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Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival

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Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival | Top Gear

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It's a prototype, but a flipping important one. Does Porsche's first EV show promise?

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Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival

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Don’t tell me, another Taycan prototype passenger ride?Ah-ha! Wrong! This time we’ve actually driven the first all-electric Porsche on actual public roads. Full disclosure – it was around 30 minutes behind the wheel, on some semi-decent, but not particularly fast roads near Porsche’s Weissach test track. Followed by a couple of hot laps on the track itself… in the passenger seat. Of a prototype.

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
It's a prototype, but a flipping important one. Does Porsche's first EV show promise?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Porsche Taycan review: our first go in Tesla's big rival

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
It's a prototype, but a flipping important one. Does Porsche's first EV show promise?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.description[]
but a flipping important one. Does Porsche's first EV show promise?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
another Taycan prototype passenger ride?Ah-ha! Wrong! This time we’ve actually driven the first all-electric Porsche on actual public roads. Full disclosure – it was around 30 minutes behind the wheel

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but not particularly fast roads near Porsche’s Weissach test track. Followed by a couple of hot laps on the track itself… in the passenger seat. Of a prototype.Look

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we’re as frustrated as you by the endless teasing leading up to the launch of the new Taycan (that’s ‘tie’

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
the thing you wear around your neck for job interviews

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
‘can’) but in precisely a week from now we’ll get to see and learn about it in all its glory. For now you’ve got me in a stickered up test mule. Cynicism aside for one moment

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
yet. Porsche is holding most of the specifics back for its big reveal in a week’s time

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but we’ve got everything bar the numbers. There will be the usual spread of performance levels available

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but the car we were driving and riding in was the top of the range

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
the ultimate.Rumours are it’ll be called the Taycan Turbo S

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
which seems absurd to use combustion engine terminology on a car that’s so clearly a fresh start for Porsche. If true

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
somebody has decided Turbo S is the only way to tell its most loyal (read: wealthiest) customers to forget the rest

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
this is the one you want.That means ceramic brakes (420mm discs at the front)

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
rear-wheel steering and a price somewhere north of £130k. Bells. And. Whistles. Lesser versions will follow

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but this is the Taycan living its best life.Performance figures?This is where it gets a little vague. Over 600bhp from a pair of electric motors (roughly 400bhp-odd to the rear

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
possibly an overboost mode giving over 700bhp for short bursts. A kerb weight of over 2.2-tonnes

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
0-124mph in under 10 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.Whispers of a two-speed gearbox

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that unlocks maximum acceleration when you need it while allowing more efficient cruising at motorway speeds. WLTP range is expected to be somewhere between 250 and 300 miles.But performance isn’t all about acceleration in an EV. The Taycan’s real differentiator is its 800V architecture

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
which makes its performance consistent and repeatable because there’s less heat in the motors and wires

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
and unlocks properly swift public charging. Porsche’s original aim with the Mission E concept was a zero to 80 per cent charge in 15 minutes; we’ll find out soon how close it’s got

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
and whether the patchy rapid charger infrastructure can support it.You mentioned you drove it?Ah yes. A sense of tightly-coiled energy under your right foot

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
a car that wants to leap forward with the merest brush of the throttle

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but typically well-sorted to deal with low-speed driving.The ride isn’t Bentley plush

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but this is a so-called sports car still capable of oozing itself down the road at normal speeds

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
a whine from the motors only apparent when you really slam the throttle. Weirdly

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
it’s not the Taycan’s instant throttle response

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
its ability to deploy jowl-flapping forward force at the precise point you want it in a corner

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
that leaves the lasting impression. It’s the braking that scrambled my mind.By default

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
lift off the throttle and you’ll coast along – the most natural sensation for keen drivers says Porsche – because only when you touch the middle pedal does the regen begin. A dial in front of you shows the point when regen hands over to mechanical friction

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
and you have to really stomp on them to get there. That means 90 per cent of the time the feedback you’re feeling from the brake pedal is synthetic

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
designed to mimic the resistance we’re accustomed to.There’s room for improvement

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
it’s brilliantly calibrated and better blended than anything similar we’ve tried. Plus

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
really stand on them and the regen system can deliver up to 265kW of charging power back to battery. On the other hand

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
use your Taycan exclusively for pootling around town and you could realistically not call on the physical braking system at all – the reason the standard steel rotors have a special tungsten coating to prevent them rusting through lack of use.Bet it handles like a bus with all those batteries…Not a bit of it. There’s a sense of mass

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
that you’re driving something substantial and sudden changes of direction could wrong-foot it

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but because the centre of gravity is lower than a 911

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
and because the suspension is mostly Panamera with the full suite of electronics thrown at it

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tucking in smartly thanks to four-wheel steer and generally feeling half a tonne lighter than it should.And as if to back up my point perfectly

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Porsche put it around the Nürburgring a few days ago… in 7 minutes 42 seconds. Don’t know many buses that can do that.Did you get a chance to launch it? Will it drift?Not me

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but my predictably handy taxi driver for our Weissach hot laps did

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
and I can report that it feels significantly quicker than 0-60mph in three seconds. My testicles are still finding their way back down and the blood has only just returned to the front half of my body. My words it’s quick – a proper fairground slug of G-Force

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
no gearchanges to give your organs a breather.It’s impressive

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but does it feel any different in a straight line to a Tesla Model S P100D? Nope. And right there is the challenge for makers of fast EVs: for now

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but in the future differentiating your wares has to be a priority.And yes

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
I can confirm that it will hang its back end out if you turn in on the brakes

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
wait for it to rotate then give it the berries. Handy when you’re after some gratuitous slidey photos to illustrate your story with

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but patently not what the car’s designed for.What is it designed for then?To be the sportiest

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
best-handling EV available. And it succeeds. Porsche is pushing the idea that this is a sports car with four doors

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
refined saloon with proper space for passengers and their things that just happens to run on electricity.Hats off to them for proving

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
that EVs needn’t be the compromise most of use assume they are. Yes

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
some character has been lost along the journey

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content.reviewBody[]
but it’s startling in new and interesting ways. Ways that are more likely to entice the next tech-driven generation of car buyers.

# data.attributes.field_standfirst
It's a prototype, but a flipping important one. Does Porsche's first EV show promise?

# data.attributes.body.value
Don’t tell me, another Taycan prototype passenger ride?

Ah-ha! Wrong! This time we’ve actually driven the first all-electric Porsche on actual public roads. Full disclosure – it was around 30 minutes behind the wheel, on some semi-decent, but not particularly fast roads near Porsche’s Weissach test track. Followed by a couple of hot laps on the track itself… in the passenger seat. Of a prototype.

Look, we’re as frustrated as you by the endless teasing leading up to the launch of the new Taycan (that’s ‘tie’, the thing you wear around your neck for job interviews, ‘can’) but in precisely a week from now we’ll get to see and learn about it in all its glory. For now you’ve got me in a stickered up test mule. Cynicism aside for one moment, there’s much to learn, and good news to report.

Go on then, let’s have all the details…

You can’t, yet. Porsche is holding most of the specifics back for its big reveal in a week’s time, but we’ve got everything bar the numbers. There will be the usual spread of performance levels available, but the car we were driving and riding in was the top of the range, the fastest, the best-equipped, the ultimate.

Rumours are it’ll be called the Taycan Turbo S, which seems absurd to use combustion engine terminology on a car that’s so clearly a fresh start for Porsche. If true, somebody has decided Turbo S is the only way to tell its most loyal (read: wealthiest) customers to forget the rest, this is the one you want.

That means ceramic brakes (420mm discs at the front), four-wheel drive, 21-inch wheels, three-chamber air suspension, electronic dampers, electronic rear differential, rear-wheel steering and a price somewhere north of £130k. Bells. And. Whistles. Lesser versions will follow, including an entry-level rear-wheel-drive version, but this is the Taycan living its best life.

Performance figures?

This is where it gets a little vague. Over 600bhp from a pair of electric motors (roughly 400bhp-odd to the rear, 200bhp to the front) one on each axle, possibly an overboost mode giving over 700bhp for short bursts. A kerb weight of over 2.2-tonnes, but still 0-62mph in under 3.0 seconds, 0-124mph in under 10 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.

Whispers of a two-speed gearbox, too, that unlocks maximum acceleration when you need it while allowing more efficient cruising at motorway speeds. WLTP range is expected to be somewhere between 250 and 300 miles.

But performance isn’t all about acceleration in an EV. The Taycan’s real differentiator is its 800V architecture, which makes its performance consistent and repeatable because there’s less heat in the motors and wires, and unlocks properly swift public charging. Porsche’s original aim with the Mission E concept was a zero to 80 per cent charge in 15 minutes; we’ll find out soon how close it’s got, and whether the patchy rapid charger infrastructure can support it.

You mentioned you drove it?

Ah yes. A sense of tightly-coiled energy under your right foot, a car that wants to leap forward with the merest brush of the throttle, but typically well-sorted to deal with low-speed driving.

The ride isn’t Bentley plush, but this is a so-called sports car still capable of oozing itself down the road at normal speeds, utterly silently, a whine from the motors only apparent when you really slam the throttle. Weirdly, it’s not the Taycan’s instant throttle response, its ability to deploy jowl-flapping forward force at the precise point you want it in a corner, that leaves the lasting impression. It’s the braking that scrambled my mind.

By default, lift off the throttle and you’ll coast along – the most natural sensation for keen drivers says Porsche – because only when you touch the middle pedal does the regen begin. A dial in front of you shows the point when regen hands over to mechanical friction, pads on discs, and you have to really stomp on them to get there. That means 90 per cent of the time the feedback you’re feeling from the brake pedal is synthetic, designed to mimic the resistance we’re accustomed to.

There’s room for improvement, but in a typically Porsche way, it’s brilliantly calibrated and better blended than anything similar we’ve tried. Plus, really stand on them and the regen system can deliver up to 265kW of charging power back to battery. On the other hand, use your Taycan exclusively for pootling around town and you could realistically not call on the physical braking system at all – the reason the standard steel rotors have a special tungsten coating to prevent them rusting through lack of use.

Bet it handles like a bus with all those batteries…

Not a bit of it. There’s a sense of mass, that you’re driving something substantial and sudden changes of direction could wrong-foot it, but because the centre of gravity is lower than a 911, and because the suspension is mostly Panamera with the full suite of electronics thrown at it, it stays eerily flat in the corners, tucking in smartly thanks to four-wheel steer and generally feeling half a tonne lighter than it should.

And as if to back up my point perfectly, Porsche put it around the Nürburgring a few days ago… in 7 minutes 42 seconds. Don’t know many buses that can do that.

Did you get a chance to launch it? Will it drift?

Not me, but my predictably handy taxi driver for our Weissach hot laps did, and I can report that it feels significantly quicker than 0-60mph in three seconds. My testicles are still finding their way back down and the blood has only just returned to the front half of my body. My words it’s quick – a proper fairground slug of G-Force, not a chirp from the wheels, no gearchanges to give your organs a breather.

It’s impressive, no doubt, but does it feel any different in a straight line to a Tesla Model S P100D? Nope. And right there is the challenge for makers of fast EVs: for now, extreme speed on tap is a novelty, but in the future differentiating your wares has to be a priority.

And yes, I can confirm that it will hang its back end out if you turn in on the brakes, wait for it to rotate then give it the berries. Handy when you’re after some gratuitous slidey photos to illustrate your story with, but patently not what the car’s designed for.

What is it designed for then?

To be the sportiest, best-handling EV available. And it succeeds. Porsche is pushing the idea that this is a sports car with four doors, but really it’s a GT – a rapid, refined saloon with proper space for passengers and their things that just happens to run on electricity.

Hats off to them for proving, through thorough engineering, that EVs needn’t be the compromise most of use assume they are. Yes, some character has been lost along the journey, but it’s startling in new and interesting ways. Ways that are more likely to entice the next tech-driven generation of car buyers.

# data.attributes.body.processed
Don’t tell me, another Taycan prototype passenger ride?

Ah-ha! Wrong! This time we’ve actually driven the first all-electric Porsche on actual public roads. Full disclosure – it was around 30 minutes behind the wheel, on some semi-decent, but not particularly fast roads near Porsche’s Weissach test track. Followed by a couple of hot laps on the track itself… in the passenger seat. Of a prototype.

Look, we’re as frustrated as you by the endless teasing leading up to the launch of the new Taycan (that’s ‘tie’, the thing you wear around your neck for job interviews, ‘can’) but in precisely a week from now we’ll get to see and learn about it in all its glory. For now you’ve got me in a stickered up test mule. Cynicism aside for one moment, there’s much to learn, and good news to report.

Go on then, let’s have all the details…

You can’t, yet. Porsche is holding most of the specifics back for its big reveal in a week’s time, but we’ve got everything bar the numbers. There will be the usual spread of performance levels available, but the car we were driving and riding in was the top of the range, the fastest, the best-equipped, the ultimate.

Rumours are it’ll be called the Taycan Turbo S, which seems absurd to use combustion engine terminology on a car that’s so clearly a fresh start for Porsche. If true, somebody has decided Turbo S is the only way to tell its most loyal (read: wealthiest) customers to forget the rest, this is the one you want.

That means ceramic brakes (420mm discs at the front), four-wheel drive, 21-inch wheels, three-chamber air suspension, electronic dampers, electronic rear differential, rear-wheel steering and a price somewhere north of £130k. Bells. And. Whistles. Lesser versions will follow, including an entry-level rear-wheel-drive version, but this is the Taycan living its best life.

Performance figures?

This is where it gets a little vague. Over 600bhp from a pair of electric motors (roughly 400bhp-odd to the rear, 200bhp to the front) one on each axle, possibly an overboost mode giving over 700bhp for short bursts. A kerb weight of over 2.2-tonnes, but still 0-62mph in under 3.0 seconds, 0-124mph in under 10 seconds and a top speed of 155mph.

Whispers of a two-speed gearbox, too, that unlocks maximum acceleration when you need it while allowing more efficient cruising at motorway speeds. WLTP range is expected to be somewhere between 250 and 300 miles.

But performance isn’t all about acceleration in an EV. The Taycan’s real differentiator is its 800V architecture, which makes its performance consistent and repeatable because there’s less heat in the motors and wires, and unlocks properly swift public charging. Porsche’s original aim with the Mission E concept was a zero to 80 per cent charge in 15 minutes; we’ll find out soon how close it’s got, and whether the patchy rapid charger infrastructure can support it.

You mentioned you drove it?

Ah yes. A sense of tightly-coiled energy under your right foot, a car that wants to leap forward with the merest brush of the throttle, but typically well-sorted to deal with low-speed driving.

The ride isn’t Bentley plush, but this is a so-called sports car still capable of oozing itself down the road at normal speeds, utterly silently, a whine from the motors only apparent when you really slam the throttle. Weirdly, it’s not the Taycan’s instant throttle response, its ability to deploy jowl-flapping forward force at the precise point you want it in a corner, that leaves the lasting impression. It’s the braking that scrambled my mind.

By default, lift off the throttle and you’ll coast along – the most natural sensation for keen drivers says Porsche – because only when you touch the middle pedal does the regen begin. A dial in front of you shows the point when regen hands over to mechanical friction, pads on discs, and you have to really stomp on them to get there. That means 90 per cent of the time the feedback you’re feeling from the brake pedal is synthetic, designed to mimic the resistance we’re accustomed to.

There’s room for improvement, but in a typically Porsche way, it’s brilliantly calibrated and better blended than anything similar we’ve tried. Plus, really stand on them and the regen system can deliver up to 265kW of charging power back to battery. On the other hand, use your Taycan exclusively for pootling around town and you could realistically not call on the physical braking system at all – the reason the standard steel rotors have a special tungsten coating to prevent them rusting through lack of use.

Bet it handles like a bus with all those batteries…

Not a bit of it. There’s a sense of mass, that you’re driving something substantial and sudden changes of direction could wrong-foot it, but because the centre of gravity is lower than a 911, and because the suspension is mostly Panamera with the full suite of electronics thrown at it, it stays eerily flat in the corners, tucking in smartly thanks to four-wheel steer and generally feeling half a tonne lighter than it should.

And as if to back up my point perfectly, Porsche put it around the Nürburgring a few days ago… in 7 minutes 42 seconds. Don’t know many buses that can do that.

Did you get a chance to launch it? Will it drift?

Not me, but my predictably handy taxi driver for our Weissach hot laps did, and I can report that it feels significantly quicker than 0-60mph in three seconds. My testicles are still finding their way back down and the blood has only just returned to the front half of my body. My words it’s quick – a proper fairground slug of G-Force, not a chirp from the wheels, no gearchanges to give your organs a breather.

It’s impressive, no doubt, but does it feel any different in a straight line to a Tesla Model S P100D? Nope. And right there is the challenge for makers of fast EVs: for now, extreme speed on tap is a novelty, but in the future differentiating your wares has to be a priority.

And yes, I can confirm that it will hang its back end out if you turn in on the brakes, wait for it to rotate then give it the berries. Handy when you’re after some gratuitous slidey photos to illustrate your story with, but patently not what the car’s designed for.

What is it designed for then?

To be the sportiest, best-handling EV available. And it succeeds. Porsche is pushing the idea that this is a sports car with four doors, but really it’s a GT – a rapid, refined saloon with proper space for passengers and their things that just happens to run on electricity.

Hats off to them for proving, through thorough engineering, that EVs needn’t be the compromise most of use assume they are. Yes, some character has been lost along the journey, but it’s startling in new and interesting ways. Ways that are more likely to entice the next tech-driven generation of car buyers.