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It’s finally restyling time for the Porsche Taycan, a car launched way back in 2019, which after having sold an impressive 150,000 units worldwide, needed a new boost to push registrations. The Taycan is in fact one of Porsche’s two 100% electric cars, together with the new Macan. Compared to the current version it has improved in almost all aspects: it is now lighter, faster, more powerful, with greater autonomy and can boast a super fast charging time. Porsche claims to have traveled 3.5 million kilometers to develop the new Taycan: investments were concentrated above all on improving efficiency (29% of the total), performance (25%) and charging ( 16%), leaving “the spare change” (the remaining 30%) to infotainment, comfort and design. The aesthetics have not undergone any upheavals, with the slightly longer bonnet, new fenders and the Porsche writing in the rear light band which now has three-dimensional glass-effect graphics and plays of light when turned on. The new light units are interesting, which now use a LED matrix with 32,000 individually controllable points to create extremely precise shadow areas (so as not to dazzle those traveling in the opposite direction) and are able to illuminate up to 600 metres. Some small adjustments may seem like details, but this is not the case: the new design of the 21-inch wheels allows – alone – to gain over 40 km of autonomy. Three body styles are available: from the Taycan sports sedan, to the versatile Taycan Cross Turismo, also available with an off-road package, up to the sporty Taycan Sport Turismo. In all dimensions they are almost five meters long, two meters wide and 1.4 meters high, with a wheelbase of 2.90 metres. Four engines are available for each: base, 4S, Turbo and Turbo S, with all-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive variants only.
Porsche Taycan restyling, all photos
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New electric motors
The powertrains are among the elements that have undergone the most interesting improvements: the permanent magnet electric motors are now more compact, 10 kg lighter, use a new pulse inverter with optimized software and are capable of reaching 700 kW (950 hp) of power (even if only for a few seconds) and over 1,100 Nm of torque. Now acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h is covered in just 2.4 seconds: 0.6 seconds less than the first version.
The Push-to-pass button
The power of the standard electric motor is 570 kW (775 HP), which can be increased in the Turbo S version by another 60 kW, thanks to the Overboost function, and even by another 70 kW, almost 100 horsepower, with the Push-to-pass function, which however, it only makes maximum power available for a few seconds (consider that we are at 700 kW, over 950 HP). In the models equipped with the Sport Chrono package and Performance Battery Plus, in fact, Porsche has integrated a button on the steering wheel, derived from the racing world, which activates an extra thrust for 10 seconds: a sort of “warp effect” which glues to the seat and allows you to get out of trouble even from the most complex overtaking. This function cannot be used continuously: before it can be reactivated it is necessary to wait another 10 seconds for the system to rebalance the temperature.
New Active Ride suspension
The power put to the ground by the new Taycan requires a decidedly advanced suspension system. The standard air ones use a double chamber and a double valve so that they can be adjusted differently for extension and compression. The active ones, available as an option, are able to better manage the transmission of torque to the individual wheels, thus increasing grip and effectively compensating for roll and pitch (important otherwise it would not be possible to manage such sudden acceleration as that provided by the Push-to-pass). The active suspension also raises the entire bodywork by several centimeters to facilitate entry and exit from the car.
Good autonomy and record charging times
Although the new 105 kWh battery is more capacious than that of the previous version (previously it was 93.4 kWh), it loses 9 kg and manages to offer greater energy density: we have reached over 168 Wh per kilo, for an autonomy of 678 km (for the rear-wheel drive only version). Porsche has also worked hard to reduce charging times: at the 800 volt direct current charging stations, it is able to support up to 320 kW peak (during the demonstration we even reached 325 kW), 50 kW more than a prima, which translates into a 10 to 80% charge in just 18 minutes. 220 km of autonomy are added in 10 minutes. Furthermore, the energy absorbed during deceleration reaches 400 kW. It’s a shame that alternating current charging (at the charging station) does not support powers higher than 11 kW. The merit of these record times is mainly due to better thermal management of the charging process: the range of temperatures supported is in fact wider which therefore allows for longer charging times at greater power.