Porsche engineers are proud people. They make some of the best cars in the world, and when anyone else challenges them, there will be a response. So when Tesla and Lucid started chasing the Taycan’s performance crown, Porsche had to respond. The result is a huge step forward over the original model.
The updated electric sedan—called J1 II internally—promises big improvements in range and the fastest charging speeds of any EV on the market. (EPA figures for the new Taycan aren’t out yet, but Porsche claims WLTP range improvements of 35 percent.) Thanks to new cell chemistry, both the standard and larger “Performance Battery Plus” are more energy dense than before—83.6 kWh net for the base pack, 93.6 kWh for the bigger one—but other tweaks mean both are slightly lighter. Charging speed is also up, with the Taycan capable of up to 320 kW at the right station.
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The Taycan gets a power bump to complement its larger batteries. The base rear-drive Taycan now offers 429 horsepower (with the bigger battery) and the Turbo GT pumps out over 1000 horses. There are several chassis tweaks aimed at improving driving dynamics beyond straight-line speed, too.
The result of all of these changes is simple. The Taycan was already one of the best-driving EVs out there. Now, it’s even better.
This is the “Sport Turismo” hatchback version of the Taycan Turbo S. The conventional sedan version is far more popular.
Since InsideEVs Editor-in-Chief Patrick George already did a range and charging test with the Taycan 4S, this was more of an opportunity to see how the updated Taycan drives in a less efficiency-minded manner. You know, drive it like a Porsche.
Porsche had the complete range of Taycan models to drive on a winding mountain route west of Seville. I ended up in a Turbo S sedan, though I did have some time to sample a 4S Cross Turismo on the road as well. With 938 hp available when using launch control and “just” 764 hp in normal driving, the Turbo S seems an intimidating proposition. It is, indeed, absurdly quick. Porsche quotes a 0-60 mph time of just 2.3 seconds.
Exercise some restraint, however, and the Turbo S is totally manageable. The accelerator-pedal mapping is such that you can always meter out smooth acceleration. Unless you want holy hellfire, which the Turbo S will deliver in an instant. Yet the Taycan is about more than straight-line performance. Its best qualities come to light as you drive it near its limit, which for the Turbo S is incredibly high. That is perhaps the best argument in favor of a lower-spec Taycan over this Turbo S. You give up the speed and some equipment, but you get the same refined driving dynamics.
Part of that is the excellent driving position. You sit low in a Taycan, lower than in most other EVs, and the view over the sloping hood is reminiscent of a 911s. The best word to describe the handling of the old Taycan was “sorted.” Where so many EVs feel their weight on a challenging road, the Taycan never did. They offered balance, stability, and feel in spades. The new one ups the ante.
All but one of the Taycans on hand had Porsche’s new Active Ride suspension, which uses hydraulic motor pump units to control the level of fluid within the dampers. Essentially, you can put force directly into the suspension, which non-active systems—no matter how advanced, —can’t do. Adaptive or magnetic dampers can adjust how firm the suspension is on the fly, but this system can actively push down on any corner of the car. Porsche uses it to totally eliminate body roll, pitch and dive while increasing the spread between comfort and sporty handling. It works. The system makes the Taycan feel hundreds of pounds lighter, yet on the worst roads—which aren’t easy to find in Spain—the suspension always works to maximize tire grip. Regardless of conditions, you can hustle the hell out of the Taycan.
There’s even an active-ride mode that overcompensates for body motions, rolling into corners like a motorcycle and diving and pitching like a helicopter under acceleration and braking. I find it unsettling. The car moves opposite how you expect it to. Thankfully, it’s user-selectable, and not available in Sport and Sport + driving modes. Active Ride is a $7,150 option, however, and I imagine that’ll be a tough pill to swallow for many. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to try the base suspension setup, but the last Taycan rode and handled great without Active Ride.
In any case, this is a driver’s car. The controls, steering, brakes and accelerator, are all calibrated to perfection. It’s the sort of car that makes you a smoother driver. And while tire noise is high (as is expected with such wide rubber), a Taycan makes for an excellent daily driver. I’m not a fan of the lower-center-console screen for climate controls, but the main infotainment system is straightforward and responsive, and the digital gauge cluster is quite elegant in its design.
Range and charging improvements also help make it an excellent daily driver. In a quite spirited drive on the highway out of Seville and up and down the mountains, we saw an average of 2.4 miles/kWh, which isn’t too bad. A more sedate (but brief) drive around town in the 4S Cross Turismo netted a 2.9 kWh average. We look forward to more testing with the Taycan back at home in less spirited conditions, but the signs are good here. The charging performance also lives up to the hype. It’s best in class.
As with most Porsches, the only real downside here is price. The base price jumps by $10,000 to $101,395, meaning you can no longer get a Taycan for under $100,000, and the Turbo S we drove came in at $232,835. A lot of stuff that should come standard, too, doesn’t. A Taycan Turbo S doesn’t even come with adaptive cruise control at its $210,995 base. In a Honda Civic, that’s gratis. But if you want a Porsche in all its excellence, you pay for it.
That’s the price of constant improvement. Essentially, Porsche made one of the best EVs out there even better. This sort of evolution is typical for the brand, and a huge part of why it’s so successful today. The 911 is great because Porsche took one idea and stuck with it. Right now, it’s doing the same with the Taycan. The engineers can’t just let Tesla and Lucid have all the fun, can they?
