Porsche Taycan: Everything you need to know

The all-new Porsche Taycan will arrive Down Under in late 2020 and in one fell swoop rewrite what you know and think about electric cars.

This is a stunningly styled, five-seat medium to large sedan/liftback which has been designed, engineered and developed as a Porsche first and an electric car second.

Not that the Porsche Taycan doesn’t take advantage of every positive that electric mobility can deliver. It does. Rather, Porsche has ensured that the Taycan doesn’t get away with any performance, convenience or functional deficits, just because it is battery rather than petrol or diesel powered.

And that goes for how it performs on the road and the track. An elemental promise of the Taycan, is that you will be able to drive it like a Porsche. Indeed, at our early press breiefing the company is making noises about sub-8min Nurburgring lap time – “markedly under” and not just one lap! That's since been confirmed at 7min 42sec.

And if that isn't impressive enough, the claimed 0-100km/h time of the Porsche Taycan Turbo S range-topper is just 2.8 seconds – and 200km/h comes up in only 9.8sec.

Even more impressive given the propensity for EVs to be one-trick ponies is the guarantee from Porsche that it will perform 10 of these sprints (more in fact) back-to-back without any performance degradation.

Our pre-launch tech briefing and short, sharp ‘taxi rides’ in development Taycan Turbo S cars took place on one of the hottest recorded days in German history – over 40 degrees. Yet the electric Porsches performed their neck-spanning sprints and lurid sideways antics time after time, lap after lap. All day…

The Taycan is critical for Porsche and to an extent the Volkswagen Audi Group, some models from which (including Audi e-tron GT) share the Taycan’s new architecture and running gear.

At the same time, it is a harbinger of the future and an evolution to Porsche’s core values -- values that extend to every facet of the engineering expertise and the depth of development nouse that has gone into Taycan.

Porsche has never expected its road car customers to act as its guinea pigs, and it not about to start now.

Ahead of Porsche’s official unveiling of the Taycan Turbo S, here in no particular order, is what we’ve learned so far about the car that will change Porsche, and EVs, for good.

Turbo will now be the badge that Porsche uses to denote its highest performing variants of even its EVs. For the avoidance of doubt, however, there are NO turbos fitted to the Taycan Turbo or Turbo S.

Porsche electric car revolution will launch with this two-model Taycan opening gambit.

The range-topping, all-wheel drive Porsche Taycan Turbo S will be the first, quickly followed by a slightly less potent but still all-paw, Porsche Taycan Turbo.

Insiders are being tight-lipped about other variants, although we can almost guarantee that a rear-drive Taycan S and mid-range Taycan 4S should follow fairly quickly.

In fact the latter will likely form part of a three-variant model range when the Taycan arrives in Australia in the fourth quarter of next year.

Already there’s a waiting list – and Porsche can only build 30,000 per year at its new purpose-built factory, smack dab in the centre in its traditional Zuffenhausen campus. The waiting list could swell quickly.

Pricing and specification for markets like Australia are yet to be confirmed. We'd suggest, however, that the Turbo S flagship will arrive priced at around $350,000. Expect the Turbo to be perhaps $50,000 cheaper at about $300,000.

The Porsche Taycan 4S will undercut the 911 at about $200,000 and, later, expect the Taycan admission price to drop to as low as $180,000 with the rear-drive S.

In addition to the liftback, Zuffenhausen has committed to also launching a high-riding Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo shooting brake model. Officially, the first of these, also the Turbo S, will “follow very shortly after” the sedan/liftback launch.

Officially, Porsche Cars Australia says: “Porsche will announce Australian pricing for the new Taycan in early 2020, at which time formal orders will also open. In the meantime, interested parties can submit an official expression of interest with their local Porsche Centre.”

As this news feature is written, we’re still to even sight official technical documents for the Taycan. So there may be errors hereabouts – that we will need to correct. At the briefing it was a strictly no cameras, no takeaways...

What we can tell you is the Taycan rides on a 2900mm wheelbase and in Turbo S form should weigh in at around 2295kg (DIN). That’s a lot, but when you consider the battery pack that underpins the Taycan is around 650kg itself, it’s clear there been significant attention to controlling mass.

Porsche considers the Taycan as a C-segment vehicle -- it is therefore not only Porsche's first EV but also its first mid-size four-door. By way of comparison, the larger Panamera Turbo S E-hybrid has 50mm more wheelbase and is actually around 110kg heavier.

At 4963mm long overall, the Taycan has significantly shorter overhangs than the Panamera and more tumblehome. Platform boss, Dr Bernard Propfe, describes the effect as a “small head on wide shoulders”.

The upcoming Audi e-tron GT shares its DNA with the Taycan… A LOT of DNA!

Just like its ground-breaking Tesla competitor, the Taycan features front and rear boots and also gets a fold-flat second row of seats. The front boot is around the same size as that of a 911. The rear delivers about 400 litres of volume.

Static weight distribution slightly favours the rear at 49/51 per cent – “like a go kart”, joked Taycan chassis boss Dr Ingo Albers.

The Porsche Taycan’s chassis and body-in-white has been developed from scratch as an electric vehicle platform. It features conventional monocoque fashioned from a mix of high-strength steels and extruded and cast aluminium, with a structural battery carrier attached underneath the main passenger cell.

While the battery precipitates a flat floor design, Porsche incorporated what it terms “foot garages” in the rear passenger area. The extra depth due to an absence of battery cells, the company says, delivers a more natural seating position for rear occupants.

The underbody battery structure adds significantly to the rigidity of the monocoque, benefits crash performance and helps deliver a centre of gravity that the Porsche boffins claim is markedly lower than the Panamera or 911.

All of the external panels are aluminium, except for the roof when the multi-layer glass version is optioned.

Thanks to a blend of design, active and passive aerodynamic features and a fully-faired, flat floor, the Taycan boasts an aerodynamic coefficient of between 0.22 and 0.24Cd.

The Porsche Taycan debuts 800-volt electrical infrastructure to the automotive space.

In the simplest of terms, 800V delivers the potential for faster charging; faster, more efficient energy transfer; higher continuous power; and the ability to use smaller, lighter connections (wires and cable!) for better packaging within the vehicle itself.

The Taycan Turbo S’s 64.6Ah, 620kW battery consists of 396 LG lithium-ion cells grouped into 33 modules. It is rated at 94kWh maximum, 84kWh nett, with a nominal operating voltage of 723V.

Porsche uses pulse-controlled inverters and has invested substantial time and effort in thermal management of the electrical infrastructure of the Taycan.

The cooling and heating system has multiple circuits and modes to tailor cooling and heating to the various needs of the battery, invertors, cabin and drive-units. This, Porsche says, is key to the efficiency of the vehicle, its ability to charge quickly and operate efficiently in a wide range of environments.

Oh, for the record, the Taycan does retain a 12V battery, although it is a lightweight lithium-ion unit much like those used in Porsche race cars.

According to the boffins, it is here “simply to open the doors”. Although that might be a slight understatement, as the ancillaries on the Taycan remain conventional 12V systems, with the exception of the 48V set-up required for the PDCC anti-bodyroll system.

The Taycan Turbo S packs a 190kW coaxial front motor and 370kW rear. Torque outputs are 400/440Nm and 550/610Nm respectively, the larger figures being produced when the Taycan Turbo S is in what Porsche has termed ‘Overboost’ mode.

Unlike many EVs, the Taycan uses permanently excited synchronous motors (PSM). Porsche says PSMs have better thermal characteristics, more consistent performance and are smaller and have higher energy density than asynchronous motors.

The motors themselves feature ‘hairpin’ rather than bundled windings and a 70 per cent copper fill (many comparable motors use 45 per cent). While these motors are typically more expensive, pound for pound they deliver more torque, more power and better cooling characteristics.

The PSMs used in the Taycan are 100 per cent developed in-house at Porsche’s Weissach R&D centre and are also built in-house. They weigh in at around 76kg and 170kg respectively and can operate at up to 16,000rpm.

The extra ace the Taycan has up its sleeve, however, is the marriage of the rear electric motor to a two-speed automatic transmission. This, Porsche says, delivers maximum acceleration but also a significant boost in efficiency and top speed.

The transmission also gifts the Taycan the ability to operate in a range of modes to either maximise efficiency or performance. It's only in Sport and Sport Plus modes, for instance, that Taycan always drives off in the lower of its two gears.

The gearbox itself is also 100 per cent Porsche. It's claimed to weigh just 16kg.

In its most efficient mode, the Taycan runs to a maximum of 120km/h on its front motor as a virtual front-driver. In full welly, AWD Sport Plus mode, the 560kW/1050Nm, Porsche Taycan Turbo S will run to 260km/h.

As well as crafting electric motors and ground-breaking gearboxes, Porsche has created its own sound for the Taycan. The Porsche Electric Sport Sound satisfies the legalities for pedestrian safety but is neither a fake internal combustion engine soundtrack nor what the Porsche boffins call “a gimmick ring tone”. Rather it is a modulated version of the actual noise the EV components make.

Don’t worry, you can turn it off.

The benefits of the almost infinite tunability of electric motors have come to bear in the Porsche Taycan Turbo S’s running gear.

At the heart of the chassis is a new, smarter version of Porsche Traction Management all-wheel drive system which Albers says, in combination with the motors, reacts up to five times faster than conventional engine/AWD combos. In turn, the traction control can meter torque up to 10 times faster than its ICE equivalent.

Control is unique to each wheel and torque is fully variable (within the bounds of the motor outputs) front to rear and side to side. The Taycan literally reacts and redirects drive in milliseconds.

There’s a Sport mode offered via the stability control (described as a “virtual rubber band”, the way it pulls you back into line), but in true Porsche fashion, stability and traction control off, means off. This is a first for EVs, the maker claims.

Porsche aficionados might identify some of the suspension components used in the new Taycan EV as having been taken from the Panamera parts bin. In reality, while there is some sharing and the general concept is the same, the unique requirements of the new EV dictated many new parts.

Take for example the significantly lower bonnet and front guard line of the Taycan. Simply, if the front suspension of the Panamera was transferred unchanged, the strut tops would be around 80mm proud of the guards themselves. Thus, the redesign has shortened the front components substantially – as well as tilting them further inboard.

There are carryovers, however. The three-chamber air spring design, rear wheel steering, PDCC body control system and some wishbones are all heavily derived from the larger Porsche sedan.

So too, the ceramic discs and multi-piston brake callipers used on the highest performance Taycan variants. That said, in all but high-performance use, most of the Taycan’s braking requirements are supplied by the regenerative systems.

In typical fashion, the company has taken a fresh look at regenerative braking. In normal use instead of recuperation being initiated by lifting off the accelerator, it is affected by the brake pedal.

In other words, when you lift off, you coast like a normal car. There is, however, an auto-recoup mode which uses camera and radar data to maximise the car’s efficiency and recuperate power when traffic is detected.

Almost 0.4g of stopping power can be provided by the regenerative braking. Porsche says at around 270kW, the system is the most powerful road-going regen system. Most, it claims, harvest at peaks of around 50kW.

In an effort to further maximise efficiency, Porsche has delivered aero improvements to some of its classic wheel designs for the Taycan.

Look more closely at the traditional Spyder style wheel on this vehicle and you'll note that many of what would have been clear spaces have actually been filled in.

There will no doubt be a significant option program to add choice to the 20 and 21-inch wheels the Taycans will be presented on at launch.

And yes, that is a Mission E replica wheel you can see in some of the images.

As you’d expect, the Taycan is the most connected Porsche ever. It also boasts the biggest screens and the first time the main instrument panel has been delivered without the trademark binnacle-style crown and cover.

To quote interior design team member Christopher Gutierrez-Dios, it’s an “iconic interior for a new era”. It also manages to side-step the ‘hey honey I installed a computer screen in your car’ look of some recent EV launches.

In front of the driver is a new curved, ‘frameless’ all-digital 16.8-inch instrument panel and a new steering wheel design.

The dash set-up can be easily customised, says Porsche, and can deliver large areas of information that are easily and quickly accessed. Swap the tacho for the map or, at night, switch to a reduced mode with just speedo and not much else. There are myriad combinations offered.

In the upper centre, there’s a 10.9-inch display that offers the normal mix of share services, smartphone mirroring and extra apps as required. There’s a notification centre for services such as over-the-air updates and a global search function.

Voice control is a given: “Hey Porsche” is the new Hey Siri and enables natural language functionality, it’s claimed.

Almost all of these functions can also be accessed by an optional, matching 10.9-inch screen located in front of the passenger. Porsche suggests this turns them from freeloader to co-pilot. It’ll be expensive and, for me, it’s a gimmick this car doesn’t need.

Don’t start me on the automated HVAC vents, either. There are some things that should just have knobs.

Lower in the centre an 8.4-inch screen with haptic feedback takes care of a host of other functions.

Two notable absentees from the Porsche Taycan Turbo S at launch though: a head-up display and wireless Apple CarPlay.

What isn’t absent is an essential ‘Porscheness’ to the Taycan’s cabin. There’s a horizontal orientation to the layout that sits well with the new 992-generation 911 and it references aspects from both the current Panamera line-up and the iconic hybrid 918 Spyder.

Step changes will include multi-tonal interiors, a wider selection of surface materials and a number of seat design choices.

The materials that Porsche will offer in Taycan may endear the brand to new buyers also. There will be a vegan interior materials option, for instance.

Based on initial figures, the Turbo S has a WLTP range of up to 412km and, using 270kW DC fast-charging, can be recharged from five to 80 per cent as quickly as 22.5 minutes. The Turbo’s WLTP range is a touch more generous at 450km.

All Taycans features dual charging ports, with the DC fast-charging port located on the front wing on the passenger side and the low-power charging port easily accessible on the driver’s side. The logic is that layout better suits roadside and home-base charging. We’d tend to agree.

Porsche says it expects 70 to 80 per cent of Taycan owners to charge overnight at home using an easily-installed domestic wall box. Using the onboard 11kW charger, a full charge should be delivered in around nine hours.

A fast-charger top-up will yield 100km in 5.5 minutes.

It’s a fact of life that fast-charging is not a battery’s best friend. Even with the rapid charging abilities of the Taycan, Porsche will warrant its battery for 70 per cent capacity at eight years or 160,000km.

Although 800V charging is not available in many locations across the globe yet, charging infrastructure providers have committed to offering it – including Chargefox in Australia.

The Taycan can of course be charged on 400V DC installations, however, charge times will be longer. Just how much longer will depend on the HV booster installed standard on the Taycan.

It’s unclear at this stage whether Australian cars will allow 50kW or 150kW charging on 400V systems.

The Taycan Turbo S deep dive was conducted at an ADAC (Germany's equivalent of the RACV or NRMA) driver training and evaluation centre outside of Dusseldorf. It wasn’t a racetrack, but with its range of corners, grades and surfaces (wet, dry, high grip, low grip, no grip), it was better for it.

Our Porsche factory ‘taxi’ driver was fresh from development work on the 992-series Porsche 911 Turbo S at the giant high-speed Nardo ‘loop’ in Italy. No stranger to power and torque then, yet even he said it took him two days to adjust to the sheer grunt of the Taycan Turbo S

A further clue to its monstrous capabilities is that I’m typing these notes with a tweaked neck – courtesy of the full-throttle 2.8sec 0-100km/h run the Taycan delivered. Three up!

The ride-along in the Taycan was short – just two laps of a composite course at the ADAC testing facility. But it was enough to deliver a jaw-drop premiere to what is a car that will silence many a doubting Thomas.

In Sport Plus mode, with all the aids turned off, our wheelman is able to easily flick the car into a lurid slide on the dampened tarmac. That’s no surprise.

What comes next was, however…

He repeats the flick into opposite lock on baked blacktop (it was over 40 degrees C) and holds the full power slide from the super grippy hot surface to fully wet, slick section.

Then, in the time it took me to pucker and get ready for the spin that was inevitable to follow, he’d wound on more lock and buried the throttle. Instead of the spin, the Taycan barely changed its attitude or angle and simply powered up the hill, accelerating as if the water and angle of attack wasn’t there.

Above all, this is a demonstration of the rapidity the electric powertrain can manage and distribute torque. As noted above, the Porsche claims all-wheel drive distribution is five times faster than the very best ICE powertrains can deliver.

On a wet, low-Mu surface that approximates icy road conditions with the driver assistance systems back in operation, we were able to accelerate full throttle, with hardly a movement of the steering wheel. Such is the capability of the traction and torque vectoring systems. Indeed, with Taycan, Porsche is at the start of delivering a whole new generation of vehicle dynamics.

The synthesised sound is purposeful but definitely electric. It gets louder as the speed and effort rises but it’s not intrusive. Switch it off and the most noticeable noise is the tyres protesting. The powertrain is very quiet.

Also very refined is the operation of the two-speed gearbox. You can hear the low- to high-gear change but barely feel it during a full-throttle acceleration run. The same can be said for the downchange, which the Taycan delivers if the throttle is floored at low speed in Sport or Sport Plus mode.

Balance is a word that keeps coming to mind when describing how the Porsche Taycan Turbo S tackled the test layout.

It seemed supremely balanced when drifted around the ‘show off’ corners, but equally so when it was pushed through a long fast left-hand corner that included a sharply crested rise. Again, there was barely a wriggle, even with all of the aids off.

All too soon, the very limited ‘taxi’ ride was over.

And, frankly, I’m still struggling to process the impressions with any form of impartiality.

That any five-seat super-sedan has the right to perform like this is debatable – and this is an EV that should do 400km-plus between charges.

In a word, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S is electrifying!