system where it can go through final assembly and married to its electric drive unit.
A key to the successful production run of the Porsche Taycan is the company’s target of manufacturing the vehicle in a “smart, lean and green” manner. Examples of these include a flexi-line that uses automated guided vehicles for simpler assembly despite the expansive customization requests from Taycan buyers, optimizations in the use of resources and space, and an initiative to ensure that the entire production process of the all-electric car at Porsche’s Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen site is CO2-neutral. This is made possible through several programs such as the electrification of logistics vehicles, the use of waste heat in the paint shop, and a pilot trial that involves the adoption of nitrogen-absorbing facade surfaces, to name a few.
Race-bred batteries for a race-bred electric car
Not one to waste a rare opportunity to ask for details about the Taycan, I decided to ask a little about the electric car’s battery performance. Over the past year, several great electric vehicles were released by veteran carmakers such as Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, but inasmuch as the machines themselves were impressive, their batteries left much to be desired. The I-PACE, for all its stunning interior and excellent design, is pretty much the electric equivalent of a gas guzzler. The Mercedes-Benz EQC seems to be the same.
Porsche uses pouch cells from LG Chem in the Taycan’s battery pack, which is expected to give the vehicle over 300 miles of range per charge under the NEDC standard. The company is aiming for ultra-fast 350 kW charging as well, thanks to its 800-volt technology, which was used first in Porsche’s LMP1 racecar 919 Hybrid. I asked how the Taycan’s battery holds up when charged continually with such a high rate of charge. Walz smiled and candidly stated “We’re very optimistic.”
After the annual press conference, I was able to sit in for an informal discussion of Porsche’s electrification with executive board member Detlev von Platen. The Porsche exec highlighted that the Taycan’s battery cells were closely developed by the company, thanks to its experience from its high-performance hybrid vehicles. Examples include the legendary Porsche 918 Spyder hypercar and the three-time Le Mans-winning Porsche 919 Hybrid racecar, both of which required some work in their batteries.
“So we’re absolutely involved, deeply involved, in the development of the (Taycan’s battery) cells and the technology behind it. We haven’t started last year with the Taycan. We have worked since a long time already on battery technology from motorsport. Our prototypes like the 919 Hybrid was electrified. So I would say, in general terms, that we have started to work on battery technology at least ten years now,” Von Platen candidly said.
I was reminded of David Tryggvason’s overview of the Taycan’s components a couple of days before, when he remarked that some of the Porsche personnel who worked for the 918 Spyder hypercar also worked in the development of the Taycan. Upon hearing Von Platen’s description of Porsche’s work with batteries, I couldn’t help but agree with his point. Porsche has produced several iconic vehicles in the past, and the majority of them are powered by the internal combustion engine. Despite this, it is difficult to argue that the best cars the company has ever produced, such as the 919 Hybrid, are imbued with electric propulsion at their core. Beneath the roaring engines of the vehicles were electric motors and batteries that ultimately unlocked the cars’ real potential.
From the past to the future
An engineer at heart, Ferdinand Porsche started with an electric car at the end of the 19th century. He later dipped his feet in hybrid propulsion, before going ahead and gaining mastery of the internal combustion engine. From this perspective, the development of the Taycan feels like a homage to the company’s roots, and this is a big reason why Porsche is dead serious about the vehicle. In what appears to be a gesture to prove this, the Taycan is being built on the company’s most historic site, and it will be produced alongside the 911, a vehicle that can only be dubbed as the quintessential Porsche.
As I grabbed my travel gear and scurried to the remaining shuttle that was awaiting my presence, I looked back at Porsche’s headquarters one last time. There in the dark sky stood a marvel of orderliness in this ever-changing world. It was a moment that can only to be described as surreal, when the past breathes new life into the future. Seconds later, as I buckled myself down on the shuttle seat and gazed into a disappearing Zuffenhausen site, the sounds of whirring machinery and vehicles rolling off the factory floor can be heard in the distance. Beneath this orchestra of sounds were the rhythmic thumps of heavy equipment that continued to work tirelessly to build Taycan’s upcoming production facilities.
I couldn’t help but imagine that the sounds were representative of the electric heartbeat of a carmaker, coming to life once more.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk says next FSD release is the one we’ve been waiting for
On Thursday, Musk teased the capabilities and next steps for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, focusing squarely on the incremental improvements of the current v14.3 suite, as well as the looming arrival of v15.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased the capabilities of a future Full Self-Driving release, but it seems like we are getting what Yogi Berra once called “Déjà vu all over again.”
On Thursday, Musk teased the capabilities and next steps for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software, focusing squarely on the incremental improvements of the current v14.3 suite, as well as the looming arrival of v15.
He confirmed that upcoming point releases of v14.3 will deliver additional polish to the current build, smoothing out remaining edges in an already capable system. These iterative updates, Musk noted, are designed to refine performance without requiring a full version overhaul.
Yet the real headline was Musk’s forecast for v15.
“V15 will far exceed human levels of safety, even in completely unsupervised and complex situations,” he wrote.
Tesla V14.3 self-driving review. The point releases will bring polish.
V15 will far exceed human levels of safety, even in completely unsupervised and complex situations. https://t.co/s4UK9RWw9f— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2026
He clarified that v15 will be powered by Tesla’s long-awaited large model, an AI architecture with roughly 10x the parameters of the smaller model currently in widespread use. The leap, Musk explained, stems from the unusually rapid progress of the compact model, which has advanced so quickly that the larger counterpart has yet to catch up in real-world deployment.
However, it is becoming a pattern that is, by now, familiar to anyone following Tesla’s autonomous driving roadmap.
There’s no debating you on that 🤷
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 9, 2026
Musk has consistently and repeatedly framed each successive major release as the one poised to deliver game-changing autonomy. Earlier versions were similarly positioned as a movement toward the final piece of the puzzle, only for attention to pivot to the next milestone once they arrived.
The refrain has become a recurring feature of FSD communication: current software is impressive, the point releases will sharpen it further, but the true breakthrough lies one major iteration ahead.
Musk’s latest comments fit squarely into that cadence. While v14.3 point releases are expected to tighten supervised driving behaviors in the coming weeks, v15 is cast as the version that finally crosses the threshold into unsupervised operation at human-or-better safety levels across demanding scenarios.
Our rate of advancement with the small model has been so fast that the large model has not yet caught up.
V15 will be the large model.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 9, 2026
The 10x parameter scale of the underlying large model is presented as the key technical enabler, promising richer reasoning and more robust decision-making than anything deployed to date.
Whether v15 ultimately fulfills that promise remains to be seen. Tesla’s history shows that each new target generates fresh excitement—and occasional skepticism—about timelines.
Fans realize Musk’s timelines for FSD are exciting, but rarely met:
You can see a rift happening in the Tesla bull community between a large group of reasonable people who aren’t afraid to acknowledge the elephants in the room, and those who are essentially bull bots whose entire identities are destroyed if they have to acknowledge any bump in…
— Mike P (@mikepat711) April 9, 2026
For now, Musk’s message is familiar: the immediate focus is polishing v14.3 through targeted point releases, while the 10x-parameter large model in v15 represents the next decisive step toward fully unsupervised, superhuman safety.
Hopefully, Tesla can come through, but we can only believe that once v15 gets here, v16 will be the next big step toward autonomy.
Drivers can expect continued refinement in the short term and a significantly more ambitious leap once the large model is ready. The cycle continues, but the stakes, Musk insists, keep rising.
Elon Musk
Tesla Supercharger for Business exposes jaw-dropping ROI gap between best and worst locations
Tesla’s new Supercharger for Business calculator reveals an eye-opening all-in cost and location-based ROI projections.
Tesla has launched an online calculator for its Supercharger for Business program, giving property owners their first transparent look at what it really costs to install Superchargers on site and what kind of return they can expect.
The program itself launched in September 2025, allowing businesses to purchase and operate Supercharger hardware on their own property while Tesla handles installation, maintenance, software, and 24/7 driver support. As Teslarati reported at launch, hosts also get their logo placed on the chargers and their location integrated into Tesla’s in-car navigation, meaning drivers are actively routed there. The stalls are open to all EVs, not just Teslas.
We launched Supercharger for Business in 2025 to help companies get charging right. We found simplicity and transparency to be a problem in this industry.
We’re now sharing pricing and a financial calculator to help make informed decisions. The goal is to accelerate investments,…
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) April 8, 2026
The new online calculator, announced by Tesla on Wednesday with the note that “simplicity and transparency” have been a problem in the industry, lets any business enter a U.S. address and get a real cost and revenue model. A standard 8-stall V4 Supercharger site runs approximately $500,000 in hardware and $55,000 per post for installation, bringing an all-in price just shy of $1 million. Tesla charges a flat $0.10 per kWh fee to cover software, billing, and network operations. Businesses set their own retail price and keep the margin above that fee.
Taking a look at Tesla’s Supercharger for Business online calculator, we can see that ROI is not uniform, and the gap between a strong location and a poor one can stretch the breakeven point by several years.
The biggest driver is foot traffic and how long people stay. A busy rest station, hotel, or outlet mall brings in repeat visitors who need to charge while they’re already stopped, pushing utilization numbers higher and shortening payback time.
Tesla Supercharger for Business ROI calculator
Local electricity rates matter just as much on the cost side. Markets like California carry some of the highest commercial electricity rates in the country, which eats into the margin between what a host pays per kWh and what they charge drivers. At the same time, dense urban areas with high EV adoption tend to support higher retail charging prices, which can offset that cost if demand is strong enough. Weather also plays a role. Cold climates reduce battery efficiency and increase charging frequency, but they can also suppress utilization in winter months if drivers avoid stopping in exposed outdoor locations. Suburban and rural sites face a different problem: lower baseline EV traffic, which means a site with cheaper power and lower operating costs can still take longer to pay back simply because the stalls sit idle more often. Tesla’s calculator uses real fleet data to pre-fill utilization estimates by ZIP code, so businesses can run their specific address against these variables rather than relying on averages.
The program has seen real adoption. Wawa, already the largest host of Tesla Superchargers with over 2,100 stalls across 223 locations, opened its first fully owned and branded site in Alachua, Florida earlier this year. Francis Energy of Oklahoma and the city of Alpharetta, Georgia have also deployed branded stations through the program, as Teslarati covered in January.
Tesla now exceeds 80,000 Supercharger stalls worldwide, and the calculator makes the economic case for accelerating that number through private investment rather than company-owned sites alone.
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Elon Musk drops a bomb regarding Tesla Model S, X inventory
After more than a decade on the road, the original flagship sedan and SUV platforms are effectively at the end of the line. Production of new Model S and Model X vehicles has ceased, and custom orders were quietly halted in early April. What remains are roughly a few hundred factory inventory units scattered across the globe, mostly Plaid variants, and they are disappearing fast.
Elon Musk just dropped a bomb regarding Tesla Model S and X inventory, and as the company is phasing out the flagship vehicles, it sounds like the time to purchase one brand new is almost over.
Musk confirmed on Wednesday that there are “only a few hundred Tesla Model S & X cars left in inventory. Order now if you want one.”
Tesla is running out of units rather quickly.
The message from Musk reads like a final call for two of the company’s most storied vehicles.
Only a few hundred Tesla Model S & X cars left in inventory. Order now if you want one.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2026
After more than a decade on the road, the original flagship sedan and SUV platforms are effectively at the end of the line. Production of new Model S and Model X vehicles has ceased, and custom orders were quietly halted in early April. What remains are roughly a few hundred factory inventory units scattered across the globe, mostly Plaid variants, and they are disappearing fast.
The news marks the close of a remarkable 14-year chapter. Launched in 2012, the Model S redefined the electric vehicle with blistering acceleration, over-the-air updates, and a luxury interior that embarrassed traditional sedans.
The Model X followed in 2015, turning heads with its Falcon-wing doors and seating for seven.
Together, the Model S and Model X proved EVs could be desirable halo cars, not just eco-friendly commuters. Their departure clears factory space at Tesla’s Fremont plant for something the mass production of the Optimus humanoid robot, which Musk believes will be the greatest contributor to the company’s value.
Musk has repeatedly signaled that Tesla’s future lies beyond passenger cars. Resources once devoted to low-volume flagships are shifting toward autonomy, Robotaxis, and AI hardware. Optimus, the company’s general-purpose robot, is expected to handle manufacturing, household chores, and eventually complex labor.
In the short term, the scarcity has already driven prices on remaining inventory up by about $15,000, turning the last Model S and X into instant collector’s items.
Tesla uses Model S and X ‘sentimental’ value to enforce massive pricing move
The announcement underscores Tesla’s relentless pivot. While the Model Y continues to hold strong sales, the legacy S and X represented an earlier era of pure performance luxury.
The future has been paved by Tesla and Musk’s focus on autonomy, at least in the United States. Customers continue to call for a large SUV, which might be on the way after a recent nudge from Musk on X.
However, whatever the future holds, it has been forged by Tesla’s two flagship vehicles.
Once these final cars are gone, the Model S and Model X will live on only in driveways, forums, and the rear-view mirror of automotive history.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says next FSD release is the one we’ve been waiting for
Tesla Supercharger for Business exposes jaw-dropping ROI gap between best and worst locations
