TAY WATCH (some text hidden) SECTIONED_new_porschetaycan_2020

By Jonathan Crouch

Introductionword count: 67

Back in 2019, Porsche's Taycan EV changed electric vehicle design as we knew it. The way it looked, the way it drove, the way it braked, the way it charged: everything had been reconsidered, redesigned and reimagined. The result was a standard-setting battery-powered model that was purely Porsche - and very desirable indeed. Here we're going to look at the original 2019-2023-era models as a used buy.

Modelsword count: 4

(EV - Saloon, SUV)

Historyword count: 482

What might the Porsche of full-electric performance cars be like? Back in 2019 with this Taycan, we got our answer. It was more powerful and faster than any other EV that had yet been made. With a heart that was electric, but a soul that was very much that of a Porsche. Fully electric performance cars are all much the same right? They all give you a great big heavy battery, a couple of electric motors and enough pulling power to tear up the tarmac. Oh yes and they all feel terrible the first time you throw one into a corner. For a long time prior to this Taycan's launch, Porsche had been mulling over how to deliver something better. You might still be among those who think that Porsche and electricity have about as much in common as fire and ice - and you'd be wrong. The history of Porsche actually began with electric drive. Company founder Ferdinand Porsche designed his first electric car - the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton - back in 1898, then two years later followed up by creating the first electric wheel hub motor and then the world's first functional hybrid car, productionised as the Lohner-Porsche Mixte. His reasons for preferring electrification sound as natural now as they did then, Porsche complaining that the air was “ruthlessly spoiled by the large number of petrol engines in use”. What he couldn't do was overcome the usual automotive electrical downsides, heavy weight and short battery range. More than a hundred further years were to pass before his company could return to this area of development, driven to at the turn of this century by ever-more stringent emission laws. The Cayenne S Hybrid of 2010 was the first of a series of petrol/electric models that culminated in the 918 Spyder supercar of 2013, then in the 919 Hybrid World Endurance race car and then, in 2015, finally in the 'Mission E' all-electric concept model. The Mission E shocked the EV establishment with class-leading recharging times, astonishing electrified charging tech and the world's most slippery EV model shape. And it was closer to sales reality than most realised, its production-ready counterpart, this model, the Taycan, launched in late 2019. This was, according to Porsche, 'the start of a new era', yet at the same time, the company wanted to reassure its traditional customers that it wasn't about to stop making combustion-engined models any time soon. What it wanted to do was to offer the kind of credible alternative to fossil fuel that that prior to 2020 EV development had previously failed to bring us; a car with heart, soul and real driving DNA. Yet also an EV that was almost as day-to-day usable as a fuelled model, free of compromise in range and interior practicality. Was that this car? Here, we look in detail at the earlier 2020-2023-era versions of this model.

What You Getword count: 629

So, a Porsche like no other before it. But very definitely a Porsche. All the key elements of Zuffenhausen brand design are there - the special topography of the bonnet and front wings, air intakes instead of a dominant radiator grille, the marque's so-called 'flyline' falling roofline and a strong shoulder at the rear. These are elements that characterise every Porsche. But were, says Design Chief Michael Mauer, subtly evolved in this one. The Taycan is a car that amongst EVs is absolutely unique in its proportions, an emotionally charged performance EV that in 'Sports Saloon' sedan form sits just 1,380mm high, yet is almost 2-metres wide; there's really nothing like it. Here again, classic Porsche design staples mix with modern technology. So, thanks to the low seat and raised centre console, there's a real cockpit-style feel that's refreshingly different from the raised SUV demeanour of obvious luxury EV rivals. And the instrument cluster is wider than the steering wheel in a manner reminiscent of the original 911. Take a closer look and you'll find that what lies behind the chunky three-spoke wheel is anything but retro, a 16.8-inch curved digital screen, one of up to four at the front of the cabin. There's a lower 8.4-inch touchpad on the centre console. Just below a 10.9-inch 'PCM' 'Porsche Communication Management' central infotainment monitor which can be optionally extended with a further supplementary display for the front passenger. There's a lot to take in. All of this feels entirely appropriate to a cutting-edge 21st-century premium EV, but you can't help sometimes feeling that old-fashioned knobs and buttons, particularly on the lower centre display, would be easier and more intuitive to use on the move. There are other curiosities too; the rather hidden knurled gear shifter. Plus you're not offered any sort of handbrake button - and there are no mechanically operated louvres for the air vents either: you have to activate them via the lower screen. Still, you adjust all of this quite quickly and the instrument screen in particular has been well thought through, based around three configurable round virtual dials. Right: time to consider the rear. How, particularly with the ordinary sedan body shape, do you avoid the high stance that usually results from perching the passenger cabin on top of a whole bank of batteries - the kind of stance this Taycan just doesn't have. How did the designers manage it? Very cleverly. The rear footwells might look conventional but they're actually hollowed-out sections of the floorplan - Porsche calls them 'foot garages' - that allow your feet to be positioned at the same lower height as the battery pack, rather than being placed on top of it. No other EV design team had previously thought of doing this. For a GT-style sports saloon, headroom is actually pretty good - and surprisingly, it actually improves by a few inches if you get a car whose original owner opted for the extra-cost panoramic glass roof. The centre tunnel is particularly high (one reason why you might not want a car fitted with the optional centre seat) but it does at least give the standard two-seat layout a cocooned, sports car-like feel. Right, let's finish by considering boot space. Starting not at the boot but at the frunk - yes, like a 911, you get a little storage space beneath the bonnet. And it is little, just 84-litres in capacity. So anything of any size will have to be stored in the rear cargo area, accessed via a power-operated boot lid which rises to reveal a 366-litre space (that's 37-litres less than you'd get in Porsche's Panamera 4-E-Hybrid model of this period) though in this case, you'll probably find it's quite substantially accounted for by the charging lead case.

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