PORSCHE’S ELECTRIC DREAM
Despite what the purists might think, the German automaker’s first electric car is every iota a ‘proper’ Porsche.
THE TAYCAN IS Porsche’s first electric car and perhaps funnily enough, is the car that slays its last sacred cow for purists. Though those purists shouldn’t be all too surprised, since the sacrifice of those figurative holy bovines is something the manufacturer has been steadily doing for the past two decades.
Never mind too, the fact that slaying those sacred cows has allowed it to become supremely profitable, granting it the ability to embark on such projects as the 918 Spyder hypercar, three successive model generations of 911s each better and better-looking than the last, and of course, its all-conquering Le Mans race programme.
And just what are those sacred cows I’m referring to? Well, there was the release of the Cayenne SUV in the early 2000s, the subtle pushing of its (admittedly exceptional) dualclutch gearboxes even on ‘enthusiast’ GT models, and now, the launch of its first car without an internal combustion engine.
Keen-eyed Porsche spotters will also note that the Taycan does away with the centrally mounted analogue rev counter, a racing-inspired feature that has been a constant on all Porsche road cars since time immemorial.
Now, this feature is a little easier to explain away, since while you technically can count revs on an electric motor, it’s difficult to do so in any meaningful way, since it spins up to nearly 20,000rpm. And also how revs climb and fall so quickly, it would look frankly ridiculous, not to
mention seizure-inducing, what with the needle dancing about all over the place.
Anyway, the biggest question the Taycan needs to answer is, does it feel like a Porsche should? That is to say, be the pinnacle of driver engagement in a genre filled with vehicles that while deeply competent, can also feel quite… how can I put this delicately… same-y.
All electric cars, owing to the virtually instant response afforded by their electric drivetrains, are at the very least brisk, and the Taycan is no exception, even in mid-range (for now, before the inevitable rear-wheel-drive models are introduced), all-wheel-drive 4S guise as tested here.
The Taycan 4S gets up to 571hp (for brief moments on overboost, it has 490hp under normal circumstances) and a claimed range of 463km with the optional, higher-capacity Performance Battery Plus, a S$26,536 optional extra. It comes with the Performance Battery as standard, which grants it a slightly lower range of 407km and a lower power output of up to 530hp (435hp without overboost).
This grants the Taycan 4S performance that’s not just brisk, it’s positively blinding. The century sprint is taken care of in four seconds, though thanks to its electric nature, it feels far quicker than that, or at least far quicker than its 2.2-tonne kerb weight might suggest.
The Taycan is not a light car, but it handles and rides like a car half a tonne lighter than it actually
is. It follows the modern electric car paradigm of mounting the batteries in a ‘skateboard’ configuration under the floor, but unlike many of its other rivals, it doesn’t ride bottom-heavy.
There’s a delicacy and airy feel to its ride quality that implies some sort of black magic tuning was applied to its adaptive air suspension to give plenty of pillowiness at the top and more firmness as it rides deeper into its travel.
Apologies for getting technical here, but what this translates to in the real world is a car that floats over rougher surfaces, but retains a good deal of deftness if it’s pushed hard through corners.
There’s its accuracy of helm, and you can flick it around as if it was a car half a metre shorter and half a tonne lighter. No mean feat for a car bordering on five metres long and weighing 2,220kg.
But, you could correctly argue, all good electric cars, and indeed all good sports saloons, have these traits – devastating point-to-point pace, acceleration that rivals a spaceship going into hyperdrive, tenacious cornering grip and decently good long-haul touring ability.
However, the Taycan is unlike most electric cars and more like the best sports saloons in that it’s properly thrilling to drive quickly, and the sort of car that makes your heart beat that much faster.
In other words, very much like the best Porsches, and yes, that includes the mighty 911 GT3.
And part of it must come down to the optional Porsche Electric Sport Sound. Purists would no doubt baulk at this given it’s pretty much a betrayal of every value they hold dear. What it is, essentially, is that it pipes in noise from the electric motors, and amplifies and modulates it through the sound system.
It’s synthetic in every sense of the word, and while this would certainly be sacrilegious in a combustion car, for an electric car it somehow seems appropriate and right. What it actually sounds like is that it makes the Taycan sound like a very, very angry UFO. And I assure you, the effect of it in real life is nowhere near as gimmicky as how I’m describing it.
The Electric Sport Sound doesn’t just linearly increase in volume as ‘revs’ climb. There’s a
What it actually sounds like is that it makes the Taycan sound like a very, very angry UFO.
subtle modulation in pitch and intensity, just as you would find on a combustion-engined car. It’s a great aural cue as to how much power you’re currently deploying. It’s something that’s taken completely for granted in an internal combustion car, and usually complete guesswork with other electric cars.
But what the Electric Sport Sound really does is increase the ‘oneness’ you feel with the Taycan, a trait shared with all the best driver’s cars.
This digital ‘engine note’ ties in well with the interior, which is suitably techy as well. And of course, if you so choose, you can completely eschew animal hide, replaced by a host of ecofriendly alternatives that includes a synthetic leather-alternative and mats partly made from recycled fishing nets.
It’s in the Taycan’s cockpit that you’ll be left in no doubt this is a Porsche Of The Future, with its dearth of analogue buttons and switches, eschewing that for a multitude of touchscreens and touch-sensitive switches. A curved 16.8inch screen forms the instrument cluster and a 10.9-inch infotainment display touchscreen is off to the side, with another touchscreen just below that controlling the air-conditioning.
What really hammers home the fact that the Taycan is The Future is that there’s no way to adjust the air vents manually. It has to be done through a sub-sub-menu in the infotainment system, which is incredibly fiddly. Technology was supposed to make life easier, not make it more complicated, but I’m nitpicking.
That’s pretty much the only blip in what is quite simply a marvel from Porsche, a car that finally puts to rest every traditional element the carmaker once held sacred.
The Taycan isn’t just a good electric car (in my mind, the undisputed best in its class), it’s a good Porsche, and that’s probably the only thing that really matters.
Specifications
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 490hp
Torque: 650Nm
0-100km/hr: 4.0 seconds
Top speed: 250km/hr
(electronically limited)
Transmission: Single-speed, with two-speed rear axle Energy consumption: 26kWh/100km
VES Band: A2 (S$10,000 rebate)
Price: S$512,524 (excluding COE, excluding options)