This is the Porsche Taycan 4S. now you may not need much of an introduction. but it is Porsche’s first all-electric performance car. and to be more precise what we have here is the Porsche Taycan 4s. which looks like it could really be the sweet spot in the range.
Specs with the pricing
This Porsche electric car is going to start from around about £83,000 in the UK. or if you want the Plus trim version which has got a bigger 93 kWh battery, and a range of up to 288 miles. you’re looking at closer to £90,000.
Now that does sound very expensive. but when you think that the Turbo trim version of this car is some 30,000 pounds more. suddenly it looks like quite a lot of car for the money. especially given that this will do 0-62 mph in 4seconds itself. and the Turbo trim has got 563 BHP of motor performance.
So how much power do you really need? well let’s go and find out and most importantly what we need to know is whether this 2.2-tonne all-electric car drives like a Porsche should drive.
A quick comparison with similar Porsche cars
The Porsche Taycan 4S and then. this is so exciting. but you know what it does live up to expectations. and I’m so happy about what I have to say. it’s got a real sort of fingertip, be quiet, pointy quality to the way it goes around corners, I really like it. you wouldn’t necessarily expect it of such a big four-door car. as well because didn’t forget this isn’t a Porsche 911. this is more Panamera sized so it’s never gonna handle as well as a 911. because it’s a much bigger car.
But I mean it’s a lot of fun. and it feels fun in a very precise very sort of textural kind of Porsche way. and I think that is just awesome.
A very quiet car
I’m in Sport+ at the moment. and I can hear that amazing sort of spaceship noise in the background. I hope you’re picking that up because I really like it. it’s a really cool noise I like the fact it’s unashamedly electric. and I have to say it’s just so much fun.
Handling
It’s got loads of grip this car, of course, it’s four-wheel. drive it can portion to it wherever it needs it. and throttle responses it’s really quite sharp. might if I’ve got one area where I might say I feel like there could be some improvements it’s in the brake feel. it’s quite easy to kind of break a bit harder than you really intended to initially. it just takes a little bit of time to get used to how the brakes respond. but with familiarity, you do get used to it. that noise is great.
I think by electric car standards it’s probably actually the best brake feel going. it’s just that by Porsche standards. I think some people might expect better.
Motor performance
Still, the performance in this thing as well given that as I said. you know the turbo is so much more money than the 4S. but you do not need any more power than this. so the plus with the bigger battery. actually gets more power as well. and more torque – so this thing’s got 650 Newton meters of torque. who needs more than that. and 0-62 mph in 4 seconds and it shifts this thing absolutely eats up the miles. if you just gain speed but you even realize it.
it isolates you quite well this car so you don’t really get a sense of speed you’re doing always which can be a bit dangerous actually. even so, it’s just a joy to drive.
Driving modes
You can toggle back down through the modes through sport and normal. and it’s very quiet and very comfortable with your air suspension as standard. this test car has got the optional four-wheel steer. as well which I think probably is worth adding because like I said the way this car handles is lovely. there’s sometimes a four-wheel steer you get quite an inconsistent cornering response. but there’s none of that in the toy car it’s got really lovely it’s very easy to place on the road and to pick a line that you can follow through the corner. it’s just lovely. ok, just so much fun. I’m just so happy that it’s good.
Range
The range is pretty good too. so the bigger battery plus that we’ve got here like I said there’s a range of up to 288 miles. but I think that’s very optimistic. I have been playing around a little bit on the Porsche’s range calculator that they’ve got on their website which is really good. I think in cold weather with a few motorway miles and on 20-inch wheels which reduce the range the car will do. they reckon that the Porsche Taycan 4S plus will do about 220 miles. which seems quite realistic.
So that’s more than enough for most people I think. and to be honest I just think this is such a lovely car. and especially in this particular model suddenly it seems like it’s not a bad price either.
Charging
It’s worth pointing out that the charging speeds on the Taycan 4s. which gives very good news as the Taycan is the fastest charging car on sale. plug it into a super rapid 800V CCS charger. such as those provided by Ionity and it’ll charge it up to 270 kilowatts. which in real person terms means that you’ll get an additional 100 miles of range before your barista can finish frothing your coffee.
The standard 4S does get a slower charging rate of 225 kilowatts. which will drop the 100-mile top-up from some 5 minutes to around 8 minutes. what is far more annoying is a small 294 pound on you’ll see offered on every Taycan and model called 150 kilowatts DC onboard charger, you really must add this.
Otherwise, at the vast majority of CCS rapid charging stations in the UK, the Taycan will top up at a rather paltry 50 kilowatts. at this speed, you get 100 miles of range in about 40 minutes. add that 150-kilowatt upgrade and you can take advantage of the 100 and 150-kilowatt rapid charges that are becoming quite widespread in the UK. and are sure to be far more common than the super-rapid Ionity charges. it is our biggest frustration with the tie can that Porter doesn’t simply include this 150-kilowatt charging capability as standard.
Last words
The question we needed to answer with this is done it drive as a Porsche should drive. and I can say categorically that yes! it does. this sets a new benchmark for the electric car. and I cannot wait to see what Porsche can do when they start putting electric power trains into even lighter even more performance-oriented cars.
You may also like to read: BMW 330e: The Luxury Plug-in Hybrid
