Porsche markets Taycan with an implicit question: Does a Tesla have a soul?

OK, now that Porsche has revealed the production name of the Mission E concept — Taycan — the automaker has launched right into marketing it, with a video that assures us the EV will have that certain Porsche flair, that anthropomorphic intangible: a soul.

It's "the thing that you instantly miss in any other car," the video says, though Porsche doesn't have just any other car in mind with that statement.

In an era where the Porsche cachet has grown — and sales have doubled in seven years — even to the point where some Porsche models are coveted by speculator investors, the video gets at the question that will weigh heavily on any potential buyer pondering Taycan vs. Tesla: What brand would I rather be seen in, what brand would I rather have parked in my driveway? The shiny upstart, or the automaker with a tradition so long and storied that Porsches apparently even get to go to heaven?

That question may wind up weighing heavily on Tesla, too, especially as Porsche gears up big-time to build EVs en masse, spending $7.1 billion on the effort over the next two years.

Porsche has been throwing shade at Tesla for years now while the Taycan has been under development, always with the assurance that, despite the electric powertrain, the car will "deliver on the promises customers are familiar with from our conventionally powered vehicles." Porsche says the Taycan will do 0-60 miles per hour in "well under" 3.5 seconds, with two motors providing more than 600 horsepower.

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