Autocar Review - 2020 Porsche Taycan

There are, in fact, two Taycans, at least that Porsche is owning up to. Actually, there’s certainly a third and very probably a fourth, but in these days of top-down launches, these are less powerful versions that have yet to be seen or driven, officially or otherwise. Which leaves us with the two top cars, widely rumoured to be called Turbo and Turbo S, in line with Porsche’s naming convention. (I know it seems strange given neither even has an engine let alone a turbocharger, but we’ll get used to it.)

Both have batteries rated above 90kWh and standard power outputs substantially in excess of 600bhp. The difference (besides the S having ceramic brakes, a stiffer set-up, standard four-wheel steering and 21in wheels clothed in high-performance tyres) is that while both will ‘overboost’ for 2.5sec at the time, the S will do so rather more, raising its total output to well over 700bhp, with in excess of 750lb ft.

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So while the car is predictably heavy – think something around the 2.25-tonne mark – so too is it blindingly quick. The 0-62mph time of the Mission E was quoted at 3.2sec, and I’d expect a Taycan Turbo S to be as far below the three-second mark as the E was above it.

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When I drove both cars in prototype form, their interiors were completely camouflaged but have since been revealed to feature next-generation high-definition imaging that, if you choose the optional passenger information display, provides TFT screens almost from wall to wall across the entire width of the car. It looks quite intimidating but, in terms of the admittedly limited operations I was able to use, it all works fairly intuitively.

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And yet… Sitting in this brand-new car with its brand-new platform and powertrain, here’s something very familiar. It feels like a Porsche. Not like a Cayenne or Panamera but – and it feels silly saying it, given the weight of the car and the length of its wheelbase – something closer to a 911. And I’ve not done 30mph yet. It’s all about the steering: the heft, the precision, the off-centre linearity all are cut straight from the Porsche sports car textbook.


I find it utterly surprising and profoundly reassuring, not least because now we’re out of Weissach and time is short. I have to drive fast right away, despite every other seat being occupied by Porsche engineers. I don’t much like driving rapidly with anyone in the car, let alone overseen by the best in the business, but there is no choice.

The Turbo S (if that is its name) is fast enough to make you feel giddy on overboost. The torque delivery is so instant, the acceleration so violent and explosive, that it’s briefly not that pleasant an experience. And that’s with 700bhp. I don’t find it hard to imagine what any one of the growing mob of 2000bhp electric hypercars will be like: I find it impossible.

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The suspension takes big chunks of Panamera componentry but the actual three-chamber struts are unique to the Taycan. The car rides eerily well but is so deftly damped in Sport and Sport Plus that with that steering and devastating acceleration, it’s monstrously fast from point to point, even on difficult roads. No car in my experience has ever managed this amount of mass so well. No, you can’t lob it as you might a shorter, lighter car, but once you’ve guided it into the apex, its composure is phenomenal.

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There’s still stuff I’d change here. Most notable is the lack of ‘engine’ braking when you come off the accelerator. It is Porsche philosophy that, broadly speaking, one pedal should make the car go and the other should make it stop, and while you can vary the degree of off-throttle deceleration, I’d like more, even at its peak in Sport Plus. I kept barrelling up to corners tapping a non-existent paddle for downshifts that weren’t there. You need to use the brakes – or what feel like the brakes – far more than in a normal car. In fact, up to 80% of the available deceleration does not require the massive discs at all. Took me a while to get my head around that one, too.

I have a smaller issue with the brakes themselves: buy a Turbo S and ceramics are standard, although I far preferred the meatier feel of the still mightily powerful tungsten-coated brakes on the Turbo.

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Let’s for a minute forget the Taycan is electric. Just in terms of what and how it does what it does, is this a proper Porsche? In these days of Cayennes and Panameras, and based on first impressions of the prototypes I drove, unequivocally so.

If you want to enjoy driving a Porsche more than this, you need one with its engine behind the driver. And yet it’s one of the most comfortable GTs I’ve known and without question the quietest. In the distance and directions it is able to throw the net of its abilities, it is an astonishing, even an astounding, achievement.

Is this, then, the world’s first mainstream electric sports car? There I must stop you. It is sporting, for sure, and far more so than any other, but will Taycan owners set alarms and go for pre-dawn blasts – I mean whirrs – just because they can? That I doubt.

Then again, it is not that kind of car, and nor was it ever intended to be so. For now, the Taycan and its creators will have to be happy with having created the best electric car yet to go on sale, and having done so by a mile.

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