I reckon every new electric Porsche Taycan Turbo S should have a three-word warning sticker prominently displayed on the dash. The simple message: Remember to Breathe.
That’s because when you select “drive”, and stand on the right pedal with a modicum of intent, the resulting thrust will deplete your lungs, cause your teeth to clench, and your eyes flood with tears. You might even scream.
Kinda like a ride on SheiKra at Busch Gardens.
It’s what happens when twin electric motors juiced by a honking 93.4 kWh battery pack unleash a Kraken-like 750 horsepower and 774 torques. There are nuclear explosions with less oomph. It translates into standstill to 60 mph acceleration in a blink-of-an-eye 2.6 seconds.
That’s fast. No, that’s insanely fast. That’s almost as fast as Porsche’s legendary 918 Spyder supercar which is still the fastest Porsche road car ever. It’s faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo.
Yet here is a whisper-quiet, smooth-riding four-door family sedan that’s equally adapt at doing the Publix grocery run or whisking the kids to soccer practice.
But the true beauty of this flagship Taycan is that it’s a Porsche first, and an electric car second. That means it has steering that’s as surgically precise as McDreamy’s scalpel, and massive Goodyear Eagle rubber that grips tighter than a Dwayne Johnson handshake.
Show it a curve and its active anti-roll bars virtually eliminate body roll, while rear-wheel steering make the car as nimble and agile as a 911 GT3. As for the brakes, hitting them hard can turn any innie into an outie.
Porsche first unveiled the Taycan back in 2019 as the poster-child for its plans to deliver more than 80 per cent of its new models as fully electric by 2030. Coming soon for 2024 is an all-electric Macan, followed by electrified 718 Boxster and Cayman two-seaters, followed by a Cayenne EV.
The Taycan is the real deal here on account of it being designed from the ground-up as an EV with a unique body. And what a body. Design-wise, it looks like the resulting offspring between a Panamera and a 911 after a wild night in a Stuttgart bierkeller.
I love that 911-style nose distinguished by those hooded, quad-LED headlights, the vertical intakes ahead of the front wheels, and the gorgeous light strip across the rear with glass-like 3-D Porsche lettering. Those standard 21-inch, so-called, Mission E wheels on the Taycan Turbo S are just pieces of art.
Climb aboard and there’s Porsche 911 minimalism here, with an added touch of Tron. You can get up to five LED screens scattered around the dash, including one in front of the passenger and, in the Turbo S, a 16.8-inch curved glass gauge display.
Up front, the big-bolstered sports seats are supremely comfy and supportive, though the individual rear seats are short on kneeroom and headroom. Even Porsche calls the layout 2+2.
But there’s decent cargo space, with 14.1 cubic feet behind the rear seats and a generous 29 cu. ft. with the rear seats folded. The quality of the materials inside – all that glove-soft leather and satin-finished metal – is spectacular.
The five-model Taycan line-up kicks off with a 402 hp, 0-to-60 in 5.2 sec base version priced from $90,900 and soars to our flagship $194,900 Turbo S tester. Want more practicality, there are weirdly-long, wagon-style Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo versions based on the Taycan.
If there ’s one criticism of the Taycan, especially our super-powered Turbo S, it’s the range. An EPA estimate of 222 miles is pretty unremarkable compared to Tesla’s Model S with around 400 miles and Lucid Air’s 500-plus miles. But spring for the Performance Battery Plus and you should see 278 miles between charges.
But you don’t buy a Taycan Turbo S to eek out the best mileage. As with any Porsche, it’s designed to be driven, and driving the Turbo S delivers thrills like few other cars. Just remember to breathe.
