Elon Musk accurately burns Porsche’s first electric car

Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn’t afraid to call out an error when he sees one.

Porsche unveiled its first all-electric vehicle Wednesday, the Taycan Turbo, and the performance version, Taycan Turbo S. Since the Taycan Turbo unveiling, it’s been compared to Tesla’s own luxury sedan, the Model S.

The electric Porsche has two electric motors, an 800-volt battery, regenerative power, but no internal combustion engine. It’s an electric car. So Musk, maker of several all-electric vehicles including the Tesla Model S, pointed that out. 

The “Turbo” naming is indeed a bit oxymoronic. Yes the car can go from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds, but it’s not because of a turbocharged engine. As Autotrader explains, “A turbocharger is an add-on part that uses recycled exhaust gases to — quite literally — boost an engine’s performance.” Last we checked, all-electric cars are 100 percent battery-powered, with no fuel or “exhaust gases.”

Let’s give Porsche some credit. Perhaps the carmaker is being cheeky with the name since its first emissions-free vehicle performs like its traditional gas-powered sports cars with quick acceleration, 670 horsepower, and 161 mph top speed. We reached out to the company for a response to Musk’s burn.

Musk has called out other electric vehicles for their names, like the Audi e-tron (“etron” is a slang word that means crap or poop in French). For his own cars, Musk has stuck with plain names like the Model S, 3, X, and Y — which he thinks are pretty “S3XY.”