R15 member KIran Haslam has just taken delivery of his new Taycan 4S. Here's his report.
There are so many people oriented to reject electric vehicles. I may have been one of them many years ago. I think what we forget is that real car people decided to develop EVs, not accountants and tree huggers – although there is nothing wrong with accountants and most trees do deserve a good hug. Those real car people experienced instantaneous and consistent power delivery, and realised that an entirely new level of performance was achievable and desirable. I think Tesla deserves so much credit for the modern world accepting EVs, however, equally so, I think that they may have tainted the EV landscape as well. Either from key figures with bad press, the escalation of range anxiety, or the idea that an EV just needs to be fast whilst being heavy. It seems that for Tesla, their product development philosophy was principally based on character being deemed totally unnecessary and gadgets being key: “Whack a great big screen in the cabin Larry, then add karaoke, oh and games!”
It would seem, the good folks we love and adore in Stuttgart, had another idea altogether.
When you first enter the car, you are overwhelmed by the simplicity and the quality feel. This really is the “apple of EVs” – and the tactility of the screens with really advanced haptics is unique. It really is a special direction for Porsche to take, and yes, it seems so obvious in a Porsche, but no other manufacturer gets it so right. The screens are impressive, but by no means the overwhelming feature of the cabin. You are still looking at wonderful sculpted lines and really rich feeling materials. To start her up – it’s all buttons, so the haptic feel really adds a sense of occasion.
The functionality of the Taycan is truly exceptional. Ingress/egress is excellent. Frunk (front trunk) and rear boot are both more than capable to accommodate a weekend trip for 4 – suitcases, duffle bags, a briefcase, winter jackets… I’m certain you would be able to fit it all in without using any interior cabin space. The car key has a separate switch for the trunk and one for the boot. Door handles protrude when the car is unlocked – once for the driver’s door, twice for all doors. Gear lever is hidden to the left side of the steering wheel to the bottom left of the main dash display screen. A separate screen handles infotainment and car settings, and another separate screen lower in the centre console is dedicated to ventilation, AC and battery charging. The only wobbly moment the designers had was when they developed the touch-screen-only controls for the air vents, however, leave the car in ‘diffuser’ setting and they are rendered obsolete and therefore not that big a deal.
Once you start and get up and running, you immediately start playing – “sport mode”, “chassis lift” or “lowering”, and what do you want on the displays? The options at first seem endless. In drive, you get underway, and then the grinning begins. I must be honest, that for quite some time after my first long drive, I had a slight ache in my face from grinning – no, I’m not making this up. I was like a kid who had just discovered ice cream for the very first time – there is no room in the car for a Cheshire Cat when you are in a Taycan for the first time! I especially like the car remembering the GPS location for chassis lifting over an awkward driveway or speed humps – it comes up as an auto prompt with ‘save’ location function. You can’t ask for more than that, can you?
The acceleration is so immense, it almost hurts. It’s addictive. It’s rapid. It’s on another level when compared to any Tesla I have driven (on track). That level is only achieved from combining a few key ingredients – firstly, the car is so taut and tight, the steering wheel is small and heavy, and it gives you a very direct and short response, so you really keep your hands at 3 & 9 o’clock naturally throughout the drive. Overall the car belies it’s real world weight and feels so dynamic. It is a car that you can carve lines with very easily – ideal for the South West on an early morning weekend blast.
And so to the sound and range naysayers… nope. I don’t see any compromise in not having an exhaust or vibrations in this car due to the absence of a combustion engine. It’s a different beast altogether. Porsche have ensured that the driver establishes that understanding from the incredible feel piloting the Taycan – it is so out of this world that you want to cherish it for what it is and not bring any comparisons into play. There is an electric sound that is “created” when you are at low speeds, and once you’re underway, there is enough drivetrain whine and suspension movement to augment the tyre squeal and sound of bitumen being obliterated under hard acceleration. I was heavy on the right pedal (you can’t really say ‘gas’ pedal anymore!) and my view of the Taycan being so incredible is not based on “combustion vs EV” – it is mostly based on “Taycan vs every other EV I have ever driven or tracked”. I’m super fortunate, that in my past I had a career as a motoring journalist, and have been involved in many projects ever since that exposed me to driving prototypes, race cars, regular cars on track, and more recently EVs.
Having driven a couple of pretty special EV track cars, I still feel more excited right now about the Taycan than anything else I have driven in recent years. I will never get rid of my 1973 914, because the rawness, valve chatter, fumes, rattles and lack of refinement are also to be cherished. Call it nostalgia or even silliness, but that was an era of motoring I will always be fond of. The new era of motoring is so addictive that there are going to be many junkies out there, and I think I have just become one.