First, a confession – I have never really been a Porsche fan. There I said it. Don’t misunderstand me, I admire the engineering, quality, and performance and recognise that hundreds of thousands of happy Porsche customers over nearly 100 years of history can’t all be wrong, but their fossil fuel models just didn’t give me the ‘wow’ feeling that other luxury sports cars have. I have always favoured something more radical and left field (when I was 10 years old, my wall was covered in a five foot wide Lamborghini Countach poster; I can still see it clearly in my mind’s eye now). However over the last 35 years, it is fair to say I have grown up, both literally and mentally – I now accept that I can no longer feasibly fit in a Lambo (even if I could afford one), and besides which they don’t make an electric vehicle, so for me they are off the dream garage list.
In my mental search for an alternative luxury sports car to occupy this vacant spot in my dream line up, there’s only really one that ticks all the boxes – the Porsche Taycan. Since the car’s release in 2019 I have been desperate to get my hands on one. The car seemed to have it all, outrageous performance, amazing looks with cues from the past but with a distinctly modern flavour, room for 4 adults, and a truly decent all electric range. Indeed, before I bought my current car (a 2024 SKODA Enyaq), I spent many hours trawling AutoTrader adverts for used Taycans, desperately trying to convince myself that I could afford one and that it was practical family transport for a family of three who love bikes and have a large dog. In the end, my logical brain won the day and the Taycan was rolled back into the dream garage.
So, when my former colleague and friend Peter Kirby (the dealer Principal at Porsche Solihull) sent me a DM asking if I’d like to borrow a 2024 Taycan 4S for a weekend, it is fair to say I quickly bit his hand off up to the elbow! Plans were made to deliver the car to Cornwall and the planets aligned to see that I would have the car for my first few days at Green TV as the Director of World EV day. Fittingly these days would be spent driving to and enjoying the EV Summit in Oxford, including a visit to my Mum in Somerset en route. The stage was set for the dream road trip, but would the car live up to my expectations?
A nervous start
The car was delivered to me on Thursday afternoon and as the driver reversed his trailer down our drive, my first impression was “it’s wide!”. I’ll happily admit that the dimensions of the car, its value (this particular car is advertised online as an ex-demonstrator for £115,000), and the narrow Cornish roads around our town had my nerves jangling! However, once I had spent five minutes checking out the controls (all pretty familiar stuff if you are used to Volkswagen Group products), I felt a bit calmer. As I set off to collect my son from school, the nerves disappeared completely; the Taycan is as easy and relaxing to drive at low speeds as any other EV I have driven, and I felt immediately at home.
I took the long way round to school, taking a few tentative prods at the accelerator once safely out of town; the reaction was immediate and brutal, “it’s fast” I thought, “really bloody fast”! At this point I started to develop a grin; not a normal grin, a full blown Joker from Batman grin. I had never experienced acceleration like it and my brain wanted more. The problem was however, I had to collect my son who for a five year old boy is very cautious. Opting not to eat his usual post school snack (as he thought he might get car sick) he told me seriously “Daddy, you are not allowed to drive fast”. I would have to wait for my next fix of addictive acceleration.
Motorway mayhem
On Friday my plan was to collect Albie from school again and head straight to my Mum’s house in Somerset. We would take a leisurely drive up the A30 and M5 and be there in time for dinner. Unfortunately, the traffic Gods had other ideas and our journey ended up taking over five and a half hours due to an accident on the M5.
Whilst frustrating, it gave me a chance to test the excellent Google based sat nav, which did a great job of trying to re-route us around the issue. Unfortunately I missed a turning which would have reduced our journey by over an hour, but lesson learned – this is a system you can trust. The extended journey also meant time for a stop in Exeter services where I hooked up to a Gridserve charger to see what a difference the car’s 800 volt electrical system would make. It was fast! Adding over 30% in the time it took us to use the facilities and grab a sandwich. After such a long journey in any car, I would normally feel pretty tired, but due to the costing nature of the Taycan’t interior, I arrived in Somerset feeling fresh. Albie also slept for over two hours, testament to just how quiet and refined the cabin is.
A petrolhead converted
On Saturday I had arranged to met my older brother at the local farm shop for breakfast and he was immediately impressed with the looks of the car. He hopped in for a ride in the passenger seat admitting that he had never been in an EV, but wasn’t really a fan. I knew as a dedicated petrol head and lover of speed (he regularly does track days on his super bike and is always in the fast group), he would not be telling me to take it easy. Heading out of the village I toggled ‘sport mode’ on the steering wheel and the sound of the car changed. Whilst not an attempt to simulate engine noise (not a fan of this), it had a distinct rumble that immediately said “speed”. I buried the accelerator, the car growled, my brother squeaked, and the scenery seemed to turn into green streaks passing in front of us. It was a bit like when they jump to hyper speed in Star Wars. I only had my foot down for a few seconds because the speed limit arrived so quickly I had to back off. I looked at my brother and there was the Joker grin; he was also addicted. His verdict was simple: “I take back everything I have ever said about EVs, I want one”.
Sunday saw an event free trip through the Cotswolds up to Oxford, but provided the opportunity to hustle along some of the best B roads in the country, complete with a rolling back drop of picture perfect villages and rolling green hills. Despite the Taycan’s size and mass, I was pleasantly surprised at how nimble the car felt through the bends. I am not saying it has the driving engagement of a Lotus Elise, however as a cross country grand tourer, it’s hard to think of anything that I’d rather be in.
Fast in other ways
After a couple of informative and enjoyable days at the EV Summit in Oxford, meeting the Green TV team and connecting with faces new and old, it was time for my final journey in the car. Having only 29% battery and facing a 275 mile epic, I had planned a stop in Abingdon to charge just off the A34 – a 160kW charger that should have given me enough charge to get home in about an hour. Unfortunately a technical fault meant that after an hour I left with only 65%, so needed to stop again. I chose the Ionity chargers in Cullompton – a site I had struggled with previously due to the lack of contactless payments, but this time was equipped with the Octopus Electroverse app, which should have taken care of the formalities. Again the first charger I tried had technical difficulties, (broken but showing reported as such on the screen), but a quick chat to a neighbouring driver secured my place in the queue. It was worth hanging on because once connected (one swipe of the app was all that was required), I was amazed to see the charger race up to a scarcely believable 316kW! Suffice to say by the time I had bought and eaten an over-priced limp sandwich, I was back on the road with 85% charge. Whilst I recognise that these kind of charging speeds are only available on a handful of cars and chargers, it makes a huge difference to the EV ownership experience. Once these speeds are commonplace, I can genuinely see even the most die hard laggards getting on board with EVs.
Time to say goodbye…for now
The A30 was nearly empty on the final leg of my journey, so as well as reinstating the Joker grin for one last time, I reflected on what makes the Taycan such a great car to live with. There are lots of great touches in the cabin, such as the analogue clock and additional screen for the passenger to play DJ (invisible from the driver’s seat to avoid distractions). The seats are supportive, provide a great driving position and there’s ample room for all but the tallest adults in the rear. The boot is a decent size and when combined with the frunk, provides ample storage for most requirements. The Cross Tourismo would be more practical still, but arguably it isn’t quite such a sleek prospect and the standard coupe.
The car is quiet, effortless to drive, has a clear and highly accurate sat nav and range estimation, plus the stereo is a match any home HiFi set up. Outside the dual charge ports make accessing chargers a breeze and I love the touch sensitive openings. The overall look of the car is great and in this particular green, drew lots of comments from appreciative bystanders.
There were a couple of niggles; my son struggled to operate the touch sensitive door handles, which meant I sometimes had to click unlock on the key fob to let him in. Similarly I did take a while to get use to their action. I wonder if for simplicity’s sake, a traditional handle could have been employed without ruining the look too much.
The speed limit warning noise is quite intrusive (mores than in my Enyaq), but then given the performance and ease at which you can exceed speed limits, perhaps this is actually a good thing. It would definitely help to protect my license if I owned one!
So it was with a heavy heart that the Taycan was rolled back onto the trailer to return to Porsche Solihull and in turn returned to the garage in my dreams. The Joker grin has faded, but my desire to own a Taycan will last long into the future. Now to find a calculator and work out how many organs I would need to sell to own one!
Massive thanks to the Team at Porsche Solihull for the loan, plus the great masterclass from Harry.
