Porsche has run within a whisker of the electric car lap record at the Nurburgring as it finalises work on the next generation of its Taycan.
It has also blitzed the mark set by Tesla with its Model S Plaid.
The facelifted Taycan is being set for sales in the second half of this year with improvements centred on its battery-electric drivetrain.
It is likely to get a significant boost in range, currently claimed between 403 and 462 kilometres, as well as improved performance.
Porsche is finalising the work with Taycan hot laps at the Nurburgring and claims its latest test produced a time of 7 minutes 07.55 seconds with development driver Lars Kern at the wheel.
That compares to 7:05.28 for the Rimac Nivera hypercar and 7:25.231 for the Tesla Model S Plaid.
Its time was 26 seconds quicker than what the existing Taycan Turbo S with performance package managed in August 2022.
Even more impressively, Porsche claims the Taycan was able to repeat the pace over more than just a single lap.
“Twenty-six seconds is half an eternity in motorsport. Lars’ lap time of 7:07.55 minutes on the Nordschleife is sensational, putting the Taycan in the same league as electric hypercars,” says the head of the Taycan model line, Kevin Giek.
“The impressive thing about it is that, over several laps, Lars clocked almost exactly the same time.”
Facelifted Taycan spy photos 
The Taycan was in showroom specification, apart from safety equipment including a full race-style rollcage, and Porsche had exclusive use of the Nurburgring for its timed runs.
“I pushed as hard as I could, but that was really all I could do,” said Mr Kern.
Apart from the 26-second improvement over its previous Taycan lap time, Porsche also said the new car would be more than 1.3 kilometres ahead of the outgoing car over a single lap of the 20.8-kilometre Nurburgring.
Porsche promises further details on the updated Taycan will be released in the lead-up to its official unveiling and CarExpert will have an inside report from Germany in February.
