Porsche Taycan GTS 2022 Review

The 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS sedan made its world debut at the 2021 Los Angeles motor show – the same place the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo wagon was revealed and subsequently ruled out for Australia – and now the sportiest version of Porsche’s first electric vehicle has been launched in Australia.

Priced at $241,900 plus on-road costs, the GTS is positioned in the middle of the five-variant Taycan sedan range in terms of both performance and price – above the entry-level RWD ($159,700) and 4S ($198,800) but below the Turbo ($281,900) and Turbo S flagship ($352,600).

Available Down Under in a single sedan spec (there’s no Cross Turismo GTS), the GTS comes with a two-motor all-wheel drive powertrain like all Taycans bar the base variant, but adds a host of tasty extras befitting the Gran Turismo Sport badge seen on a variety of sporty Porsche models since the 904 GTS of 1963 – and now all of the German performance brand’s model lines.

As is Porsche tradition, these include darkened exterior details like a high-gloss black rear diffuser (louvred), side skirts (SportDesign) and side window trims, plus 20-inch Taycan Turbo S Aero Design wheels in satin Black, matt-black GTS tailgate badging and a black Porsche logo integrated into the rear light strip.

While a chunkier SportDesign front bumper and tinted LED matrix main headlights with Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus (PDLS Plus) add aggression up front, the sports theme continues inside with a faux-suede Race-Tex interior package including the seats and heated GT multi-function sports steering wheel, plus GTS logos on the front and rear head restraints, brushed black aluminium door sill guards and black cabin highlights throughout.

The Sport Chrono Package and its extra functions is standard in the GTS (it’s a $2360 option in all other Taycans but the Turbo S), as is adaptive air suspension ($4540 extra in the base RWD), Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus ($3120 in RWD and 4S) and metallic paint – a $2300 extra on the base variant, and there are 11 to choose from here, plus two solid colours.

Also standard is a four-door body that’s almost entirely aluminium, auto-deploying door handles, an active rear spoiler and front air intakes, full LED interior lighting, two single rear seats and 18-way power-adjustable and heated Adaptive Sports Seats up front (14-way Comfort Seats are a no-cost option) with power-adjustable steering column.

However, like all Porsches, the Taycan GTS can be had with a long list of expensive Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur options, plus rear axle steering ($4300 for all but Turbo S), Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control Sport ($6870 for 4S and GTS, standard in Turbo S), ambient lighting ($890) and heated rear seats ($910), among a host of others.

The 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS comes with all of Porsche’s active and passive safety systems including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane keeping, blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assist, crossroad assist, rear cross traffic alert and exit warning, surround view and front/rear parking sensors.

Naturally, there’s a full complement of front, side, curtain and knee airbags, plus an active bonnet, seat belt reminders, outboard rear ISOFIX child seat anchors and tyre pressure monitoring – but tyre sealant and a compressor instead of a spare wheel.

On the tech front there’s a huge 16.8-inch curved digital instrument cluster with five customisable displays, Porsche’s latest 10.9-inch full-HD infotainment touch-screen with gesture control, wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity (no Android) and Porsche Communication Management online navigation, sat-nav, voice control, Bluetooth phone/audio, digital radio, four USB-C ports and 14-speaker Bose surround sound.

Cabin amenity is aided by twin cup holders front and rear, oddments storage in the doors and centre console, and 12V outlets up front and in the boot, which is accessed by a powered tailgate.

Braking is via massive 390mm front rotors gripped by six-piston red callipers (358mm discs with four-pot clamps at the rear) and the GTS runs big staggered-width 9.0/11.0-inch front/rear rims with grippy 245/45 front and 285/40 ZR20 rear tyres.

Also upgraded for the GTS are the three-chamber air springs, which work with forged aluminium suspension components at both ends – double wishbones up front, multi-link at rear – as well as the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) electronic dampers and, if specified, the optional rear-axle steering system.

Of course, also standard is a charging dock and all of the cables required to charge the Taycan’s battery via a domestic power outlet or public charging stations up to a 150kW DC fast-charger – via ports ahead of the front doors on both sides of the car – plus a three-year subscription to Chargefox’s ultra-rapid 350kW charging network.

Service intervals are a generous two years or 30,000km but, like all Porsches in Australia, the GTS is covered by a lacklustre three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and, in this case, an eight-year/160,000km battery warranty. Servicing costs differ from state to state.

What you don’t have to pay extra for with the 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS is performance, which comes with the same big 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus lithium-ion battery pack (as per both Turbo variants and all Cross Turismos) that’s mounted low in the car and powers an electric motor on each axle to produce 380kW of combined peak power – and up to 440kW in temporary overboost mode – and no less than 850Nm of torque.

Once again, that positions the GTS in the middle of a five-car Taycan range that at base RWD level delivers 240kW/345Nm (and up to 350kW/357Nm in boost mode with the big battery option), rising to 320kW/640Nm (420Nm/650Nm boost) in the 4S, 460kW and the same 850Nm in the Turbo (500kW boost) and 460kW alongside a mammoth 1050Nm for the Turbo S (560kW in overboost mode).

The result is claimed 0-100km/h acceleration in a rapid 3.7 seconds (versus 5.4sec for the RWD, 4.0sec for 4S, 3.2sec for Turbo and just 2.8sec for Turbo S), as well as 0-200km/h in just 12sec, 0-400m in 11.8sec and a top speed of 250km/h – the same as the 4S and 10km/h slower than Turbo models.

However, the GTS has the longest range of any Taycan at 485km (RWD 434km, 4S 414km, Turbo 420km, Turbo S 405km), and the lowest energy consumption at 259Wh/km.

As with the Performance Battery Plus in the both Turbo models, Porsche says the GTS battery takes nine hours to charge from 0-100 per cent via an 11kW AC charger, 93 minutes to charge from 5-80 per cent via a 50kW DC fast-charger and just 22.5 minutes to charge from 5-80 per cent using an ultra-fast DC charger that takes maximum advantage of the Taycan’s 800V electrical architecture.

Like all Taycans bar the entry variant, the GTS is all-wheel drive and employs a two-speed automatic transmission at the rear (single-speed up front).

The Australian media launch for the 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS was held alongside the new 911 GTS (see our first local review next week), which we drove first – on both road and track – so we expected the electric sedan to be quite a handful in comparison.

And there’s no getting away from the sheer weight of the GTS-spec Taycan – and EVs in general, relatively speaking – which weighs in at a Ford Ranger-like 2295kg unladen and also has the same weight distribution as the top-shelf Taycan Turbo S, at 49/51 per cent front/rear.

But there’s also no doubt this is the sharpest Taycan to date and, even around the short, tight but fast 2.1km Norwell circuit on the Gold Coast, it never felt like a handful – even under heavy braking from over 180km/h on the back straight into the tight right-hander.

At one point my ambitions exceeded my abilities and the Taycan’s brake went long as I braked too hard and too late, but the five-metre-long sedan easily made up for my mistake, gathering itself up and turning in after the rear-end screeched sideways enough to make a 911 spin.

Likewise, the GTS gets its power to the ground much earlier than expected out of corners, allowing full-throttle applications far earlier than you’d dare in most rear-drive sports cars.

And while there’s no hiding its extra weight in long, hard bends, the GTS turns in more crisply and responsively than any other Taycan, sits flat even during hard cornering over bumps and delivers seat-squashing thrust from almost any speed under a wide open ‘throttle’.

From a standing start, the GTS feels every bit as quick as its 3.7sec 0-100km/h claim suggests, launching off the line urgently and efficiently but without the neck-stretching violence of a 911 Turbo S, although the Taycan Turbo S remains almost a second quicker to the national highway limit.

Indeed, it’s on the road where the GTS Taycan’s huge reserves of electric torque are most evident and satisfying, and where this variant’s low, supportive sports seats and GTS-trademark imitation suede steering wheel and interior appointments make it feel a cut above lesser Taycans.

It’s also where the difference between the Taycan’s five drive modes (Range, Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and Individual) is best appreciated, and where the energy recuperation system does its best work, its two e-motors becoming power generators whenever you brake or decelerate, recovering up to 275kW of battery power as the car coasts in near-silence.

When a brand like Porsche enters the EV space you expect its first product to be fast, and every Taycan we’ve driven so far delivers on that promise.

But the 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS takes that formula another step further, adding a big dose of agility and driver enjoyment to make this the most sporting EV we’ve yet seen from Porsche.

At least until the Polestar 5 and Tesla Model S Plaid arrive – whenever that may be – the GTS is the most sporting electric sedan on the market, and should remain so alongside the upcoming Mercedes-AMG EQE 53.

There’s no doubt the Turbo S remains the king of the Taycan range in terms of straight-line performance, but the GTS brings a new dynamic dimension to Porsche’s award-winning electric sedan – for a lot less money.

That’s why the GTS is not only the ‘goldilocks’ variant of the Taycan range, but the most Porsche-like electric car we’re yet to drive.

How much does the 2022 Porsche Taycan GTS cost?
Price: $241,900 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Output: 380kW/850Nm (440kW overboost)
Transmission: Two-speed planetary gear set (rear axle), single-speed reduction gear (front axle)
Battery: 93.4kWh lithium-ion
Range: 485km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 25.9Wh/km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP 2019)