Porsche’s high-performance electric sedan, the 2020 Taycan, is almost here. Ahead of its formal debut on September 4th, we got a chance to ride along in a prototype with Porsche’s product line director for EVs, Robert Meier. And now we’ve driven one for ourselves.
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Like many Porsches, the Taycan has launch control. To activate it, select Sport Plus mode and simultaneously mash the accelerator and the brake pedal. When you’re ready, release the brakes and—bam—that initial slingshot-like accelerative hit never feels anything less than supernatural. And then an even more staggering thing happens: The Taycan just keeps pulling. The two-speed gearbox bangs off a shift at about 50 mph, and 60 mph arrives swiftly after.
Although impressive, it may end up just shy of taking the title of quickest EV away from the Tesla Model S Performance. But the Taycan is way more serious about being a full-fledged sports sedan, something the Model S never was. During our short stint in an almost-finished prototype, the Porsche felt extremely solid, with Porsche-typical supportive seats, and delivered sharp steering, measured body control, and the ability to do normal Porsche things—like extended, lurid drifts. The Taycan allows the stability control to be switched off—and off means off, which is rare for an EV. And the view forward over the mid-engine-like plunging hood adds to the experience. Yet the Taycan will act luxurious, too; it is remarkably light on its 21-inch wheels in Normal mode, with a surprisingly comfortable ride and capable road isolation.
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Porsche engineers told us they’ve been working for years tuning the feel of the Taycan’s blended brakes, and in our limited drive in and around Weissach, Germany, Porsche’s development headquarters, the Taycan had the most natural pedal feel we’ve experienced with one of these systems. However, we noticed some touchiness during the initial application, where the regenerative braking comes in a little abruptly. But that minor complaint doesn’t take away from Porsche’s mega-impressive effort to create a battery-powered sports sedan.
A First for the Taycan
2020 Porsche Taycan interior
2020 Porsche Taycan Gets Integrated Apple Music
Although the company is still holding back a lot of details on what is arguably the first direct Tesla competitor, both of the cars we drove and rode in were top-of-the line performance variants with the larger of two battery-pack options, carbon-ceramic brake rotors, active anti-roll bars, air springs, rear-wheel steering, and either 20- or 21-inch wheel-and-tire packages. Porsche doesn’t yet want to talk about its trim level strategy, but molded into the door sills of this one, under a piece of black tape, read Taycan 4S. So it appears the naming won’t break with Porsche traditions, which would make the top trim likely to be called Turbo or Turbo S.
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Here’s what we learned previously from our ride along:
It Performs like a Porsche Yet Rides Comfortably
Porsche’s goal, according to Meier, was to create the “world’s first electric sports sedan,” an obvious swipe at Tesla, currently the largest purveyor of EVs, and no doubt the Taycan’s number one competitor. To that end, Meier says the Taycan has the lowest center of gravity in the current Porsche lineup, even lower than the 911 GT3, and nearly two inches lower than the just-launching 992-generation 911.
Squealing its Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 tires (there also will be a Michelin option) up Glendora Mountain Road outside of Los Angeles, the trip computer showed 1.3 g’s to both the left and right. Although these types of readouts are routinely optimistic and an absolute peak measurement not an average like our skidpad test, Meier said it will have comparable lateral-grip capability to the 911, which, in our testing, hangs on to the skidpad for 1.05 g.
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