Porsche Taycan - Electric motor, drive and performance

The Porsche Taycan has been built from the ground up to be a high-performance electric car. This means it’s brilliant to drive, which is all the more remarkable when you consider that this is a four-door coupe weighing over two tonnes.

You sit low in the Taycan, which gives the impression that you’re at the wheel of a Porsche 911, and it feels incredibly agile thanks to its low centre of gravity. The optional £1,600 rear-wheel steering certainly helps, as do the precise and well-weighted controls. 

You can go even further on 4S models by adding something called Active Ride Control – a feature that works to improve comfort in corners and on bumpy roads while also being able to control body movements when accelerating, braking, or turning. It’s a nearly £6,500 option on 4S models and above, or you can get it along with the aforementioned rear-wheel steering on Turbo models for almost £8,500 as part of the Dynamic Package.

That’s a rather expensive option that you can live without, because aside from some slight jiggle over broken surfaces at speed, the standard-fit air suspension does a brilliant job of dealing with large bumps in a way you wouldn’t expect a low-slung four-door sports car to be able to manage. Above all else, the Taycan is so communicative that you never feel anything less than ‘at one’ with it.

There are loads of versions of the Taycan to choose from. The entry-level Taycan is rear-wheel drive, while the 4S is four-wheel drive, and both have two battery options: 82.3kWh as standard or 97kWh if you add the Performance Battery Plus option. Both of those figures are the usable capacity, and the bigger battery has a bit more power to compensate for its additional weight, too.

All models got a small power bump in the 2024 facelift. The entry-level Taycan has 402bhp, which rises to 429bhp with the battery upgrade. The Taycan 4S has 456bhp and four-wheel drive, or 510bhp with the larger battery. When accelerating from a standstill in Launch Control mode, you have 537bhp available.

The larger battery is standard on Turbo models and above. The Taycan Turbo has 697bhp (872bhp with Launch Control), while the Turbo S has 764bhp or 939bhp when using Launch Control. The flagship Turbo GT is the most powerful with 778bhp and an astonishing 1,020bhp from a standing start. No wonder it’s one of the fastest-accelerating cars ever.

You even get four driving models: Normal, Sport, Sport+ and Range. If anything, Sport+ is a little too hardcore for the road, but Sport mode feels more natural and enjoyable. In Range mode, everything is tuned for efficiency – the car will even move off in second gear.

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0-60mph acceleration and top speed

The base Porsche Taycan goes from 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds (4.8s to 62mph) using Launch Control and up to a top speed of 143mph. Upgrade to the 4S model and the 0-60mph time drops to 3.5 seconds (3.7s to 62mph), and the top speed rises to 155mph.

The Taycan Turbo hits 60mph from rest in 2.5 seconds (2.7s to 62mph) and will hit a top speed of 162mph, while the Turbo S goes from 0-60mph in just 2.3 seconds (2.4s to 62mph) and has the same top speed. 

The most powerful Taycan Turbo GT model hits 60mph in 2.2 seconds (2.3s to 62mph) and hits a top speed of 180mph. Add the Weissach Package and it’ll reach 60mph in a scarcely believable 2.1 seconds (2.2s to 62mph). The top speed of that model is 190mph, too.