Porsche Taycan Turbo S

Never had l heard anything so ridiculous as a Lamborghini SUV or an electric Porsche, but both have become reality.

By Maarten Hoffmann

The Lamborghini Urus is a brilliant piece of automotive engineering (albeit, just a flash and very expensive Audi Q7). Here, however, we come to the anomaly of an electric Porsche – the Taycan.

As with all very fast EVs, this one comes with its limitations, such as the range. It’s around 280 miles for the standard car if you drive like a vicar. However, put your foot down to enjoy what this car is meant to do, and you might struggle to make it between charging stations.

Charging to 80% in around 20 minutes is good but that depends on finding on the DC chargers capable of delivering 270kW – and they are as rare as hen’s teeth.

Dull as it is, l have to make some comparisons to the Tesla (yawn). It is not as fast to 62 mph as the Tesla, won’t go as far on a charge, and costs more. That said, it’s a Porsche and that badge carries weight so, is it worth a £75k starting price?

As with so many cars these days, it’s based on another platform, that of the Audi e-tron GT, and has quite a few flavours. The bog standard is rear-wheel drive with 79kWh; the 4S adds another e-motor with a bit more power but the same battery. Then the Turbo and Turbo S get more power from a 93kWh battery and go like the clappers.

Now, you might ask what on earth is a Turbo badge doing on an EV? Stuttgart considers the word ‘Turbo’ to be a brand name now rather than an indication of what’s under the bonnet – and that devalues the word, of course.

Outside it is not too bad and has achieved their aim of making it look like a 911, unlike the Panamera, which must be one of the ugliest cars on God’s green earth. This is sleek and smooth, and actually looks like a Porsche.

It is highly entertaining to drive; it’s massively fast, grippy in the corners and effortless to drive. The Turbo S delivers 616bhp and, with a flip of the overboost switch, will deliver 750bhp to rocket you to 62mph in 2.8 seconds. Range is about 250 miles (so call that 210 as they all lie), and at speed you can see how you will need patience and an up-to-date ZapMap of all the charging stations and the distance between.

They have had a crack at giving it a noise with the ‘Porsche Electric Sport Sound’ but why oh why can we not have an EV that sounds like a proper throbbing V8? The law dictates that soon we will only be able to buy EVs – not that they have to be as silent as a graveyard or whistle like a drunken sailor?

The steering is fantastic and you feel as if you are holding the front wheels in your hands. With such a low centre of gravity, there is almost zero body roll unless you really throw it into a corner. Even then, it is very impressive and, as you are hauling 2.3 tonnes around, even more so.

The carbon ceramic brakes are worth their weight in gold and the factory says that as much as 90% of the time you are braking, you are feeding a massive

Tech Stuff

MODEL TESTED: Taycan Turbo S

BATTERIES: 93.4 kWh

SPEED: 0-62-2.8 secs

POWER: 616 - 750bhp

ECONOMY: 5.6p/mile

PRICE FROM: £75,500

AS TESTED: £142,400

265kW back into the battery via regenerative braking or KERS- Kinetic Energy Recovery system, as developed for F1 cars.

Inside, they have managed to make it feel like a proper 911. As usual with EVs, there are screens everywhere. The dash is digital, there is a screen by your left hand and another in front of the passenger – for some very odd reason. It’s only a stretch of six inches for the passenger to reach the centre screen so it seems to be a screen for the sake of a screen. Driving modes are Range, Normal, Sport and Sport+ and all are controlled by a dial on the steering wheel. It’s all new but if you are used to driving porkies, you will feel at home quite quickly.

The rear seats are a decent size but passengers over 5’8” will be uncomfortable on a long journey. However, go for the panoramic roof and you get a tad more headroom.

The perennial issue with fast EVs is that you can’t drive them fast unless you want to spend 80% of your day charging it, which kinda takes the fun out of it. Solid state batteries are coming, but not for now.

As someone who had a slight Porsche addiction back in the day, with a cracking red 1982 911 Turbo with a tail fin the size of Texas and rear tyres that lasted 500 miles from the constant insane acceleration, l have to say that a 911 with four doors is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

That said, it’s probably one of the very best electric cars on the market.