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Tesla Model S finally takes on Porsche Taycan in electric heavyweight battle

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7 years ago

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The Tesla Model S Performance and Porsche Taycan Turbo S have finally gone head to head. Tesla’s flagship sedan which was first released in 2012 has been waiting for a worthy competitor, and it finally received a rival when Porsche unveiled the Taycan in September 2019.

Automotive publication Car and Driver pegged the two Dual Motor electric sedans up against each other to see what vehicle was superior. After testing everything from performance to comfort, they determined the winner was the Model S.

A neutral party was exactly what the electric vehicle community needed to determine which performance-level car was superior. Car and Driver noted that while the vehicles both had positives and negatives, neither truly disappointed overall. It was clear the reviewers were happy with both the 778 horsepower Model S “Raven” and the 750 horsepower Taycan, but only could be the winner.

The Taycan held the upper-hand during the performance test. The Porsche’s 30-to-50 MPH and 50-to-70 MPH acceleration rates were the fastest they had ever seen in a vehicle. The Taycan also offered 1.3 G-forces of initial acceleration, comparing it to what they thought a time-travel portal would feel like.

Another point was given to the Taycan after charging the vehicles. The Taycan utilized 350-kW Electrify American chargers that were never occupied by another electric car during the duration of the Porsche’s charging session. It also charged at a consistently higher rate than the Tesla Supercharger C&D used for the Model S. “Tesla’s Supercharger network might have more stations, but it also has more users, and Tesla owners have faced long queues just to plug in during peak travel times.”

While C&D did state they feel the Taycan is a better vehicle “from the driver’s seat alone,” it was not enough to justify the drastic price difference between the two vehicles. The Tesla Model S Performance is available for $99,990 on Tesla.com, while the Taycan Turbo S is $188,960 on Porsche’s website.

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The Model S offered the reviewers a fast, spacious, and comfortable driving experience. They recognize the vehicle’s catalytic effect on the growth of not just electric vehicles, but the automotive industry in general. The car’s interior, including its huge infotainment screens, which have spread to internal combustion vehicles, was just one of the reasons the Model S was superior.

While the Taycan outperformed the Model S in eight of the thirteen different speed tests that included a one-foot rollout, 0-60 MPH, 0-100 MPH, 0-130MPH, 0-150 MPH, 5-60 MPH rolling start, top gear tests from both 30-50 MPH and 50-70 MPH, a quarter-mile race, top speed, braking from both 70 and 100 MPH, and roadholding tests on a 300-foot diameter skidpad, the reviewers stated they missed other features when they started driving the Porsche. The biggest was Tesla’s “one-pedal driving” feature, “we missed it every time we hopped back into the Taycan,” Dave VanderWerp wrote.

  • Porsche Taycan Turbo S
    • Rollout, 1 foot: 0.2 seconds
    • 0-60 MPH: 2.4 seconds
    • 0-100 MPH: 6.0 seconds
    • 0-130 MPH: 10.5 seconds
    • 0-150 MPH: 15.2 seconds
    • 5-60 MPH rolling start: 2.9 seconds
    • Top Gear, 30-50 MPH: 1.1 seconds
    • Top Gear, 50-70 MPH: 1.6 seconds
    • Top Speed (according to Porsche): 162 MPH
    • Braking, 70-0 MPH: 155 ft, 100-0 MPH: 306 ft
    • Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.99 g
  • Tesla Model S Performance “Raven”
    • Rollout, 1 foot: 0.2 seconds
    • 0-60 MPH: 2.5 seconds
    • 0-100 MPH: 6.4 seconds
    • 0-130 MPH: 11.9 seconds
    • 0-150 MPH: 18.5 seconds
    • 5-60 MPH rolling start: 2.8 seconds
    • Top Gear, 30-50 MPH: 1.1 seconds
    • Top Gear, 50-70 MPH: 1.6 seconds
    • Top Speed (according to Tesla): 163 MPH
    • Braking, 70-0 MPH: 156 ft, 100-0 MPH: 313 ft
    • Roadholding, 300-ft-dia-skidpad: 0.92 g

One surprising portion of the comparison was range. The Model S boasts an EPA estimated 348 miles per charge, while the Taycan only offers 192 miles. However, a test where both vehicles traveled at 75 MPH for a total distance of 100 miles proved that the Model S only held a slight advantage with only 10 more miles of range after completion.

While both cars were impressive and offered something special, the nearly $190,000 price tag of the Taycan Turbo S was simply too high for what it offered. The Model S was a better car all-around as its virtues were simply undeniable and proven after eight years of continuous top-notch performance. “There’s no question which is the better buy,” they said, and it is the Model S.

The full comparison of both vehicles from Car and Driver is available here.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Lifestyle

Tesla wins over Netflix’s Selling Sunset star, who’s now ditching his Bentley

Selling Sunset’s Jason Oppenheim swapped his Bentley for a Tesla and promised ten for employees.

Published

2 days ago

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October 4, 2026

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Jason Oppenheim, the luxury real estate broker best known as the star of Netflix’s Selling Sunset, has parked his Bentley for good and moved into a Tesla Model Y, and he says Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is the reason.

Oppenheim, who founded The Oppenheim Group, the Los Angeles brokerage at the center of the show, posted a video to X on Saturday evening that he called “the most important video I’ve ever posted.” In it, he rides from Newport Beach to his firm’s Los Angeles office, a trip he put at roughly an hour and 15 minutes, while FSD handles the drive and parks the car without him touching the wheel or the accelerator. He said he handed the Bentley to his father because he no longer has any use for it.

Tesla shared the clip from its main account on X about two hours later, pulling out the quote that has since spread well beyond the Tesla community:

“[FSD Supervised] is life-changing. I was on the phone with my brother last night, and I made him buy one. He literally bought one while we were talking. I’m buying 10 of my employees a Tesla with FSD. It’s 8x safer than the average driver. There’s nothing more important than the safety of you and your loved ones.”

Oppenheim was candid about why the safety pitch landed with him. He admitted in the video that he is a distracted driver who answers emails and texts behind the wheel, and framed the employee purchases as a way to keep his team off their phones while driving. Elon Musk posted “Tesla FSD feels like magic” less than half an hour after the video went live.

The endorsement lands at a convenient moment for Tesla. The company delivered 486,532 vehicles in Q3, beating Wall Street’s estimates and marking its best quarter ever without the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.

Tesla FSD has been subscription only in the U.S. since February at $99 per month, and Tesla said in its Q2 update that active subscriptions hit 1.48 million, up 56 percent year over year, with more than 55 percent of new North American deliveries leaving with FSD attached. That attach rate is the figure Ron Baron cited last month when he told CNBC “the time to buy the stock is now.” At current pricing, Oppenheim’s 10 employee cars alone would add $990 a month, or about $11,880 a year, in FSD revenue.

Tesla AI head Ashok Elluswamy said in July that FSD had logged more than 12 billion miles while going roughly twice as far between collisions as manual driving. FSD also remains a supervised system, so Oppenheim and his employees are still required to watch the road, even as Tesla rolls out v14.3.10 with Automatic Collision Evasion, which can steer or brake on its own to avoid a frontal crash.

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Tesla teases “Halloween Mode” update with Optimus rising from a graveyard

Tesla’s Halloween teaser hides a covered vehicle and an Optimus hand rising from the ground.

Published

4 days ago

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October 2, 2026

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Tesla has started teasing a Halloween software update for its vehicles, with  a short clip on X that reads, “Halloween is coming.” The clip opens on a glowing pumpkin before pulling back to the car’s center touchscreen, where the usual parked visualization has been replaced by a graveyard scene, and the vehicle draped with a white sheet so it reads as a cartoon ghost.

The second detail is a robotic hand clawing its way out of the dirt like a zombie, which looks to be the hand of Tesla’s latest Optimus V3 humanoid robot. While Tesla still has not formally shown Optimus Gen 3 walking around in service, renders pulled from Tesla’s Android app last month gave the clearest look yet, including far more refined hands that Tesla has said carry 22 degrees of freedom. The hand has been the hardest part of the program. Musk has called it the majority of the robot’s engineering difficulty, and Tesla’s patents describe a design driven by tendons with the actuators moved into the forearm.

Tesla Optimus V3 hand and arm details revealed in new patents

Optimus also has a Halloween track record. Last October the robot handed out candy in Times Square, and a costumed “zombie” Optimus shuffled around the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles on Halloween night.

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On the software side, Tesla’s 2025 Holiday Update expanded Santa Mode with a Santa sleigh, snowmen, snow effects, and a festive lock chime, so it wouldn’t be too far fetched if we saw something similar but themed for a  Halloween Mode.

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Tesla’s newest feature lets you floor it out of a Supercharger while plugged in

Tesla’s new Emergency Drive Away feature lets owners flee a Supercharger while still plugged in.

Published

5 days ago

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October 1, 2026

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Tesla has given drivers a way to escape while a vehicle is plugged-in at a Supercharger, in the event of an emergency. The company’s charging team announced a new feature on X called Emergency Drive Away, which lets a driver shift into Drive and pull away while the charging cable is still connected to the car.

Until now, a Tesla would not leave Park with a charge cable plugged in. Drivers had to release the latch from the touchscreen, the Tesla app, or the button on the charge handle, then wait for the port to let go. Emergency Drive Away removes that lockout, but Tesla is clear that it comes at a cost. “Use of this feature will damage your vehicle and the Supercharger,” the company wrote, adding that the function is meant for emergencies only and that deliberate misuse will lead to “additional penalties.” Tesla did not say what those penalties are.


The in-car prompt is just as direct, with the warning reading: “Driving with the cable connected will cause damage to your vehicle and the Supercharger. Short camera recordings will be shared with Tesla.” That footage gives Tesla a way to separate a real emergency from someone who simply did not want to wait for the latch.

The feature requires software update 2026.38.3, and Tesla said in replies to owners that it works at every Supercharger in the United States without new stall hardware. Model S and Model X vehicles built before 2021 are not supported, and the company says the feature applies to U.S. Superchargers “for now,” leaving Canada and other markets out at launch.

Tesla Supercharger argument leads to tragic shooting incident

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Tesla did not tie the announcement to any specific event, but it arrives two months after a gunman opened fire at an In-N-Out in Twin Falls, Idaho, on August 1, targeting three people in two Teslas at the neighboring Supercharger. One of them, a 66 year old man from Salt Lake City, was killed. Superchargers have been the scene of violence before, including a fatal shooting at a station near Denver in 2023.

In the weeks after Twin Falls, owners pushed Tesla for a native way to escape a stall, and many pointed back to EVject, the aftermarket breakaway connector Tesla sued in 2024 over claims it lacked overtemperature protection. The two companies later reached an agreement that led EVject to recall its earlier connectors in favor of a version with thermal sensors.

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