Overview
Porsche all-electric sports sedan has the specs and techs to make even petrol-obsessed gearheads drool. Porsche invested six billion euros in investments and added 1,200 new employees for the launch of the Taycan alone. The entire company is firmly committed to electric mobility so Porsche (as a company) went through a process of major change to deliver a car built to slingshot it into the electric future. Make no mistake, the Porsche Taycan is a monumental step for the company, a battery-powered, zero-emission sport sedan that drives like a Porsche, is insanely quick and is arguably one of the best Porsche cars ever made. The low-slung four-door arrived in two versions - the base model Turbo and specced up Turbo S - with the kind of stats that impress any car fan. Think 0 to 60 in 2.6 seconds in the S, along with 750 horsepower. But the Taycan also delivers on Porsche’s reputation for engineering prowess by pushing electric driving tech forward in all sorts of ways. The Taycan uses an industry-first 800-volt battery, which allows for smaller cabling than the standard 400-volt system, making the car lighter. That also enables extra fast charging: The 93.4-kWh battery can be filled to 80 percent is just 22.5 minutes, using one of the high-speed chargers Porsche is installing at dealerships around the country.
For performance enthusiasts, that comes down to handling and responsiveness. Chassis engineer Ingo Albers points to the new all-wheel-drive system, which scraps a central system in favor of putting control within each of the dual motors. That saves milliseconds of delay as the wheels communicate with the controller and the controller sends instructions back. “It's faster, it's smoother, and the performance is better,” Albers says. “The traction control is up to 10 times faster than on a normal Porsche.” The Taycan will feel more nimble and agile than Porsche’s other sports sedan, the Panamera, Albers says. Better balanced, too, since its weight is concentrated in its middle. The powertrain called for a compromise between efficiency and ferocity, resulting in Porsche’s development of an industry-first two-speed gearbox. Manufactured in-house, it’s attached to the rear motor only and provides for both brisk low-end acceleration and a higher top-end, at 161 mph, while still being efficient when it needs to be, for highway cruising and the like. This is one technically sophisticated automobile.
Since its launch, Porsche has really rolled out the variants. We have see the base Taycan and the introduction of the Cross Turismo (wagon) body. In typical Porsche fashion, we now have the Porsche Taycan, Porsche Taycan 4S, Porsche Taycan Turbo, Porsche Taycan Turbo S, Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo, Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo, Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo and Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo. The latest addition for the 2022 model year is the GTS, the one we would pick if it were our money.
