Porsche Taycan 2021 Review

The 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S is a monstrously powerful four-door sedan, a silent assassin that blitzes the 0-100km/h sprint in 2.48 seconds.

Elegantly sophisticated yet utterly brutal at the same time, the only sounds delivered to the driver from a standing-start are squealing tyres and a ‘Doppler-effect’ low-frequency electric hum.

To attain these sub-2.5-second cheek-rippling speeds (which we repeated a couple of dozen times with no performance loss) you’ll have to fork out a hefty $338,500 plus on-road costs. However, the Taycan range starts at $190,400 plus ORCs, and you can read all about the prices here.

The 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S is fitted as standard with auto-deploying door handles coupled with a keyless entry and motor start system, and once you sit down and take the helm, a highly customisable 16.8-inch curved digital instrument display makes an immediate and lasting impression.

It’s gargantuan. The big screen creates a real Star Trek vibe in the cabin, as do four other touch-screens.

They consist of a central infotainment screen, a climate/ancillary control screen below it and another touch-screen on the other side of the dashboard. Riding ‘shotgun’ in this machine has more benefits than most; the interactive display is solely for the use of the front passenger.

And of course there’s a climate-control touch-screen for rear seat passengers.

Despite the lack of physical buttons, the blanket touch-screen set-up in the cockpit works well, although I could do without the dinky horizontally-mounted gear shifter. But I get it. It’s a car from the future, albeit one that fails to provide wireless phone charging…

Instead, you get four USB-C ports and the Porsche Taycan Turbo S comes with very good front seats. The big, luxurious 18-way power-adjustable heated and cooled adaptive sports seats come in black, blue, beige or red trim. I’d choose blue. It’s a bit different.

Ambient interior LED lights, quad-zone digital climate control with an active fine dust filter (but not Tesla HEPA filter levels), a 14-speaker Bose stereo, thermally insulated and tinted glass plus lots of Turbo S logos are also part of the standard features list.

It feels every bit a luxury car, and given its lower price, similar performance and improved practicality versus a Porsche 911, it may pique the interest of buyers who’ve never considered a Porsche sports car before.

Automatically adjusting dynamic LED matrix headlights are also part of the package, as is rear axle steering and a heated GT sports steering wheel with drive mode selector dial.

Luggage provisions are good, and unlike the Porsche 911 the motor that’s mounted at the rear is located under the floor, so you get a sizeable 447-litre boot. There’s also enough room for a small bag under the fronnet, or front bonnet.

At almost five metres long (4963mm), the Taycan is a big unit with plenty of space for four adults.

Porsche backs its first-ever EV with a three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and the battery is covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty. Service intervals are every 24 months or 30,000km, whichever occurs first.

It only takes one glance at the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S to understand it’s a technological tour de force, and while its 800-volt electrical architecture is chief among its technical highlights, things like adaptive air suspension and rear axle steering provide real-world driving benefits via a smooth ride quality and an improved turning circle.

Standard driving tech includes lane keeping assist with lane change assist, adaptive cruise control, surround view parking cameras and autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

There’s some pretty impressive battery tech going on between the front and rear axle of Porsche’s first-ever EV, which is offered with a single-deck lithium-ion set-up on the entry-level Taycan 4S (79.2kWh) or a dual-deck (93.4kWh) with the Turbo-badged models.

The bigger battery provides up to 420km of range in the Taycan Turbo and 405km in the ‘thirstier’ Turbo S. The 4S will go for 365km. All claimed figures are based on the WLTP testing cycle.

For all the nitty-gritty on battery voltages and charging capabilities, check out our deep dive into Porsche Taycan’s technical features. But in terms of charging it’ll take around four hours on a 22kW (AC) wall charger and about around 20 minutes on a high-output 350kW fast-charger (at 270kW).

If a household power point is all you have access to, you’ll need to leave the Taycan charging for a whopping 39 hours.

While the Tesla Model S can achieve similar performance to the entry-level $190,400 Porsche Taycan 4S for around $30,000 less, it’s unlikely it will match the repeatability of the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S, for which customers can seemingly smash out standing-start acceleration runs time and again.

It’s the driver who’s likely to give out first, which is what happened to me after about six take-offs. It’s so fast off the line, the hit in your chest so intense, that the body starts protesting after a while. I actually felt queasy after pumping out several sprints in quick succession.

The Taycan Turbo S is terrifyingly potent. If the Tesla Model S Plaid+ can really run 0-100km/h in less than 2.1 seconds as claimed, passengers will be in for a stomach-churning ride.

Ever the under-estimator, Porsche officially claims the Taycan Turbo S accelerates from 0-100km/h in 2.8 seconds, thanks to its twin permanent magnet synchronous motors that generate 560kW of power and 1050Nm of torque. The motors have a maximum speed of 16,000rpm and were developed in-house at Porsche’s R&D centre in Weissach.

I managed a 2.54sec run using independent timing equipment and a colleague recorded a 2.48 to claim bragging rights that day. Fast? Viciously so.

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S also accelerates beyond legal speeds with incredible force, taking just 9.6sec to blitz the 0-200km/h sprint. That’s faster to the double tonne than the Porsche 911 Turbo (9.7sec) we track-tested on the same day.

The quarter mile takes 10.7 seconds.

All these numbers are tremendously impressive and particularly when you consider the Taycan weighs 2.3 tonnes. By comparison, the new 992-series Porsche 911 Turbo tips the scales at just 1.6t.

It felt almost as fast around The Bend circuit as the 911 Turbo (for my driving skillset) with incredible corner exit acceleration. The way it hammers forward under full throttle out of turns, using torque vectoring and rear axle steering to compelling effect, is hugely satisfying.

There’s a two-speed transmission on the rear axle and single speed trannie on the front. And you really feel the ratio shift, which is a nice nod to its low-tech combustion-engined siblings.

Outside the car, big 21-inch ‘Mission E’ concept car-inspired alloy wheels are standard, as are truly massive 420mm front and 410mm rear ceramic composite disc brakes with super-sized 10-piston front callipers and four-piston rear callipers.

The extra-large anchors deliver astonishing stopping power, hauling up the heavy EV with compelling conviction but lacking the brake pedal feel of the 911.

There’s so many chassis gadgets here, most of which help (and were probably designed) to mask its weight, and they all do a very impressive job. Especially the torque-vectoring AWD system.

According to Porsche’s technical literature, “the Taycan’s all-wheel drive provides full variable torque distribution between the front and rear wheels as well as side-to-side, when required”.

There’s also an electronically controlled limited-slip differential at the rear axle that works with the Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus system.

The only thing it’s missing is a special mode that recharges the battery while power-sliding. Just like Mercedes-AMG’s new ‘green-drift’ system.

Saving the environment one drift at a time? Except for the rubber particles billowing everywhere…

The question of whether the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S can handle racetrack punishment is easily answered. Yes. It can.

And it does so with vim and vigour, outstanding pace and, most importantly, repeatability.

Sure, the reality is that most Taycan owners will never take their EVs onto a racetrack. But it’s reassuring to know that it’s very, very capable.

The first thing that struck me after a couple of laps in the Taycan Turbo S was how light on its feet it feels, especially given the car’s 2.3-tonne weight. Indeed, the way it accelerates, brakes and grips up through corners is stultifying.

Because the battery pack is positioned along the base of the car, between the axles, it has the lowest centre of gravity of any Porsche road car. And you can feel it.

Combined with its advanced AWD set-up, torque vectoring and rear axle steering, it pivots into corners with a deft lightness that’s a little disarming at first.

There is a hint of Porsche DNA in the way it steers, which is comforting, but driving it back-to-back with the Porsche 911 Turbo reveals a lack of engagement in some ways. It’s still hugely entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but it feels a bit clinical and almost too easy to lap rapidly.

You could virtually drive it at nine-tenths on the racetrack with just one hand on the wheel, while dictating a text message to a friend.

For me, the lack of acoustic feedback, a rorty exhaust note, made the experience a little flat. There’s a Jetson’s-like whirr that builds with acceleration but I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to it.

Still, the Taycan is very capable and hit its 260km/h speed limiter with ease on the main straight.

And how many laps did it clock up on a charge? With all the journalists at the national media launch going at it hammer and tong between 9:00am and 3:00pm, it’s hard to say. But after around 20 straight-line launches, then 30-ish laps at full noise (so to speak) it still had around 20 per cent charge.

Even more telling is that the petrol-powered 911 Turbo cars needed to be refuelled before the Taycan was recharged.

The Porsche Taycan is technically not Porsche’s first EV. The 1898 Lohner-Porsche sort of takes that honour. But even if it’s not Porsche’s first EV, it’s definitely Zuffenhausen’s first racetrack-ready EV.

With an incredible performance threshold the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S is highly accomplished but it will entertain rather than truly engage drivers who regularly seek out track time.

Nevertheless, the turbo-less Turbo S proved exceptionally competent and resilient on the racetrack.

It’s a phenomenally intriguing performance car on so many levels, and if this is Porsche’s first-ever EV, its ensuing zero-emissions sports cars are sure to raise the bar even further.

But a big part of me hopes the 911 never goes completely electric.

How much does the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S cost?
Price: $338,500 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Two permanent magnet synchronous motors
Output: 560kW/1050Nm
Transmission: Two-speed auto planetary gear set (rear axle), single-speed reduction gear (front axle)
Battery: 93.4kWh lithium-ion
Range: 405km (ADR)
Energy consumption: 28.5kWh/100km (ADR)
Safety rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP 2019)