Driving the Young Pony
Porsche Taycan Turbo.
About this time last year, I wrote about the launch of Porsche Tacyan for Octopus Electric Vehicles, once the presentation was finished I sat down, got down behind my laptop and typed furiously understanding the car that we had waited so long to debut. I was at Le Mans in 2015 when Nico Hulkenburg took a weekend off F1 to win with Porsche and then announce Mission Future Sportscar. I was at Tesla the following year when they announced Mission E. The look and feel of Porsche Mission E has continued to the Taycan.
Taycan, which translates to the “spirit of a young spirited horse” signifies a new beginning for Porsche, one grounded in sporting prowess and electric engineering. Since that evening last September, Porsche have released a third model, entered Formula E with mixed results, shut and re-opened the factory, and therefore it was just last week, I had access to a Taycan Turbo for the first time.
We had the car for four days. Two of those were drive days for our colleagues at Octopus EV and Octopus Energy, as we’re strong believers in knowing our EVs inside and out. But before we let the team loose on the supercar I had the opportunity to drive it from Bournemouth to Billingshurst along the A272, a road I’d previously taken often in the Model S. With the Model S as the Taycan’s biggest competitor, as such the car that Porsche want to take the fight to, this was my chance to get up close and personal.
Handling:
The A272 provided the ability to experience what the chassis balance was like. This particular Taycan also had the Porsche Dynamic Chassis control (which essentially keeps the car flat in the fast and twisty stuff). The chassis is well suited and you can feel everything through the steering while the air suspension dials out any nasty bumps so you don’t feel them through your tailbone. IT DOES NOT FEEL LIKE A 2.4 TONNE CAR. It bites into the corner both under braking and neutrally, bleed on the throttle at the right time and it will rotate beautifully. Most like a rally car of old, the dual-motor all-wheel-drive pulls the front through the corner letting the rear swing through in ways that Tesla could only dream of. No torque heavy 4 wheel drifting from Taycan, but proper power rotation.
2. Power delivery:
If you are a Tesla Model S Performance owner you will know just how it takes off much like a spaceship. The Taycan is pretty similar, but even more brutal. It allows a little more wheel spin so first phase of launching it isn’t quite as bad as a kick in the back of your head, but the two-speed gearbox makes the launch from 0-60 and beyond continuously aggressive. There’s no chance to catch your breath or relax into the seat until you are doing a fair few miles an hour. Finally, no matter where you are or how much battery you have, the brutal throttle power is the same over and over because of the amazing 800 volt architecture, derived from the Porsche 919 race car.
3. Efficiency:
A lot of fuss and fanfare was made about the Taycan sub 300 mile range. However, when actually driving the car I realised I’d be able to get more than 300 miles out of the battery if needs be. This likely holds for normal driving, but if you want to experiment with the launch control (like I did) then it obviously would impact the range! I reckon if you are new to electric cars, with a few pointers you could be well into the 280-290 miles range without worrying. Finally on range, all of the re-gen (or as Porsche calls it “re-cooperation” is done on the brake pedal and via a button on the steering wheel. This made long periods of cruising easily possible without needing to accelerate or decelerate. We know that re-gen harvests energy but it doesn’t actually create more. The perfectly efficient way to arrive at a stop is to have released the throttle 3 miles back and just let the car roll up by itself.
I was left amazed at the end of my drive. I have driven 911’s, lightweight sports cars and heavy 2 tonne electric monsters, but this car takes all the best bits of them all and combines them.
If you are thinking about whether or not you should get a Taycan, this is what I’d say. The Taycan is an amazing car, which Porsche have chosen to run on electricity. It’s not an electric car first and that is it’s party piece. Tech lovers and IT consultants will love this car, but if your heart quickens to the sound of a naturally aspirated flat 6 screaming out the back of a GT3 RS, you will not be disappointed with Taycan. Uncle Walter Rohrl wasn’t, and he is a driving god.
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