This car is definitely attracts attention. Driving and charging down the Hume from Sydney to Melbourne as it caught the attention of many, from the young through to the traditional Porsche owner
Range and charging
When I picked this vehicle up off Porsche it was fully charged, with the dash showing it had 30 km's on the clock and the plan was to drive in from Sydney to Melbourne which provided me with a great opportunity to see what real life range and charging experience would be like.
With completing almost 200 kilometres the vehicle's navigation system was suggesting that we top up at Goulburn which is around about 2 1/2 hours out of Sydney. As with all navigation systems we easily found the first chargepoint and went about trying to remember what we've been shown during our extensive pre delivery experience the previous day. To my surprise this process was seamless, we located the rapid charger at the service station (next to its café ) then opened the Chargefox app, found the chargepoint power output station in the app and selected the port number ( power output identification number on the charge station), clicked on the green button “unlock'' shown on the phone app and then, plugged in the charge stations DC cable to the car which is located on the left side ( DC – rapid charge port ) and before we knew it, the charging process started.
Now thanks to Taycan’s 800 Volt electrical system and the ability to use the ultrarapid charges, we could achieve around 80% charge in just over 20 minutes. And for the power usage, I averaged around 27kWh per 100 kilometres.
Drive modes and driving experience
Out of the four drive settings I opted for normal mode the majority of the time when on city or highway roads. This delivers more than enough torque to impress any revhead at the traffic lights or charging up a hill, without eating up range.
If I was to use range mode, as it suggests, reduces the power demands as well as limiting the speed to 100km/hr to get the most driving range, which I utilised during the longest stint for around 30k's and found it important when I started to run low on battery power.
You also have Sports mode, which provides you with a bit more access to power, but if you what even more, just head straight to sports plus, but I warn you, keep your head on the back of the seat, as the thrust will send you into warp speed extremely quickly. Sports Plus takes the gloves off, and quite simply is the best way to guarantee a smile on the face of unsuspecting passengers when you put the foot down. The absence of any noise, the sensation of speed, the adaptive cruise control and speed limited become a necessity in this car more than most especially with Australia's man in blue infatuation with speeding drivers.
It's comfortable, quiet and could be driven easily as any other electric vehicle, only this one has a top notch interior and there's a Porsche badge staring back at you from the Taycan steering wheel. The ride quality was the biggest surprise and while the suspension is tuned on the firmer side for better handling, it somehow maintains a comfortable ride, no doubt ,the adaptive air suspension helps here. After just a couple of hour's driving, I've already convinced myself that Taycan would make a perfect commuter car. I could think of no better place to spend a couple of hours a day between home and the office (when that is allowed again, of course.)
Inside the car
The 17 inch curved instrument display is a piece of art that has so many configurations which can be set up to suit every driver's preferred look. The front seats are brilliant, they're extremely comfortable, it has 14 individual adjustments as well as heating and cooling functions and has the ability to accommodate 6 foot plus people with ease.
As time moved on, I become more familiar with the Taycan’s features which also provided me with free entertainment during the trip. The feature “hey Porsche”, which is the same feature as Apples, “hey Siri”, this is where you ask the car, yes you're talking to a car, to do things that can be activated by voice. Well as you can imagine the Australian accent certainly create some interesting responses with around 50% of the requests missing the mark, which I have to say, is my experience with other voice control systems as well. In saying that, the system worked reasonably well with the satellite navigation system, as it's certainly faster than touch typing on the screen, we could quickly adjust the air conditioning system, changing radio stations, and finally ringing anyone out of your phone contact list worked seamlessly.
And one other great thing about this being an electric Porsche is that unlike your combustion engine Porsche, it doesn’t have an engine in the back so not only do you get the “front trunk” but you also get enough space in the back. So packing for holidays with the family may provide you the ability to take one or more suitcases. This is good news if you have a family like mine, where they would pack the kitchen sink if they could.
Would I buy one?
Given unlimited funds and a you-only-live-once attitude, hell yeah. This is a car that has all the bells and whistles, exhilarating power as you would expect and as it's just been launched, it's at the peak of the current market. It’s just got that wow factor which made it very hard to hand back.
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