Porsche chose Niagara Falls, a Chinese wind farm and a solar site in Germany to unveil its first all-electric sports car, underscoring the new Taycan’s central role in turning parent Volkswagen AG into the world’s leading seller of battery-powered vehicles.

After a bumpy start for sister brand Audi’s e-Tron, the Taycan, expected to be priced at around $90,000, is for the time being the flag-carrier in VW’s massive drive to unseat e-car pioneer Tesla Inc. The wraps come off Wednesday at simultaneous events in its three biggest markets, where Porsche -- which has churned out roaring sports cars for seven decades -- will bathe the new car in a backdrop of sustainable-power imagery.

Despite all its engineering muscle as the world’s largest automaker, VW has struggled to slow Tesla’s march. The debut of the e-Tron, a challenger to the Model X sport-utility vehicle, was marred by delays and a recall. Tesla chief Elon Musk has meanwhile stretched downmarket with the lower-priced Model 3, which started selling in Europe this year and is about to begin production in China.

The Taycan and the mass-market VW ID.3 will be on display at next week’s Frankfurt auto show, and are slated to start production later this year, underscoring VW’s more than 30 billion-euro ($33 billion) push to produce battery-powered cars across all price segments. It’s a plan the German manufacturer can ill-afford to see falter.

The Taycan “is a turning point for Porsche and the industry as it raises the technical bar for electric vehicles beyond Tesla,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean wrote in a report. The Taycan should “be profitable from launch given Porsche’s proven pricing power, albeit at vastly reduced margins as compared with gas-powered models.”

At last count the Taycan, a sleek, four-door sedan, had attracted about 30,000 deposits, a figure that’s set to be updated later Wednesday. The car is partly financed by a 1 billion-euro ($1.1 billion) green Schuldschein promissory note, the first for a carmaker. It may quickly outsell the iconic 911 that has led Porsche’s appeal among the world’s wealthy for decades.

The technologically refined car will go head-to-head with Tesla’s aging Model S, after Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Audi opted for SUVs to kickstart their electric-car offerings. Tesla is facing concerns over whether it can deliver sustainable profits amid waning demand for its older models while sales rise for the cheaper Model 3.

“Model S and X volumes have plummeted in the last two quarters and have been a huge drag on Tesla’s recent financials,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note. He counted a number of potential factors, including cannibalization from the Model 3, aging product design and new competition.

Acceptable Returns

The jury is also out on whether Porsche can generate acceptable returns on cars designed to keep the manufacturer’s healthy margins ticking over in the shift to tighter emission rules. It enters the fray in rude health as VW’s most profitable brand.

Demand for the Cayenne SUV helped to lift sales by 2% in the first half despite a slowing market. Maintaining healthy operating returns -- at 16.5% during the first six months -- is key to funding VW’s unprecedented shift into the new era.

The Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer picked the three Taycan event locations to showcase sources of green energy: Niagara Falls in North America for hydro power, a solar farm outside of Berlin and a wind farm in China near the city of Fuzhou. While automakers gradually move toward battery-powered cars, the energy used to charge them often still comes from non-renewable sources like coal plants.

Hybrid Promise

Porsche has seen promising sales of plug-in hybrid versions of existing models like the Panamera four-door coupe, with over half of customers in Europe going for partially emissions-free options. To ease concerns over going fully electric, the carmaker is installing fast chargers at dealerships in the U.S. and Europe.

VW is also participating in Ionity, which is rolling out a network of high-speed charging points across European highways. The Taycan can recharge 100 kilometers (62 miles) in four minutes, and has a total range of 500 kilometers.

High-tech goodies include a horizontal touchscreen that stretches all the way to the passenger side, with a separate control panel. The infotainment integrates Apple Music software that lets drivers capture a song on the radio and add it to an their playlist. (Android-phone owners are out of luck -- Porsche’s infotainment system only works with Apple.)

保时捷选择在尼亚加拉瀑布、中国平潭岛风电场和德国柏林附近的一座太阳能发电站发布该公司首款纯电动跑车Taycan，充分体现了这款产品在母公司大众汽车变身全球电动车龙头厂商过程中的核心作用。

兄弟品牌奥迪的e-Tron电动跑车初次登场不太顺利，预计定价约9万美元的Taycan则成为目前大众竭力超越电动车先锋特斯拉的旗舰产品。70年来保时捷推出的都是轰然作响的跑车，而本周三，它在自己的三大市场同时揭开Tancay的面纱，从而使这款新车笼罩在可持续能源的光芒之中。

尽管拥有全球最大汽车制造商的工程实力，但大众一直难以拖住特斯拉的脚步。e-Tron原本是要对特斯拉的Model X SUV发起挑战，但它的亮相毁于延迟和召回。与此同时，特斯拉首席执行官人伊隆·马斯克将价格较低的Model 3塞进了低端市场。今年Model 3就会在欧洲上市，而且即将在中国投产。

Taycan和面向普通市场的大众ID.3将在下周的法兰克福车展上亮相，而且定于今年晚些时候投产，它们代表了大众斥资逾300亿欧元（330亿美元）推出各价位电动车的方案，而且大众绝不愿意看到此项计划以失败告终。

彭博情报分析师迈克尔·迪恩在报告中写道，Taycan“是保时捷以及汽车行业的转折点，因为它让电动汽车的技术水平超越了特斯拉”。Taycan应当“一问世就盈利，因为保时捷的定价能力已经得到了验证，只是其利润率将远低于燃油车型。”

最新数据显示，这款线条流畅的四门轿车已经收到3万笔定金，而且周三晚些时候这个数字还会被改写。制造这款车的资金包括10亿欧元（11亿美元）绿色凭证式贷款，这是汽车制造商首次获得此类贷款。Taycan的销量也许很快就会超过经典的保时捷911，后者在几十年时间里一直是最吸引全世界富人的保时捷车型。

在梅赛德斯奔驰、捷豹和奥迪将SUV作为自己的第一款电动车后，经过技术改良的Taycan将和特斯拉趋于老化的Model S正面抗衡。外界对特斯拉的担心是它能否实现可持续盈利，因为对其较老车型的需求正在滑坡，价格较低的Model 3的销量则呈上升态势。

桑福德伯恩斯坦公司分析师托尼·萨克纳吉在报告中指出：“近两个季度Model S和X的销量已大幅减少，并且显著拉低了特斯拉的近期业绩。”他列举了一系列潜在原因，包括Model 3挤占其他特斯拉车型的市场，产品设计开始落后以及新的竞争。

可以接受的回报率

人们讨论的另一个问题是保时捷的产品能否带来可以接受的回报率，因为它们要在尾气排放标准更为严格的情况下让保时捷保持健康的利润率。作为大众盈利水平最高的品牌，保时捷加入电动车竞争时的状态非常好。

今年上半年，尽管市场放缓，但对卡宴SUV的需求让保时捷的销量上升了2%。在此期间，营业回报率一直处于16.5%的健康水平，从而成为大众为新时代空前转型的关键资金来源。

总部设在德国斯图加特的大众选择发布Taycan的三个地点是绿色能源的象征——尼亚加拉瀑布代表水能，柏林附近的光伏电站代表太阳能，靠近福州的平潭岛风电场代表风能。虽然汽车厂商开始逐步转向电动汽车，但为这些车辆充入的电力经常源于燃煤发电厂等非可再生资源。

混合动力承诺

保时捷一直承诺将为四门跑车Panamera等现有车型推出插电式混合动力版本，原因是该公司逾一半的欧洲客户都希望拥有混动轿车。为缓解人们对它转型纯电动的担忧，保时捷开始为美国和欧洲的经销商安装快速充电装置。

大众也加入了Ionity超级充电站项目，后者正在铺设覆盖欧洲各条公路快速充电站网络。Taycan充电四分钟就可以行使100公里，总续航里程则达500公里。

Taycan中的高科技配置包括：副驾驶座位前一整块延伸至乘客座位的水平触摸屏以及另一块独立控制面板。它的信息娱乐系统集成了Apple Music，可以让驾驶者录下收音机里的歌曲并添加到自己的播放列表中（安卓手机用户就没这个运气了，保时捷的信息娱乐系统只能对接苹果公司的产品）。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林