I hate to open on the fundamentals laid bare by a spec sheet. Cars are emotional creatures, things that live within us, shape us and sometimes even define us. That’s why people want to buy Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, even Range Rovers and Teslas: they say something about us. In return, they say more back than what’s outlined in the technical details. Every now and then, however, some spec sheets really lay down the gauntlet. This is one such example, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. The numbers are dizzying, from power to weight to price, leaving you bewildered and more than a little intimidated.
Usually I’d write about the style end emotion of the car, warming up to the nuts and bolts later. With the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, there’s nowhere else to start, so here goes. 952hp, 1110Nm of torque, 2325Kg, 0-60mph in 2.3secs and £188,272 as tested. And breathe.
How can anything possibly live up to that? I drove the previous iteration of the Porsche Taycan in 4S guise four years ago and don’t recall thinking it was a bit slow. It was a bit cramped for space, so the Sport Turismo (estate) model tested here adds a welcome touch of practicality without sacrificing any savagery. This, then, sits at the apex of what’s physically possible from an engineering perspective. Battery propulsion, Porsche driving dynamics, understated yet purposeful aesthetics…
If anything can live up to those numbers, it’s this.
Living with the Porsche Taycan Turbo S
Before we get into the merits of driving this teleportation device, it needs to function as an actual car. As mentioned, the Sport Turismo shape definitely helps. The saloon is a bit cramped in the back and light on boot space, which the estate sculpting helps to resolve.
Given its proportions, just shy of 5m long and 2.2m wide, however, it’s not the most spacious of cars. The panoramic roof is a necessity to get more light into the cabin, as the chunky pillars can shroud it in darkness. Boot space at 405ltrs is hardly class leading, either. An Audi RS6, by comparison, has 565ltrs back there. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S does come with a handy front boot of 84ltrs, enough for a large bag or an annoying child.
We went for a weekend away in it and in reality there’s more than enough space for everyday use. You also get Porsche’s build quality, with great materials and everything being well put together.
There are lashings of leather, a well thought out infotainment system and neat touches that you can add via the configurator such as the Porsche Design clock and ventilated seats. You’ll be happy whiling away the miles in this thing, even if it is starting to show its age.
Everything is controlled by two touchscreens, one for infotainment in the usual spot and one below for HVAC. There is also touchscreen functionality either side of the display binnacle, with shortcuts to suspension settings and customisable functions, too. Porsche know what they’re doing here, having set the shortcut button on the steering wheel to disable the beeps and bongs.
The lane keep assist is average at best, but can be disabled quickly too. The drive modes are accessible via a knob on the steering wheel.
What’s the Porsche Taycan like to drive?
Right, time for the serious business. You’ll use that knob quite a bit, if only to access the full bandwidth of the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. It offers up a measly 775hp as standard, so you’ll press the push-to-pass button inside the knob to access the full 952hp. You get a 10sec burst of max attack at a time.
Push-to-pass rather downplays things. In normal, you’ve got plenty of power to overtake almost anything. When you’re trying to get past, say, a McLaren 750S, then it’s a useful button to have.
Accessing full lunacy is remarkably easy. Turn the dial round to Sport Plus, foot on the brake, foot on the accelerator, and launch mode just activates. No sub-menus or irritations, just easy access to the goods.
And my word does the Porsche Taycan Turbo S deliver. 0-60mph in 2.3secs is achievable time and time again. I was fortunate that conditions were dry for my time with it, but it’s scarcely believable how quickly this thing shifts. We’re well used to EVs offering up mental numbers, but this thing comprehensively delivers with unerring consistency.
It doesn’t run out of puff, either. 49-74mph takes just 1.4secs, so joining motorways isn’t an issue. Keeping things moving once you’re there isn’t either. Then it just settles into a relaxed cruise, the perfect picture of silence and opulence, like a hitman who’s just finished a messy job and wondered into his local for a swift half on the way home.
The suspension is a work of magic, too. It lopes over speedbumps then keeps you remarkably flat on country roads. As mentioned, it’s wide, but you can really tuck into B-roads. The only issue is how quickly you arrive at the next corner.
Conclusion
I’d read one or two complaints about the brakes, but found no issue with them in terms of stopping power or consistency. They need to be good and they are. It’s at this juncture, however, that the 2325Kg weight makes itself felt. The mass is so well masked the rest of the time, but, ultimately, there’s no cheating physics.
The other time the mask slightly slips is when launching it. You get a true sense of the scale of the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. Whilst the 4S launched effortlessly, there’s so much work the car has to do here that you can feel it tensing up and scrabbling for traction. As a feat of engineering, there’s no denying that this is a spectacular machine.
Plant the throttle and you’re instantly pinned back, the hedgerows becoming a blur. You need to use all available space owing to the width, often straddling the white lines. The nose simply snorts them up with the gusto of Diego Maradona on a bender before they blend into one, continuous stripe.
There’s plenty to like here, then. I covered 263 miles at 2.6 miles p/kWh. From a 97kWh usable battery, that means a range of 252 miles. I don’t think that’s dreadful given how I drove it. A stop at an Ionity charger got me from 30% to 83% in 19mins, too.
It’s all enough to make you wonder why people have stopped buying the Taycan. The price is lofty, but a 4S is considerably cheaper and still plenty fast enough. The initial surge in demand for EVs is over, with incentives to buy/lease them gradually being peeled back, leaving the market exposed.
Away from the regulations and depreciation, however, the Porsche Taycan Turbo S is a remarkable car in so many ways.