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Porsche Taycan Turbo | Test Drive
SILENT SCREAM
Words by Alessandro Marrone / Photos by Jay Tomei
Electric cars are no longer undefined road-going objects. In recent years we have learned a lot about them, understanding the type of use they should represent, thus overcoming that step of insecurity that often kept us away from something that was not yet completely ready to become part of our life, at least the automotive side of it. Now that virtually each brand has embraced hybrid variants in their lineup, everything seems to have taken on a different meaning and thinking about putting a full electric car in the garage has never been so close, also due to the ever-increasing choice from which to browse through. But what if the 100% electric car in question must also know how to do well what we figure as the most primordial purpose of a car? What happens if this latest generation tech fest sports one of the brands that best represent the ultimate materialization of driving for the pure pleasure of doing it?
I’m talking about Porsche, which with the Taycan officially launches an epochal turning point for the Stuttgart horse, as it comes as the first fully electric car of the company. Based on the Mission E concept, the Taycan is a 4-door, 4 or 5-seater sedan, very similar to the Panamera, at least as far as the wedge-shaped lines that also have characterized the brand for over half a century. In this specific case, we have a greater propensity for even cleaner lines, with an LED strip that characterize the design of the car at the rear. Up front, it takes advantage of the fact that you can go down further with the bonnet profile getting a Cx of 0.22, a truly remarkable value, especially for a sedan of this size.
Yep, its size, which like overall weight are often the Achilles heel of any electric car that can offer adequate mileage granting to take you not only from home to work, but also for a trip out of town, or why not on vacation, with the necessary recharging stops that you would face in a similar way with any car with an internal combustion engine. The concept of the electric Porsche, however, is not addressed so much to an aesthetic argument, much less to that of saving on mileage, perhaps using Ionity charging stations, among the fastest and designed to recharge up to 350 kW, even if the Taycan itself – among the most performing in terms of dialogue between car and charging stations – reaches 270 kW, with something around twenty minutes of wait in order to recharge up to 80% of the energy needed to move the two electric motors you get. After all, we are still talking about an object that in the case of the intermediate Turbo starts at € 160,000, while for the more powerful and performing Turbo S we reach € 194,000 as a starting price. The 4S Performance, on the other hand, starts at € 112,000 and is in effect the threshold for entering into the Taycan world. Oh yes, you might turn up your nose at the use of the word Turbo, since there is no turbocharged engine in here, but Porsche’s choice was to keep the names that define the performance steps of the other models in the range and apply them to the Taycan as well, precisely in order not to confuse its customers. In my opinion, a pretty clever choice that also saves us from useless names that would have generated bewilderment in an area where there is really a lot to understand, especially before you can get an idea and then express your own and objective judgment.
Prices in hand and therefore ascertained that choosing this particular type of EV is no way a question of saving on fuel costs, we are coming closer to the crucial point, the one to which every Porsche must respond in the most correct way, the only way , the Porsche way, that of driving fun. Buying a Taycan means many things, like putting in the garage something special and less obvious than the excellent Panamera and Cayenne, still available with hybrid units. The Taycan is a glimpse into the future, where fully electric cars can also be fun to drive and where it makes sense to wake up on a Sunday morning and go out for the sake of looking for the right road and hitting a few corners like you would with a 911. Big words, I know, but that’s exactly what I have to find out.
The Taycan Turbo is roughly considered the “middle ground” between the 4S and the Turbo S. With the two electric motors, each grounding power on its own axle, it can deliver a total output equivalent to 680 horsepower, with 850 Nm of torque available immediately and constantly. Of course all-wheel drive is among the fundamental aspects that allow you to really exploit this army of lightning bolts that explode as soon as you press the throttle pedal with confidence, but if the childish war on 0 to 100 kph (in 3.2 seconds) or from 0 to 180 kph (in 8.1 seconds) does not represent the core of the experience behind the wheel of the Taycan – or at least not the only aspect of such relevance – is when you throw yourself between bends that you can finally touch first-hand what you so ardently hoped for, something you held in check for fear of being disappointed once the cards would have been revealed on the table.
The 100% charged batteries estimate a mileage of 388 km, a highly variable number based on the type of driving you will adopt, but hey this also applies to a petrol or a diesel car. The advantage is that it is possible to set an energy recovery mode during braking or deceleration, thus recovering a handful of kilometers in case you are facing roads with particular inclinations (descents) and therefore raising the data declared by the manufacturer. Similarly, in an urban environment or playing to scare the hell out of your passengers with the absurd torque instantly delivered, means the range left drops rapidly, forcing you to make some unexpected extra stops, always preferring the fast charging stations, so as to limit the wait that with a traditional engine still remain successful in terms of saved time.
The charging process is simple and thanks to a dedicated application you can monitor its status and related costs even away from the car. I can’t wait to get back on board and while the Enel-X station stops pumping energy, I think it’s right to say a few words about the cockpit. Available with 4 or 5 seats, the Taycan maintains the classic Porsche welcoming ambient, but replacing almost all physical buttons with digital screens and displays. On the central tunnel we have two screens, the one at the bottom with Active Feedback and which therefore requires a light pressure from your fingers, while the main one located higher up is full touch and allows you to manage the settings and every multimedia parameter of the car. In front of the driver’s eyes, behind the steering wheel fitted with beautiful Alcantara, we have another fully digital display, this time curved and perfectly customizable according to the driving mode chosen and the driver’s preferences, with a clear reference to the classic five-element instrumentation so dear to Porsche for over half a century.
The Taycan comes back to life in complete silence at the push of a button, strictly kept to the left of the steering, while the forward or reverse gear selector is small, almost hidden, on the right side. Moving the first few meters and switching between the different driving modes available, you immediately notice how in Sport and therefore Sport Plus the dynamics turns the car more alive, with an artificial sound that emulates the turbines of a jet, fine precisely because in line with the sense of the car. A necessary preamble for a complex car, not only from an engineering point of view. And so, after taking the right time to understand what lies behind every single aspect of Porsche’s first electric car, it’s time to find out if, besides being a quiet and comfortable travel partner, it is able to answer affirmatively to the aspect that most interest to enthusiasts, not just motorists. Is it fun to drive?
Aware that once away from the city, it will be just me, the car and an almost deserted mountain road, I make sure once again that the batteries are fully charged, so that I don’t have to look at the remaining energy indicator, but only beyond the windscreen to the strip of asphalt ready to consecrate or massacre an ambitious and not at all obvious project. The absence of the gearbox – electric motors have a single speed, obviously excluding reverse gear – allows you to maintain full focus between throttle, brake and the steering wheel, slightly decreasing the involvement that would offer the possibility to choose how to face a curve and how to manage the engine revs. It must be said, however, that having 850 Nm of torque immediately available coming out of every corner is like being kicked in the back while being strangled hard. In this case it is easy to forget about prejudices, exactly like it happens for speed limits, also thanks to the almost total silence that accompanies even the most frenetic movements from point A to B.
It is very fast but what amazes me most is the behavior that makes cornering just as exciting. The 2,295 kg of weight are a huge number, but it is distributed very low and dialogue perfectly with a frame sewn onto a car body that seems pressed to the ground and running on a track. Depending on the type of regenerative braking, you can drive the Taycan with a single pedal (only with the accelerator, letting the energy recovery to decelerate the mass), or by throwing yourself on the brake, which at least the first few times requires a bit of habit, either for the speeds that can be reached within a few meters and for the tonnage that you have to slow down. However, the ability to devour kilometers remains disarming regardless of the tortuosity of the road in front of you. The seats are placed as low as possible – also courtesy of the battery pack position – and you really feel at the wheel of a sports car, certainly not in the most traditional sense of the term, but perfectly in line with the much loved vitaminized sedans that have never created havoc even when it comes to argue about exciting cars at the bar.
Moving without polluting doesn’t make me feel any less guilty for how much I’m raping a road that I know well and that I’ve tackled with any kind of car, including hot-hatches and supercars. But this time it’s different, it’s all so silent, strange, new. The only point of reference is that little horse in the middle of the steering and the ability to pinch the apex like you can’t do with either a Panamera or a Cayenne and believe me I have a soft spot for the Panamera. This is where I realize that the Taycan is not an alternative, but rather an object that settles in its particular niche, still offering what makes a Porsche a true proper Porsche. After all, evolution has always upset the habits we like so much to bond with: first the air cooling, then the naturally aspirated flat-six and now the total lack of that rough and metallic bark that has always been the soundtrack for every self-respecting enthusiast.
The Porscheist 2.0 still has his 911 in the garage, but what’s the point of having a Smart TV in every room, if we don’t have the courage and curiosity to poke our nose into the future of cars, especially when this means turning to an even larger slice of the market that includes new customers. Real world mileage in EV has yet to be perfected, but this aspect does not depend so much on the cars, but on the infrastructures, still small in number, especially compared to the amount of electric cars that brands bosses would like to see on the streets. But if the electric way has finally proved to be something within reach of reality, the Taycan demonstrates how Porsche has done something that others have not yet done until now, which is to make the zero emissions driving experience something electrifying in every sense and not just for an acceleration that requires a take-off ramp. The Taycan is everything an electric car needs to be in order to satisfy those enthusiasts who unfairly point to it and denigrate its lithium-ion origins. It is proof that if the future of cars would turn at the crossroads of 100% electric, driving fanatics like us would still have something to enjoy. To me, this seems more than enough to sleep peacefully.
PORSCHE TAYCAN TURBO
Engine 2 electric engines Range 388 km Power 500 kW (680 hp) Torque 850 Nm
Traction All wheel drive Transmission Automatic single-ratio gearbox Weight 2.295 kg
0-100 kph 3,2 sec Top Speed 260 kph Price €159.927
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