Published
on 14
Apr 2020
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All rights reserved.
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A
Turbo without turbocharging, but loads of fun nonetheless.
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Funny, these days a 911
Carrera can have turbos, while Taycan Turbo and Turbo S have none. In
fact, not even an engine. This is the first ever Porsche without an
engine. It is also the most controversial Porsche since 2002, when it
built its first SUV, Cayenne. More worrying, the Taycan is designed
to be a 4-seat sports car rather than something more practical and
compromised like Cayenne or Panamera. Without the sound, the smell and
the character of a Porsche engine, how can it be recognized as a true
Porsche? That’s how we thought when the Mission E concept debuted in
2015 Frankfurt motor show. 4 years later, the production car finally
goes on sale, and it wipes out most of our doubts.
I am glad that the Taycan is not designed to be a smaller Panamera, but
closer to a sports car. Think the 4-seater version of 911, albeit in
electric form. Even without driving the car, this is evident from its
exterior design. Isn’t this waterdrop shape familiar? Ditto the curvy
flanks, broad shoulders and the shape of the side windows. It could
have been even closer to the 911 if it adopted round headlamps, but a
vastly different design is chosen to give it a distinctive character.
While the Panamera looks heavy and bulky, the Taycan looks
sportscar-light, thanks to a very low and flowing waist line. Its
roof is rather low, too, 45mm lower than Panamera. However, at nearly 5
meters long and 2 meters wide, this is actually a large car. Heavier
than the Panamera, too, as it can tip the scale at more than 2300kg.
Yes, that’s Bentley-heavy, blame to the 630kg worth of battery. But the
streamline shape does return an outstanding drag coefficient. At 0.22,
the Taycan Turbo is pretty much unbeatable by any production cars.
Turbo S is slightly less remarkable at 0.25, due to wider tires and
more cooling.
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It
is Bentley-heavy, blame to the 630kg worth of battery.
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The
Taycan debuts with an all-new platform called J1, which will be shared
with the Cross Turismo version of the car (think a high-riding
hatchback) and Audi e-Tron GT. Although Porsche gained experience of
electrification in 918 Spyder, doing a full electric car is still a big
challenge. Frankly, the Taycan has nothing innovative. Tesla Model S
has already set the formula 8 years ago, and you might say that car is
hardly slower than the latest Porsche – both cars do 0-60 in about 2
and a half seconds and 0-100 just over 6 seconds. The point is, Porsche
needs to make the Taycan drives like a Porsche, not just shine in a
straight line but also maneuvers, stops and feels like a Porsche. That
is the real challenge, as a 2300kg machine has no rights to drive like
a 911. That’s why the program took 4 years from concept car to
production. Porsche even goes as far as designing and building its own
electric motors, inverter and gearbox for the electric powertrain, not
outsourcing technologies from suppliers like Rimac.
The J1 platform follows Tesla to have its battery mounted in the
floorpan to achieve the lowest possible center of gravity, which is
lower than that of the 911, unsurprisingly. However, the drawback of
this arrangement is a slightly elevated cabin, which might not bother a
sedan like Tesla, but is deemed to be unacceptable to a Porsche.
Porsche wants people feel like driving a sports car, so a low mounting
point for seats is a must. To realize the Taycan’s low and swoopy roof
line, the rear seats shall be mounted low, too. If the rear seats are
mounted low, rear passengers will sit with bent knees and feel very
uncomfortable. Therefore, Porsche carves out part of the skateboard
floor to provide foot room to the rear passengers. To compensate,
another stack of battery is added under the rear seat cushion, keeping
the battery capacity to a Tesla-rivalling 93.4kWh.
Like other Porsche sports cars, the Taycan’s body is constructed as a
steel and aluminum hybrid monocoque. The main structure is mostly
high-strength steel, while front and rear subframes, crash structures,
suspension towers, doors and most of the body skins are aluminum in the
form of stamping, casting or extrusion. The battery is protected by
aluminum casing. Torsional rigidity is unspecified, but you won’t doubt
Porsche. Front-to-rear weight distribution is a perfect 49:51, thanks
to having an electric motor at each axle.
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J1
platform has rear footwell carved out but still accommodates 93.4kWh
battery.
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Each motor comes with its own inverter, but the rear motor
is about twice as powerful as the front motor. These permanent magnet
motors are more energy efficient than the induction motor of Tesla
Model S, which needs to energize stator windings to generate magnetic
field. The downside is the magnets use more rare earth to make, and the
mining of rare earth is usually environmental-unfriendly, but this is
the current trend of EV development. The inhouse-built motors employ
“hairpin winding” technology, which can pack more windings in a given
space thus more power-dense. The front motor is integral with an open
differential and a fixed ratio transmission. The rear axle motor is
linked to an electronic LSD like most other Porsches to provide torque
vectoring (i.e. PTV Plus). Unusual for an EV, the rear motor works with
a 2-speed gearbox, whose first gear is optimized for full-power launch
from a standstill, while second gear takes care of most driving. This
ensures the Taycan to achieve supercar acceleration without
compromising energy efficiency.
There are 3 Taycan models to choose from: 4S, Turbo and Turbo S. All
have 2-motor setup, but performance and range differ them. Both the
Turbo and Turbo S produce a combined output of 625hp, but a bigger
inverter in the Turbo S allows an overboost to 761hp and 774 lbft of
torque, while the overboost of Turbo manages 680hp and 627 lbft. Mind
you, the overboost lasts only 2.5 seconds, then reverts to 625hp for
another 10 seconds, but these short periods are sufficient to take the
Taycans from rest to 60mph and 124mph, respectively. More specific, the
Turbo S is good for 0-60 in 2.6 seconds, 0-100 in 6.3 seconds and
0-124mph in 9.8 seconds, which is supercar performance. The lesser
Turbo is marginally slower, but still easily quicker than any other
production 4-doors in the world, including the mighty Mercedes-AMG GT63
S! Moreover, with a top speed regulated at 162mph, you won't find the
usual degradation of performance at higher speeds.
However, what separates the Taycan from Tesla is that it is designed to
sustain high performance. While Tesla drivers might feel proud to do a
sprint of 0-60 in 2.4 seconds, Taycan drivers can do it repeatedly, no
need to wait for its battery to cool down. Car and Driver tested the
Taycan Turbo S for full-bore ¼-mile acceleration 15 times in
succession and found it kept its performance almost unchanged. Under
the same conditions, the Tesla Model S Performance has its performance
drops massively from the 3rd run. By the 6th run, it took 7 seconds to
go from 0-60. Next time, if you want to challenge Tesla with your Golf
GTI, ask your opponent to run 6 times, haha.
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Turbo
S is good for 0-60 in 2.6 seconds and 0-100 in 6.3 seconds, which is
supercar performance.
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The
entry-level Taycan 4S has a less powerful rear motor for a combined
output of 435hp. It is good for 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, about equal to a
Tesla Model S long range (3.7 seconds) once you consider the
conservative approach of Porsche’s claims. However, it employs a
smaller, 79.2kWh battery to keep cost down. This drops its WLTP driving
range from 450km of the Turbo and 412km of the Turbo S to a still
pretty practical 407km. You may opt for the larger battery at extra
cost, but still, Tesla offers significantly more range.
On the plus side, the Taycan has quicker charging if you can find a
suitable charging facility. This is because it employs an 800V and
270kW charging system. 80 percent charge can be done in merely 22.5
minutes, much quicker than that achievable by Tesla’s 480V and 150kW
system. Moreover, the higher voltage allows a lower charging current,
thus the charging cables can be made narrower, saving considerable
weight. Having said that, Tesla’s charging stations are far more
popular. It may take many years for the infrastructure to build up.
Starting at £83,000, the 4S is definitely the most tempting
choice, as it is only £2,000 more than the Tesla Model S long
range. The Turbo and Turbo S cost £116,000 and £139,000,
respectively, significantly more than the range-topping Tesla
(£96,000). It goes without saying Porsche is a prestige brand.
The suspensions of Taycan are adapted from Panamera, but not exactly
the same parts. They consist of aluminum double-wishbones up front and
aluminum multi-link setup at the rear, supported with 3-chamber
height-adjustable air springs, PASM adaptive dampers and optional PDCC
active anti-roll bars. The Turbo S gets 4-wheel steering and ceramic
brakes as standard. It adopts also larger, 21-inch wheels and wider
tires. Frankly, ceramic brakes are not necessary, as Porsche says 90
percent of braking is done by regenerative braking in normal driving.
You do need a lot of mechanical braking when driving on a track, but
the tungsten carbide-coating steel brakes on the Turbo seems to work
just as fine, and it provides a more consistent response at cold.
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Too
many screens and too few buttons, but build quality is premium.
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Expectedly,
the car has 2 luggage compartments – the front offers 81 liters while
the rear is quite modest at 366 liters. Inside the cabin, its dashboard
design mirrors that of the classic air-cooled 911s, although the
instrument reading is now realized by a 16.8-inch TFT screen. The
latter looks quite classy, as it is curved and free of cowl. The center
console has a 10.9-inch touchscreen for infotainment, while the sloping
transmission tunnel features another 8.4-inch touchscreen for climate
control and lets you input things more easily. In addition to the
optional 10.9-inch touchscreen at the glovebox area for the passenger
to play, virtually the entire dashboard is occupied by screens. Build
quality is high, just as you would expect for a Porsche. On the
downside, there are no physical buttons at all, not even air-con. All
controls are done at the touchscreens, which is unnecessarily
complicated.
Driving position is excellent. You sit lower than other saloons but a
tad higher than in a 911. Forward visibility is great, while rearward
is not so. The small steering wheel feels as intimate in hands as in
Porsche sports cars. The seat is comfortable yet supportive. The
individual rear seats accommodate a pair of passengers up to 6ft.
Legroom is good, but headroom is a little compromised by the sloping
roof line. However, order the panoramic roof will free up a couple of
inches, while lightening the ambience of the cabin.
The Taycan is built at the Zuffenhausen hometown with an installed
capacity of 20,000 units annually (but could be doubled by adding
shifts), not in other Volkswagen facilities or Magna Steyr, so it is a
true Porsche.
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Rear
seats fit adults up to 6ft tall, but panoramic roof could free up a
couple of inches.
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On the Road
Just as any EVs, the Taycan starts and cruises at low speed in near
silence. On highway, the slippery body generates little wind noise, but
road noise is more intrusive in the Turbo S with wider tires. Engage
Sport or Sport+ mode and launch the car in full power, the electric
motor emits a high-pitch whine that is actually quite exciting to ears.
Acceleration is staggering, so explosive, pressing your head hard on
the headrest. Then the 2-speed transmission shifts at around 45mph,
interrupting the power flow momentarily, then sending a kick to your
body and continue its relentless acceleration to well over 3-figures
speed. As a result, what intended to enhance efficiency turns out to
enhance the drama, making the Taycan feel more exciting than the
equally fast Tesla in acceleration. No, it is still not quite as
exciting as driving an AMG GT63 S, because it lacks an angry exhaust
roar. And without controlling gearshift, you feel less engaging.
Although the Taycan can regenerate 360hp from braking, it does not
offer one-pedal driving mode, as no keen drivers like to drive the car
in this way. The braking power is excellent. Despite carrying 250 extra
kilograms compared with AMG GT63 S, Car and Driver found the Turbo S
stops from 70mph in the same 155 ft with ceramic brakes. Brake pedal
feel is largely good, but you can sense different responses between
regenerative braking and mechanical braking, which is not good enough
for a Porsche – the 918 Spyder seemed to feel more natural, but then
again it uses far lighter regenerative braking than the Taycan. The
steel brakes of Turbo might stops less quickly, but it provides a
meatier feel.
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As
far as a battery performance car is concerned, it is right now the
benchmark.
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Unlike
Tesla, the Taycan corners as good as you can ask from a performance
saloon. Its steering turns with the same precision, linearity and
weighting as that of the 911, if not as much detailed feedback due to
the mass over and the torque passing through the front axle. With the
help of 4-wheel steering, it turns in sharply, too. Grip and traction
are phenomenal. Body control is terrific, displaying less roll in
corner than the Panamera. The ride is also tauter than the latter, if
slightly less comfy as a result. It all feels like a proper Porsche,
certainly much lighter than its 2300kg mass suggested. In fact, it
feels lighter and better balanced than the Panamera.
That is strange, as the Panamera Turbo is quicker to lap Nurburgring,
taking 7:38 compared with 7:42 of the Taycan Turbo S. In fact, there
are a few other performance 4-seaters bettering the Taycan, too, such
as BMW M5 Competition (7:36), Alfa Giulia QF (7:32) and the current
class-leader, AMG GT63 S (7:25). Driving flat out on a circuit, you do
feel the extra mass a little, especially in sudden transition. Car and
Driver’s test data also reveals a lateral acceleration slightly less
remarkable than the AMG GT63 S (0.99g vs 1.03g, although not on the
same day). The extra mass might have subtle effects to lap time.
Moreover, Nurburgring is a very long circuit, putting the sustainable
output of its battery power in question. On the road, however, the
Taycan feels absolutely quick.
The Taycan has a lot to like and admire. As far as a battery
performance car is concerned, it is right now the benchmark. The
drawback remains to be high prices, limited range and lacking the sound
and driver engagement of conventional performance cars. Still, it is a
respectable first step towards electrification. It proves that even
without an engine, an EV could be exciting to drive. Just don’t call it
Turbo please.
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