- Wow Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Is that how you’re supposed to start a car review, or not?
- I’ve driven very many EVs over the last eight years. In fact, I’ve driven nothing other than electric cars over that time. But I’ve never driven an electric car that delivers quite such as emotional response. I’m not actually talking about me, but rather my wife, who totally loved the Taycan. And I mean loved. I wasn’t far behind.
- I spend a week in a Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S, resplendently finished in Gentian Blue.
Testing out Porsche’s Taycan Cross Turismo
It was the 22nd anniversary of the day I met my wife, recently, and when I found out that premium sal sac provider, EZOO, specialised in Porsches, I jumped at the chance of a press car test drive. Like any sub-optimal husband, after 22 years, I only just found out she likes Porsches, so during the test drive week, I took my wife away to stay in the Cotswolds, a very lovely part of the world, in this very lovely machine with my lovely wife.
Why does Porsche have such incredible allure and fascination? I think it’s because, within the context of something very special, that many people aspire to, this is the high water mark of design, engineering and technological excellence that enters our lives. Any more advanced, and it’s technology that is not something that we can connect to on a lived experience level.
And now, of course, with electrification, this Porsche engineering excellence is zero emissions, and part of the transition to a sustainable mobility near future. With this level of tech, it won’t just be driving me, it will be driving a new cohort of consumers into the early mainstream of EV buyers. Diving into the tech specifics, as someone who works in digital media, TV and video, I’m super interested in user experience design and sound design. Here, Porsche has really nailed it. Not necessarily for a native EV driver (and after eight years, I’m in that category), but certainly for the transitional combustion car driver.
On the sound design, Porsche have done a great job delivering on a combustion engine sound that kicks in with more prominence when you take the vehicle into Sport or Sport Plus mode. As a sustainability guy, rather than a car guy, what I totally love about this is that it’s the sound of sustainability, rather than the noise of pollution.
On user experience design, everything, or nearly everything, was close to hand, with lots of tactile buttons, knobs and levers, again something which I know will appeal to Porsche’s transitionary combustion consumer base. One thing that stands out as needing a fix, is the fact that the steering wheel doesn’t operate in neutral. To rotate it, you have to be in drive or reverse. I place a lot of store in sounds, as well as sound design, and the new Porsche Taycan is fully loaded with a full suite of brilliant Bose speakers. Again, on user experience, a really nice, close at hand, or close at finger tip, set of controls, to quickly adjust volume or tracks.
This car has a respectable 93.4 kWh battery. The usable capacity is 83.7 kWh, with an estimated range of about 270 miles. This is a major step up from the early Taycans. Where previous lower range Porsche Taycan drivers had to endure a sub-optimal charging experience, with the two crucial changes of 40% of UK fast charging coming on stream in the last 12 months, and the Taycan’s new improved range, this should keep Taycan drivers driving Taycans (you can clearly see on Auto Trader, with prices around the £45k mark, that a lot of early Taycans were quickly discarded).
The excellent voice led mapping function calmly communicated where I needed to carry out a first charge on a long drive. With Porsche’s partnership with IONITY, it suggested this Charge Point Operator. This was just the kind of range reassurance that the early mainstream EV consumer cohort will need. I didn’t get the chance to experience the 800-volt architecture, 270 kW charge speed that purportedly takes you from 5 to 80 per cent SoC (state of charge) in just 22 minutes – that equates to approximately the same time to imbibe a latte and discharge other liquids.
With Tesla not offering right-hand drive in the UK for the Model S (why?), this really opens up a consumer space for the Taycan, in all its variants. This really is the optimal EV for those who need a little persuasion to reframe their perspective on combustion, and enjoy the epiphany moment of EV.
