► Porsche’s first production electric car
► Turbo and Turbo S focus on performance
► UK drive and in-depth review
The Porsche Taycan Turbo and Turbo S were gamechangers when launched, proving an electric car could deliver proper sports car thrills and Porsche precision. Even now, more than five years on, rivals are still scrambling to catch up in tech, driving dynamics and interior quality – in short, it’s one of the very best electric cars you can buy.
It’s the kind of car that makes you question whether you really need a petrol engine at all – as our electric car group test against the BMW M5, Polestar 1 and Tesla Model S proved. The Taycan remains the electric super saloon benchmark.
Should you buy a Porsche Taycan Turbo or Turbo S? If you want an electric car that drives like a proper Porsche rather than merely a fast computer, it’s one of the finest EVs money can buy, although it comes with an elevated price tag, a record for poor depreciation and some driving range limitations to you might not expect.
Here’s how we test cars, and why you should trust us.
At a glance
Pros: sensational acceleration, world-class handling, high-quality interior
Cons: expensive to buy, where can you use that power? Limited 800V charging infrastructure
What’s new?
When it exploded onto the scene in 2019, the Taycan became the first electric car to seriously challenge the Tesla Model S in performance, desirability and usability whilst proving far more entertaining to drive. The Porsche Taycan is, to put it simply, everything we’d hoped for from Porsche’s first EV.
In February 2024, Porsche introduced a facelift across the Taycan range. Styling changes were minimal – new front and rear light designs, tweaked bumpers and aero details – but under the skin, the updates were more significant.
The facelift brought improved battery management for higher efficiency, slightly increased driving range figures (WLTP claims jumped by around 35-40 miles depending on model), revised suspension settings for better comfort, and charging speeds raised beyond the previous 270kW ceiling, now peaking at up to 320kW in ideal conditions. Interior tech also benefitted from the latest Porsche Communication Management software.
What are the specs?
It is a full range range of EVs, including the less powerful Porsche Taycan 4S and RWD Taycan, and the practical Taycan Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo. The Turbo obviously lacks an ICE car’s forced induction, but with up to 690bhp and 626lb ft in the Turbo, and a staggering 939bhp and 819lb ft in the Turbo S, it easily eclipses the numbers previously expected in a mainstream Porsche.
More than 200 miles of driving range is possible, although in our experience only in ideal conditions. Thankfully it also charges in half the time of a Tesla Model S (with some caveats, naturally) and debuted Porsche’s most technically stunning interior design to date. Quite a thing, then.
All this juice powers two electric motors (one on each axle, meaning all-wheel drive) which Porsche describes as ‘permanently excited’, like a toddler on Haribo, or the state of the motoring press since this car was revealed. It actually has something to do with magnets.
Finally, the Taycan features a unique two-speed transmission on the rear axle (the front uses a more standard one-speed planetary gear) which means huge speed off the line and improved efficiency while cruising.
How does it drive?
First gear as described above is mainly present in Sport or Sport Plus driving modes, and particularly when you activate Launch Control. This is where the two Taycan Turbo models differ most – the regular Turbo with its 690bhp cracks 0-62mph in 3.0 seconds, and the 939bhp Turbo S in 2.4 seconds.
That’s fast for sure, but not ludicrously fast. The difference between this and a Tesla, says Porsche, is that the Taycan can do this over and over again until the frail organic mass behind the wheel has had enough.
But look: you’re not going to do repeated launch starts (unless you’re a motoring journalist on a lunch break), so this ability is all about A) Porsche showing off and B) putting a comparable figure on the Taycan’s sheer depth of performance.
The theory being that if it can do those 2.4-second runs again and again it’ll have no problem at all accelerating out of the Stelvio Pass’s sequential hairpins, for example. Also, you wouldn’t use every last horse in something like a Ferrari 812 Superfast’s V12 – you pay all that money to know they’ll never run out, and it’s the same here. It’s about reserves.
What’s more interesting and useful in the real world is the 626 or 819lb ft of torque you get which punches the Taycan forwards with the sort of ferocity usually reserved for fighter pilots being catapulted off an aircraft carrier. You simply put your foot down and instantly find yourself somewhere else. There’s no turbo lag or waiting for the torque curve or any of that nonsense, just massive, retina-detaching throttle response.
Thing is though, this is the same old story with every electric car, isn’t it? Even a Renault Zoe can catch other drivers out with its off-puttingly silent straight line performance, but they all fall apart the moment you try to get that weighty battery mass to turn in to a corner.
Yes and no. It’s not always silent for a start, because there’s a special engine noise generator (like the one in the Abarth 500e) reserved for racier modes. It doesn’t sound like a Mezger but does at least give you a sense of what’s going on.
To address that kerbweight, Stuttgart has thrown its entire arsenal of chassis tech at the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, but it’s not reinventing the wheel. These are all things we’ve experienced before, including all-wheel drive, torque vectoring, adaptive dampers, rear-wheel steering and electromechanical roll stabilisation. And these all communicate with each other using Porsche’s 4D Chassis Control to avoid conflicting inputs.
Despite the huge performance on tap, the Taycan is actually lovely to waft around in. The 0.22cd drag coefficient makes this the slipperiest Porsche ever thanks to active aero and air suspension that can lower the car in two stages, and that means it’s quiet on a cruise save for the usual Porsche road roar. The Turbo with its smaller wheels is better than the noisier Turbo S in this instance, and it rides better too.
What about the interior?
Behind the wheel and you’ll notice that the Taycan is started with a big on/off button like an appliance, not a key or a starter switch. Porsche says the Taycan’s dashboard takes its cues from the original 911’s cleanly styled item from 1963 – in so much as there are very few buttons and the new free-standing instrument cluster is wider than the steering wheel. That’s where the two cars start to diverge, though.
The dials are displayed on a cowl-free, 16.8-inch curved digital screen with touch controls for things like the lights and damper mode along the edge. The main infotainment screen measures 10.9 inches and there’s an optional supplementary display, so you can get the front seat passenger to programme the sat-nav or choose which music to play, and so on. This means there’s a door-to-door swathe of black plastic which looks very cool, although it’s interrupted by breaks between the screens, annoyingly.
Below all of this there is another 8.4-inch touch panel for the air-conditioning controls and a notepad for entering addresses and things into the sat-nav, and if you spec the optional four-zone climate control then another 5.9-inch touch panel gets installed for rear seat passengers.
In terms of size it’s somewhere between a 911 and Panamera, with decent rear seat space enhanced by special recesses in the battery under the floor in the rear called ‘foot garages’ that boost legroom while keeping the seating position low. Headroom is okay in the back but tall passengers will have to remove their hats. Curiously it’s better in this sense when you spec the optional panoramic roof, which adds a few inches of room.
There are no mechanically operated louvres for the air vents. You control the air flow from the climate screen, an ‘innovation’ that’s becomingly depressingly widespread. There’s also a choice of leather tanned by olives or a completely hide-free interior complete with flooring made from old recycled fishing nets.
Before you buy
These cars sit comfortably between the 911 and the Panamera in Porsche’s price list, with the Turbo starting from £100,300, while the Turbo S begins at a hefty £162,200 before options. As ever with Porsche, adding a few tasty extras can quickly inflate those figures well beyond list price. Rivals include the Tesla Model S Plaid, Audi E-Tron GT RS, and the Lucid Air Grand Touring.
Against the Tesla, which you can no longer buy in the UK in RHD form, the Taycan trades outright driving range and charging network coverage for vastly superior handling and build quality. The Audi feels similarly rapid but doesn’t match the Taycan’s driving involvement, while the Lucid Air offers longer claimed ranges but remains a rare sight in Europe.
The Turbo offers much of the Turbo S’s performance and theatre for a lower price, with only marginal differences in real-world speed. Unless you’re determined to own the flagship, it’s arguably the smarter buy.
Verdict
The Porsche Taycan Turbo S is an incredible technical achievement. It does the things we all enjoy about driving – accelerating, braking, going around corners – with supreme alacrity, and features a massive well of capability largely untapped by normal driving. However, considering most will barely ever use the performance available, a lesser Taycan will make more sense for most.
While the whirr of electric propulsion feels robotic compared to a living, breathing combustion engine, this Porsche, with its combination of brutal performance and agile handling, moves the game on considerably by adding a bit of personality into the mix. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2 after he’s learned to smile and say ‘hasta la vista.’
Plus, with petrol-engined cars becoming increasingly sanitised by turbos, particulate filters and autonomy, the void between EVs and the philosophical ideal sports car is considerably tighter than you’d expect. And the Taycan closes that gap further still.