FUN IN A FAMILY CAR

Squeezing smiles from our Honda CR-V Sport 7

If Van Gogh had painted a Porsche Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), what would it look like? No longer do we need to wonder about the answer to that oft-repeated question, because Porsche has created a Starry Night-themed Taycan Turbo.

The arty Taycan is on display during Porsche’s sponsorship of Van Gogh Alive — the Experience, a “multi-sensory” exhibition of the Dutch artist’s work that gives visitors the impression of walking straight into the artist’s paintings.

Van Gogh Alive — the Experience is currently touring New Zealand. It’s at the Air Force Museum of NZ in Christchurch from February 19 to March 11, then at Spark Arena in Auckland from April 15-May 6.

Meanwhile, the Taycan proper is branching out with a new entry-level model: the first rear-drive version in the range, with a choice of two battery sizes allowing electric motors with either 240kW or 280kW (rising to 300/350kW in “overboost” mode).

WLTP range is 431km for the 79.2kWh Performance Battery or 484km for the 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus. Both versions hit 100km/h in 5.4 seconds.

Unlike the Taycan 4S and Turbo models, the Taycan has a single motor, but it retains the twospeed transmission.

It doesn’t have the speed of the dual-motor AWD models but the Taycan has the potential to be a driver’s favourite, thanks to the rear-drive configuration.

Crucially, the $173,900 entry price also takes it significantly closer to BEV rivals such as the Audi e-tron Sportback 55 S line ($169,900), Jaguar I-Pace ($149,900), Mercedes-Benz EQC Electric Art Line ($148,800) and Tesla Model S ($159,990).

They are all still AWD, of course. The Taycan dual-motor AWD models open at $203,900 for the 4S and $289,900 for the Taycan Turbo.