What is it?
If you’re interested in buying a Porsche Taycan, it is the one you should look at first. And then ask yourself a very serious question: what is the extra £32,000 or £55,000 required to upgrade this Taycan 4S to a Turbo or Turbo S actually buying you?
If the answer is a slug more power you may never use, a load of equipment you might never spec and a boot badge for which you give not two hoots, do yourself a favour and spare yourself the money. I would suggest that for most prospects, or at least those who can stomach the opprobrium of friends and colleagues when they see – oh the shame of it – that it’s not the top model, this Taycan 4S is for now the Taycan au choix. The one you should buy. And the only non-neg option should be the performance plus battery at £4613.
That buys you a 93.4kWh battery compared to a 79.2kWh unit, which not only provides additional range, but faster charging and better performance. So it’s a win, win, win.
And even this (for now) entry-level Taycan will still hit 62mph in four seconds flat, and because electric cars deliver their torque instantly, even that can be quite an uncomfortably rapid experience. It will do rest to 100mph in 8.5sec, for goodness sake, and I’m old enough to remember when that was a perfectly passable 0-60mph time.
Put it this way: in all remotely normal use, this poverty-spec Taycan will still accelerate you from any speed you’re at to any speed you could want at any rate you might choose.
Like the Turbo and Turbo S, it comes with an electric motor at either end of the car and four-wheel drive as a result. Unlike all other EVs, it shares their 800V electric infrastructure. It even sits on triple-chamber air springs at each corner and has Porsche’s PASM adaptive dampers as standard.
Such similarities might lead you to suspect that a Taycan 4S powertrain is, in reality, that of a Turbo or even a Turbo S with only a line of pesky software holding it back: crack the code and a 740bhp Taycan 4S can be yours. Sadly not: The 4S has a smaller rear motor than either of the Turbo twins, and before you start thinking you could still turn a Turbo into a Turbo S, think again: the Turbo has the same 300-amp front inverter as the 4S, while the Turbo S has a 600-amp inverter. So now you know.
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This is what you expect a
This is what you expect a Porsche EV to be: well made, good to drive and very expensive. But if I were a designer, I would rather have the Hyundai Kona on my CV.
Suppose its 95k with battery and basic options
But a nice car non the less. Porsche make good cars and also have a large press fleet i notice.
Out of interest
What are the BASIC £4,500 options?
Check box, potential outcome
£79k Model S or £86k Porsche:
Acceleration - Draw
Range - Tesla
Cornering and driver experience - Porsche
Depreciation and reliability - Porsche
Quality and ownership experience - Porsche
After reading the review the only advantage the Model S has is an extra 50 miles of range and 10% purchase price saving.
p.s. I'm Tesla fan by the way!
xxxx wrote:
Good summary. Although perhaps you could say the Tesla has better software and upgradability?
I think the S is badly showing it's age now and I'd rather have a model 3 if I had to have a Tesla, or the Y if it was being made now.
I had a Model S loaner a
I had a Model S loaner a couple of weeks ago, whilst my Model 3 was having some work done. The S is still nice to drive, but it did feel rather old-fashioned!
xxxx wrote:
Item 1: The Tesla is much better equipped, you would need to add a whole load of options to the Taycan make it comparable, the only real option on the Tesla is full self driving which is not availible on the Porsche at any price.
Item 2: Interior space, the Porsche is more comparible to a Model 3
Item 3: Import duty, Tesla pays 10% to come to the EU and Porsche pays 10% in the US, the Tesla is much cheaper especially when combined with item 1.
Item 4: The Model S is due a refresh, the Nurburgring test cars had a centrally mounted screen like a Model 3.
As the TopGear test said the two cars aren't really rivals apart from being about as quick as each other. The interior space and practicality for example aren't really an issue for most Taycan drivers, they are trading practicality for looks.
And one is,,?
I agree, they are different, ones a sports car the other..isn't, one gets compared to everything, the other....doesn't, I try not to compare,there both pricey, but one should stop taking the moral high ground, as if it's the bench mark, it may have started the rush but the big boys are catching up quick, Elon Musk is a genius but Tesla's will not take over the car market.