I've been hanging out to drive the Porsche Taycan for ages and I've finally had the chance. This time it's the 2022 Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo - it's like the off-road version of the Taycan and could be the one better suited to families. Is it any good? I hit the road to find out!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Porsche content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/porsche
More Porsche Taycan content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/porsche/taycan
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:03
Charging 05:03
Interior 06:29
Infotainment 09:15
Safety Tech 12:22
Practicality 13:05
On the Road 18:34
0-100 km/h 21:35
Verdict 26:50
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
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#porsche #taycan #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Porsche content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/porsche
More Porsche Taycan content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/porsche/taycan
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:03
Charging 05:03
Interior 06:29
Infotainment 09:15
Safety Tech 12:22
Practicality 13:05
On the Road 18:34
0-100 km/h 21:35
Verdict 26:50
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#porsche #taycan #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:00 So that is the Porsche Taycan.
00:03 Well, it's the off-road version, the Cross Turismo.
00:06 I actually joined Porsche like ages ago
00:08 during the development of this car in Germany.
00:11 They were still sort of figuring out all the stuff behind it
00:14 and we got to sort of experience it
00:15 and all that sort of thing,
00:16 but it meant that I didn't get to drive it until right now.
00:19 So I'm really excited to see what this is like.
00:21 This one right here is the turbo specification.
00:24 So one down from the Turbo S.
00:26 It's priced at a little under $300,000.
00:29 If that's too expensive though,
00:30 the entire Taycan range kicks off at under 200 grand.
00:33 Now, in terms of the competitors,
00:35 this doesn't really have any competitors.
00:37 The rest of its competitors are SUVs.
00:40 This is more like a wagon, shooting brake style thing.
00:43 So it's in a segment of its own right now.
00:45 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car.
00:47 So if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:50 you can use the time codes up on the screen there,
00:52 or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down
00:53 and there's chapters below.
00:55 And if you haven't done so already,
00:56 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
00:58 That way you'll find out every single time
01:00 I tell you my life story.
01:01 Righto, let's talk about the design.
01:05 You have 17 colors to pick from.
01:07 Most of them are free of charge.
01:09 There are a few that cost five grand.
01:11 This is one of them.
01:12 It's like an off-white color.
01:13 You can also get colors to match.
01:15 So if you have a favorite, I don't know,
01:17 shoe or something like that,
01:18 you can get them to match that color
01:20 and that will cost you about $20,000.
01:23 What do you think about the design?
01:24 I'll tell you what, this looks bloody awesome in person.
01:27 I, yeah, it just has so much presence about it.
01:30 And I think this color combo is cool.
01:33 Normally press cars are just really boring,
01:34 but they've just been really adventurous with this.
01:37 So let's have a look down the front here.
01:38 So big Porsche logo just here.
01:40 I like with these headlights,
01:41 how they're nice and sleek and sort of tucked
01:43 into that undercarriage area just there.
01:46 Down the bottom here,
01:47 you've got a pretty complex array of things.
01:48 You've got a camera down there for the 360 camera,
01:51 radar off to the side,
01:53 and then you've got this sort of,
01:55 I don't even think it's body colored.
01:57 It's like a silver color by the looks of it
01:59 that offsets with the body color
02:00 and then these black highlights.
02:02 Now being an EV,
02:03 I've mentioned this in a few other EV reviews,
02:05 they don't really need cooling here at the top end.
02:07 It's more down the bottom here
02:08 that they need cooling for the battery system.
02:10 So this is all pretty modest there
02:12 in terms of those requirements.
02:13 In terms of the headlights themselves,
02:15 the Turbo comes with matrix LED headlights
02:17 and then LED daytime running lights.
02:19 You can see that cluster there.
02:20 You can always tell when a Taycan's coming towards you
02:22 because it has that sort of
02:24 quite a unique headlight arrangement.
02:26 Off to the side here,
02:27 you've got these vents that funnel through
02:29 to the outer edges of that tire.
02:32 And if we come around to here,
02:34 look at these wheels.
02:35 So it comes standard with 20 inch alloy wheels,
02:37 but this has an optional 21 inch alloy wheel.
02:40 And this also has the optional body colored wheels as well.
02:43 I think it just looks sensational.
02:45 It's quite a daring design,
02:46 but I think they've pulled it off beautifully here.
02:48 In terms of the brakes,
02:49 six piston calipers, 410 mil rotor at the front here.
02:53 So it is a meaty brake setup.
02:55 It is a fairly heavy car,
02:56 so you need to be able to pull up nicely.
02:57 Now, white brake calipers, what does that mean?
02:59 You can option this with carbon ceramic brakes.
03:01 This has the standard steel brake package,
03:03 but it has a ceramic coating on it.
03:06 And that's why they look slightly different
03:07 to the standard brake you'd find in any other car.
03:10 That prevents that sort of rusty look
03:12 you see building up on these.
03:13 Given that you don't use the brakes as often in an EV,
03:17 they can be more susceptible
03:18 to that sort of faded appearance.
03:21 Whereas this setup here prevents that from happening.
03:23 It also produces less brake dust as well,
03:25 which is very essential on a white wheel.
03:27 So because it is the off-road version,
03:29 you've got these sort of cladding areas on the wheel arches.
03:34 You know, when I say off-road,
03:35 it's not really that off-road.
03:36 In terms of ground clearance, it's 148 millimeters,
03:39 which is 20 mil higher than a regular Taycan.
03:41 And then you can also get like an off-road appearance package
03:44 which jacks it up an extra 10 mil.
03:46 You also have air suspension
03:47 that allows it to go up even higher by around 30 millimeters.
03:50 So you're not gonna be doing any off-roading,
03:52 but you know, you've got that set up if you need it.
03:54 I'll run you through this a little bit later on,
03:55 but it has two of these, they're charging ports.
03:58 Over on the wing mirror,
04:00 you have body color, camera built into that.
04:02 Now you don't see any indicator in this wing mirror.
04:05 That's because it is located down there on the front guard.
04:08 I do like here as well that you've got these
04:09 sort of faux vent segments behind the door there
04:12 to kind of give it a sporty appearance.
04:14 This car's optioned with the panoramic roof.
04:16 You've got these silver colored roof rails,
04:18 privacy glass, and then come around to the back,
04:20 check out this design.
04:22 So I think this boot is going to be fairly useless
04:24 because it kind of wraps around to the side there.
04:27 But I think from a design point of view,
04:29 this looks sensational.
04:30 You've got that LED strip that runs along the back there.
04:33 You have the Porsche lettering behind this Perspex panel
04:36 and then Taycan Turbo as well.
04:38 And they've discreetly put the button here
04:40 to open the tailgate.
04:42 So I think it is just a really nice looking design.
04:44 And have a look at the height of it.
04:45 So around that 185 centimeter mark,
04:47 and you can see here that this is a pretty sleek
04:50 and low car despite being the off-road version.
04:52 So let me know what you think about the design
04:54 in the comment section below.
04:56 I personally think it looks sensational.
04:58 Have you seen one in person?
04:59 Do you like them as much in person?
05:01 Let me know down there.
05:02 Now let's quickly talk about charging.
05:04 So this is really interesting.
05:05 So you've got two charge ports,
05:06 one on this side, one on that side.
05:08 They're both the same, except this one does DC charging.
05:11 Now this is an electric charge port,
05:13 and look, you wipe it there and it opens up
05:15 and you think to yourself, oh, you know, whatever.
05:17 But one of the engineering complications with this
05:20 was during winter, especially in areas where it is snowing,
05:24 that can freeze over.
05:25 And if you can't open that, you can't charge the car.
05:28 So they had to actually develop a motor in there
05:30 that's capable of breaking ice.
05:33 So it's actually quite a powerful little setup.
05:34 So don't take that for granted.
05:35 So you have AC and DC charging.
05:38 AC charging works at three phase at up to 11 kilowatts,
05:41 but you can get a larger AC charger
05:44 that will do up to 22 kilowatts on three phase,
05:46 which is pretty awesome.
05:47 On the bottom here, you've got DC.
05:48 This is capable of 350 kilowatts at 800 volts,
05:52 but at the moment they're reaching peaks
05:53 of about 260 kilowatts during charging.
05:56 And it's pretty impressive because 800 volts, 260 kilowatts,
05:59 this means it'll charge to that sort of 80% marker
06:02 in about sort of 18 minutes,
06:03 which is I reckon pretty impressive
06:06 and about where it needs to be for an EV.
06:08 So really cool setup.
06:09 And it means that you can easily access these ports
06:11 regardless of where you're parked.
06:13 So I do love the fact that they've given you the option
06:15 of having both of those.
06:16 Unfortunately, this is the only side with DC charging on it.
06:19 So as a battery capacity, it's around 90 kilowatt hours
06:22 with a usable at around 80 kilowatt hours.
06:24 So decent battery size,
06:25 and that will give you around 425 kilometers of range.
06:28 So we are inside the Taycan.
06:31 Before we get stuck into all this,
06:32 let's start off with the key.
06:34 So here it is.
06:35 You've got the Porsche logo up the top,
06:37 unlock, lock, front boot, rear boot,
06:41 and then around here, it is blank.
06:43 This is a proximity sensing key.
06:45 So you just leave that in your pocket
06:46 and the door handles then pop out and inside the car you go.
06:50 This can also be optioned in the car's color.
06:53 So that's what they've done here.
06:54 So it matches the exterior of the vehicle.
06:57 Once you're inside, you have a push button start over here,
07:00 and then you are good to go.
07:02 Let's talk about this interior.
07:04 There's kind of a lot to talk about here.
07:06 I'll get to these in a second,
07:08 the sort of litany of screens,
07:09 but just in terms of the design,
07:11 this looks very traditional Porsche.
07:13 This is obviously based on the platform
07:15 that the Panamera is based on.
07:17 And that means that you are getting a very similar appearance
07:19 but they have very much given this all of the tech
07:22 that the Panamera doesn't get.
07:24 So I really love the way that this is all recessed
07:27 back a little bit further.
07:28 You've got this giant screen up the front here.
07:30 You've got this floating screen down the center
07:32 with storage beneath it.
07:34 Really does look quite nice.
07:35 It is a little bit bland here in just all black.
07:37 I really don't like the piano black on that side as well,
07:40 but you can go to town on colors inside the cabin.
07:44 So if black isn't your cup of tea,
07:47 you can then just change this up
07:49 to make it look exactly how you want it to look.
07:51 Now up the top there,
07:52 you'll notice the Sport Chrono Clock.
07:54 Sport Chrono is interesting
07:55 because in the internal combustion Porsches,
07:58 it adds like dynamic engine mounts
08:00 and other bits and pieces, including the Sport Plus button.
08:03 Here, obviously you don't have dynamic engine mounts,
08:06 but they do add the Sport Plus feature,
08:09 which kind of changes the driving characteristics
08:11 and it also adds the clock.
08:13 I would just pay for Sport Chrono just for the clock.
08:15 Just look at that.
08:16 It is just absolutely stunning.
08:18 Now in terms of the materials,
08:19 I really like what they've done here.
08:21 So it appears like it's leather.
08:22 I think it's leather sort of throughout the cabin here,
08:25 along the dashboard.
08:26 They've even got Alcantara right up
08:28 along the top here as well.
08:30 So it's really nice and well thought out.
08:32 The only thing is this appears to be plastic up here.
08:35 So for some reason they stopped the leather there
08:36 and this is all just like really hard plastic.
08:38 Now what about your touch points?
08:39 So in the center here, it's a bit firm.
08:42 Likewise, the door, how firm is it?
08:44 Well, we've got our durometer.
08:46 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
08:49 If you want to see how this car compares to others
08:51 that we've tested before,
08:52 have a look at the link in the description.
08:54 Now, what about build quality?
08:55 So this is genuinely so damn solid.
09:00 Yeah, one of the reasons you're going to buy this
09:02 over a Tesla is because you want it to be built properly
09:05 and they certainly haven't taken any chances here.
09:08 Everything is nicely screwed together.
09:10 What about your door?
09:11 Let's have a listen.
09:12 (door thuds)
09:14 Sounds really nice and solid.
09:16 Okay, let's talk about infotainment.
09:18 You guys know that I love my technology
09:20 and this car is absolutely loaded with it.
09:22 I also don't like flies,
09:23 which is why we have this random setup now.
09:25 We were just getting bombarded by them.
09:27 So anyway, let's talk about the infotainment system.
09:30 So there are a number of screens here.
09:32 I'll run you through them all.
09:33 So the main infotainment system is a 10.9 inch display,
09:36 but you'll notice there's another display just next to it.
09:40 That is the optional passenger display.
09:42 So it effectively mimics what you have here,
09:44 but the passenger can control it.
09:46 There are some functions that don't work
09:47 on the passenger display that do work here,
09:49 but for the most part,
09:50 you can kind of do everything you can do here over there.
09:53 Look, I love it.
09:54 It's cool, it's something different,
09:56 but I reckon it's just a bit of a novelty.
09:57 If you are buying one of these,
09:58 I probably wouldn't bother optioning that
10:00 because it's going to use more battery
10:01 and it's kind of redundant
10:03 and it's something for kids to play with
10:05 and just change settings and stuff,
10:07 which kind of irritates me.
10:08 So that's what that screen does.
10:10 Down here, you've got a climate screen.
10:12 This allows you to also control the main infotainment screen.
10:15 So while you are driving,
10:16 instead of having to click on here
10:18 and do all this sort of stuff,
10:19 you can actually access shortcut menus using this.
10:22 And then using this pad down the bottom,
10:23 you can then click on the things you need to click on.
10:25 So really not a bad setup
10:27 and they've definitely thought about the functionality
10:29 of how all this works.
10:31 In terms of the features you get
10:32 on that main infotainment system,
10:34 you've got AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio.
10:38 And that's all ported through a 14 speaker
10:40 Bose branded sound system.
10:41 It is a cracking sound system.
10:43 So big thumbs up on that.
10:45 You also have smartphone mirroring.
10:46 Now one of our viewers got a little bit cranky
10:48 because I keep calling it smartphone mirroring,
10:50 but apparently it's not that.
10:51 So let me know if that annoys you
10:53 and I'll call it something different,
10:55 but smartphone mirroring is effectively
10:56 the smartphone connection you have
10:58 that displays on the screen here.
10:59 Apple CarPlay is wireless.
11:00 I'll show you what that looks like.
11:02 So there it is there.
11:03 Pretty much a full screen display.
11:05 Really nice and fast as well and fairly sharp too,
11:08 which is always nice to see.
11:09 Now I can't show you what Android Auto looks like
11:11 because it's not fitted to this car,
11:13 but it is available on Taycan.
11:15 So if you are buying one,
11:16 just make sure you have the correct version of PCM,
11:18 which is PCM6, that comes with Android Auto.
11:21 So if you have your heart set on that,
11:23 just make sure it's got it.
11:24 In terms of other features,
11:25 this is also where you're able to change
11:27 all of the car's settings, all the drive modes.
11:30 It is quite a comprehensive setup.
11:31 Now let's run through the screen ahead of the driver.
11:34 Look how big it is.
11:35 So it goes from here to here,
11:37 something like 17 inches in terms of size,
11:40 and it is really high resolution and curved as well.
11:43 So from a technology standpoint,
11:46 this is a really impressive setup.
11:48 The good news is you can configure virtually anything here.
11:50 So you can change the way that everything looks
11:54 in terms of the displays.
11:55 You can change what is sitting on each display.
11:59 It really just has an unlimited amount of configurability.
12:02 So I like the way that they've allowed you
12:04 to do everything here.
12:05 You'll notice on the sides as well,
12:07 this is where they've mounted some of the buttons,
12:09 and it's just a good way to move things away
12:11 from the dashboard, and it's a clever use of space.
12:14 So really impressed with all of this.
12:16 And finally, ahead of the driver,
12:17 you have a head-up display.
12:19 It's pretty basic,
12:20 but it gives you all the information that you need.
12:22 Now let's talk about safety tech.
12:23 So you've got autonomous emergency braking
12:26 with pedestrian detection.
12:27 You have a lane departure warning
12:28 and a lane keeping assistant.
12:30 Radar cruise control, blind spot monitoring
12:32 built into that wing mirror.
12:33 There is also front and rear parking sensors
12:36 and a 360 degree camera.
12:39 I'll show you what that looks like.
12:40 There it is there.
12:43 It's not the best camera in the world.
12:44 It's actually quite poor.
12:45 I'm surprised they haven't gone
12:46 with a higher resolution camera.
12:48 The 360 cam looks okay,
12:50 but it just seems for some reason
12:52 that the sort of view around the car
12:54 and also the rear view just really isn't that impressive,
12:57 which is a bit of a shame, I reckon.
13:00 There is an automatic parking feature though.
13:01 So if you're not confident with parking,
13:03 one hit of that will get you sorted.
13:05 Now let's talk about practicality
13:06 and we'll start off with your connectivity.
13:07 So inside the glove box here,
13:09 you've got two USB-C ports and a 12 volt outlet.
13:12 There is a phone pouch in there,
13:14 but no wireless phone charging.
13:16 You have to option that,
13:17 which is a little bit disappointing.
13:18 I would have thought it to be standard in a car like this.
13:20 Terms of storing your phone,
13:22 you have plenty of places.
13:24 So you can whack it there.
13:25 You can pop it down here if you want,
13:27 or put it in the glove box.
13:28 Okay, coffee drinkers,
13:30 if you're like me and you have this little
13:31 baby-sized coffee cup, look it, it holds it in,
13:34 but the problem is it drops all the way in.
13:36 So when you go to get your coffee out,
13:37 you can't actually grab it.
13:38 You sort of run the risk of it spilling everywhere.
13:40 So I basically just use my house keys
13:42 or the car key to prop it up
13:44 and then it can wedge in there.
13:45 And then on other bottle storage,
13:46 you can whack your bottle inside this
13:48 and it really holds it in nicely with those teeth.
13:51 This also fits inside the door.
13:53 Let's try our big bottle.
13:55 See if that'll go anywhere here.
13:57 It doesn't fit in there.
13:59 I'll try it inside the door.
14:00 Fits inside the door though, which is pretty cool.
14:02 Other storage, you have a center console here.
14:06 It's not the biggest in the world.
14:06 In fact, it's quite small.
14:08 The other annoying thing is it doesn't stay up.
14:10 So when you're trying to get something out of it,
14:12 it sort of keeps falling back down.
14:14 So you need to hold it up yourself.
14:15 And then you've got a glove box down here.
14:17 Unfortunately, it's comically small.
14:19 You really can't fit anything.
14:21 These are my sunglasses.
14:22 And for an example, this barely fits in here.
14:25 So when I go to put them in,
14:26 it kind of crushes it when it closes it
14:28 because they also don't fit in here.
14:30 So yeah, it's a little bit disappointing
14:32 there isn't more practical storage space inside the car.
14:35 Now let's talk about comfort.
14:36 So you have four zone automatic climate control.
14:39 So you activate that using this panel up here.
14:43 It's an interesting screen
14:44 'cause it has capacitive touch.
14:45 So when you push some of these buttons,
14:47 you can feel it responding as you go through, which is cool.
14:50 Heated and cooled seats.
14:51 This car has 14 way power adjustable seats.
14:54 You can go forwards, backwards,
14:56 backrest can go forwards, backwards.
14:57 You can lift the front, you can lift the back.
15:00 You can adjust your side bolsters.
15:02 You can roll this bottom section of the seat out.
15:05 And then you also have your back bolsters as well.
15:09 You've got seat memory on the door there
15:10 for both driver and front passenger.
15:13 Seats themselves are pretty cool.
15:14 Like they've got these perforations in them,
15:16 big Porsche crest up the top there
15:18 and they hug you in really nicely.
15:19 So this is exactly what you want from a car
15:21 that's gonna be going quite fast.
15:23 The steering offers electric adjustments
15:25 that goes up and down, in and out.
15:29 You also have steering wheel heating.
15:30 There's a little button stuck just under here
15:33 and that allows you to heat the steering wheel
15:34 on cold mornings.
15:35 And then on our reach test,
15:36 all of this stuff is easy to reach.
15:38 It is easy to reach there as well.
15:40 It just becomes harder to reach
15:41 if you're over on this side of the screen,
15:43 but you've got this shortcut pad
15:44 to reach everything that you need
15:46 on that side of the screen.
15:47 So second row of the Taycan.
15:49 Are you surprised at the amount of room there is here?
15:51 Because I certainly am.
15:53 Knee room is okay.
15:54 Toe room is pretty reasonable.
15:56 Headroom is good as well,
15:57 but it feels a little bit cramped for such a,
16:00 you know, it does look big on the outside.
16:01 It does feel cramped inside,
16:03 which is a little bit disappointing.
16:04 I was hoping there'd be a bit more room to stretch out here.
16:07 The other thing I find strange as well
16:08 is that this is an electric car.
16:10 It does not need a driveline tunnel down the center.
16:13 So I don't know if this is a hangover
16:14 from the Panamera platform
16:16 or what the reason for that is,
16:18 but yeah, I just don't like the fact
16:19 that there is a hump there.
16:21 That should really just be flat
16:22 if the batteries are mounted to the floor.
16:24 I don't know if the batteries actually sit
16:26 within this area as well.
16:27 In terms of your comfort,
16:29 you have your third and fourth zone
16:30 of climate control down here,
16:32 and that's all controlled on this screen.
16:34 You will notice that when you flick through those menus,
16:36 you'll find a little secret here,
16:38 and that's something I forgot to mention up the front there.
16:40 All of your vents are controlled electronically.
16:42 So you move this little doodad around here
16:44 and it will adjust the vent.
16:45 So you don't actually have any manual adjustment
16:47 for those vents,
16:48 which I think is something novel
16:49 and a little bit interesting.
16:51 We've also got heated seats for the two outboard seats.
16:53 Back here, you've got two USB-C ports,
16:55 little storage area just there, no matte pockets.
16:58 You've got two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats
17:00 along with top tether points as well.
17:02 Center armrest here with two cup holders.
17:04 We'll try a bottle in there.
17:06 Fits in no dramas.
17:07 You've got little teeth there as well.
17:08 And we'll see if it fits in the door.
17:09 Yes, no dramas there at all.
17:11 Got a little divider here that drops down
17:13 to let you get access to the boot.
17:16 And finally, our window test.
17:17 Let's see if that window goes all the way down.
17:20 No, it doesn't.
17:20 You get this awkwardly narrow opening in the back here.
17:24 So I mentioned before,
17:25 doesn't look like there's gonna be a whole deal
17:27 of cargo space.
17:28 So you push that to crack the boot open.
17:30 And look, I'm kinda right.
17:32 There is just over 400 litres of cargo space available there.
17:36 Underneath the cargo floor
17:37 is where you can store some of your cables.
17:40 This car has the optional 22 kilowatt AC charging system.
17:43 So you can see some of the three phase cables
17:44 are tucked under here as well.
17:46 There is also a bigger box as well
17:49 that you cart around with you if you need to.
17:51 So at least you really do need to continuously charge.
17:54 I'd probably leave all that stuff at home.
17:55 Now in terms of your storage,
17:56 off to the side here,
17:57 you've got a couple of storage holes.
17:59 You've got a 12 volt outlet there.
18:01 Couple of hooks as well.
18:03 These straps on the side.
18:05 Now, let me show you the boot space before I expand it.
18:08 Because if that's not big enough,
18:10 it actually isn't too bad once you expand it.
18:12 So this is what it's like without bags in there.
18:14 So more than enough room to fit a mid-sized suitcase,
18:17 laptop bag, whatever else you need.
18:19 Then what you can do is drop the second row.
18:21 Unfortunately, you can't do that from here.
18:23 You've got to go around to the sides.
18:25 Once you've done that,
18:26 you have a little over 1100 litres of cargo space available.
18:30 I almost forgot, there's about 100 litres of cargo space
18:32 in the front boot as well.
18:33 So we've hit the road in the Taycan.
18:39 There is a little bit to get through here.
18:40 So just bear with me while I explain it all.
18:42 Now the Taycan Turbo comes with two electric motors.
18:45 You've got one that services the front axle,
18:47 one that services the rear axle.
18:49 They are around 335 kilowatts of power for the rear motor
18:53 and around 175 kilowatts for the front motor.
18:55 So both of those combined can produce
18:57 up to 500 kilowatts of power with over boost.
19:01 And that also plums up to 850 newton meters of torque,
19:04 which is pretty mental stuff.
19:05 Now, what does all that feel like behind the wheel?
19:07 Well, it's interesting,
19:08 'cause it depends where you are in the rev band,
19:10 because when you're right down low in the rev band,
19:13 there's actually a two-speed transmission here.
19:15 It's unique to the Taycan
19:17 because it's not something you generally see in EVs
19:19 because you don't really need a transmission
19:22 when it comes to driving one of these.
19:24 You just have one gear
19:25 and then it covers the entire band of acceleration.
19:28 But to make the Taycan as quick as it is,
19:30 the two-speed transmission takes care of rapid thrust
19:34 and acceleration at low speeds with a really short gear,
19:37 and then a wider gear for speeds while you're moving.
19:40 So that means if you are on the Autobahn
19:41 doing 150 Ks an hour and you plant the throttle,
19:44 this is able to then pick up and start hammering along.
19:47 A lot of other EVs, once they are up and moving,
19:49 don't really have that acceleration once they're,
19:51 they're already sort of on the move.
19:52 So if I plant the foot,
19:55 it pins me back into the seat and away we go.
19:58 So it does all of that fun stuff that an EV does.
20:01 It just feels absolutely mental when it takes off.
20:04 And I'll show you what that looks like
20:05 when we do our little launch control run.
20:07 But behind the wheel, you do have a lot of flexibility here
20:10 in terms of the drive mode.
20:11 So we're currently in normal mode.
20:13 And in normal mode, it's able to just give you
20:15 sort of soft and gentle acceleration,
20:17 even up to the point where you've reached
20:19 almost full throttle.
20:20 If you do go hard enough,
20:21 it will then kind of reach its over boost mode,
20:24 pin you back in the seat, and then away it goes.
20:26 But you do have other drive modes to play with here.
20:28 So you have range, which extends the range
20:31 by reducing air conditioning,
20:33 limiting your maximum speed to 140 Ks an hour,
20:35 bringing the car down a little bit
20:37 in terms of its ride height.
20:38 You've got normal, sport, sport plus, and individual.
20:42 And they all sort of cater for different types
20:44 of driving environments.
20:45 Now, what does all that mean in terms of efficiency?
20:48 So unlike a Tesla, where they try and aim
20:50 for efficiency and power,
20:51 Porsche is doing what Porsche does.
20:53 They've said, "This is a fast car.
20:54 It's not going to be efficient."
20:56 And as a result of that,
20:57 you have an official electric economy
20:59 of 28.6 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.
21:02 That is, it uses 28.6 kilowatt hours
21:05 of electricity per 100 kilometers.
21:08 And given it's around an 80-ish kilowatt hour battery,
21:11 you can see how many Ks of range that you get.
21:13 What are we achieving though?
21:14 So if we go up here to trip,
21:17 we're currently sitting on 25.7.
21:19 So you don't see that often.
21:20 We're using less electricity than the claim.
21:23 And it's kind of typical of Porsche,
21:25 because when they do their zero to 100 times,
21:27 they kind of fib a little bit.
21:29 They're always quicker in real life.
21:31 And I think here with the economy,
21:32 they've done the exact same thing.
21:34 Porsche claims a zero to 100 time of 3.3 seconds.
21:40 This is how it went up against our stopwatch.
21:42 Now, have a look at this little screen down here.
21:52 We're only going around a light corner here,
21:54 but this car has what Porsche calls
21:56 dynamic chassis control sport.
21:59 And that's a 48-volt system that interacts
22:01 with the anti-roll bar to stiffen up the side of the car
22:05 that has most of the load on it.
22:06 And in effect, it gives you a completely flat
22:09 driving experience through a corner.
22:11 And that little screen there will tell you
22:13 how much load there is on it as you sort of drive it faster.
22:16 And speaking of which, let's pop this into sport plus now.
22:19 Hear that sound?
22:20 There's a speaker.
22:21 I'll run you through that in a second,
22:22 but let's punt it through our corner here.
22:26 (laughs)
22:28 The noise is actually really cool.
22:31 So you can see there that little graphic
22:34 is lining up as we get it through that corner.
22:38 This is a higher speed corner as we roll into it.
22:40 Again, it's loading up that side of the car.
22:43 Punch that.
22:44 Man, this thing is quick.
22:46 Tell you what, I'm kind of lost for words
22:50 because it is accelerating at a really rapid pace.
22:55 Now, one of the things that Porsche does here,
22:58 they really lean on the regen program
23:00 to limit the amount of use you have of those brakes.
23:03 That means when you do pound on the brake,
23:05 you're actually using a whole lot of regen
23:06 before the friction brakes take hold.
23:08 And it means that you're able to slow down nice and quickly
23:12 without having to abuse those brakes all the time.
23:14 And it works pretty well.
23:15 You don't really notice the transition there
23:17 between the regen mode and the friction brakes.
23:21 Man, this car is quick.
23:23 Far out.
23:24 Jesus.
23:28 Yeah, this feels very different to a Tesla.
23:31 I don't know, I'm using the Tesla as a reference point
23:33 because the last one that I drove that was fast
23:35 was a Model S P100D, or the performance as it's now known.
23:39 And it feels fast in a straight line,
23:41 but it's just not really that good through corners.
23:43 This is just on another level.
23:45 And then when you punch the throttle,
23:46 it's just pinning you back in the seat constantly.
23:48 There really is no delay, no lag.
23:51 It just gets up and goes.
23:52 This is absolutely sensational and extremely addictive.
23:57 Okay, so that sound that we kept hearing there,
23:59 this car's optioned with, I guess,
24:02 the electric version of a Porsche exhaust system.
24:05 That means there is a speaker that's emitting sound,
24:08 so inside the cabin, but also outside the cabin.
24:11 So you can actually hear it as it zooms past.
24:13 It sounds like it's going at a billion miles an hour.
24:15 You can switch that stuff off on the infotainment system,
24:17 thankfully, because it does sound a little bit cheesy at times.
24:20 But, yeah, it's a pretty cool setup.
24:22 So what's the ride like?
24:24 Well, this sits on adaptive dampers with air suspension.
24:26 It's actually remarkably good when you consider
24:28 they are 21-inch alloy wheels with low-profile tyres.
24:32 And that means that when you are in and around the city,
24:34 where typically these are going to be spending most of their time,
24:37 it is incredibly smooth.
24:38 And that even translates out to country roads
24:41 at highway speeds on the undulations here,
24:44 which are typical of a country road.
24:47 So this is a sports car.
24:49 In theory, it should be not great.
24:53 So we'll just see how it rounds out these bumps.
24:55 Yeah, beautiful. No dramas at all. Very impressive.
24:58 There is still some tyre noise that comes into the cabin,
25:00 but for the most part, it's actually quite a pleasant place to be seated.
25:03 What's visibility like?
25:04 So, look, not terrible.
25:06 I thought it was going to be a whole lot worse than it is.
25:07 So down the front there, I can see the corners of the car.
25:10 The wing mirrors are big enough.
25:11 They could be maybe just a touch bigger,
25:13 but they do have a blind spot monitor built into them.
25:15 Visibility out the rear isn't great.
25:17 It's a super narrow envelope,
25:19 but I guess it's OK to see out of if you need to.
25:21 And then at low speed driving,
25:23 you have front and rear parking sensors, 360 camera,
25:25 so it is pretty easy to park.
25:27 Now, one thing I'll mention as well is this car has four-wheel steering.
25:31 What that means is when you're going through these corners,
25:34 it's able to effectively tuck the car in a little bit.
25:37 So it has that torque vectoring set up,
25:39 which actually works a whole lot better on an EV
25:41 because it's electric and everything is instant.
25:43 But with the four-wheel steering, as I provide steering input,
25:45 the rear wheels are joining me in that
25:48 to try and guide the car around the corner with ease.
25:50 But then at low speeds,
25:51 it actually helps by decreasing your turning circle.
25:54 So at low speeds, it goes from 11.7 metres to 11.2 metres,
25:58 which is a really good sort of reduction in that.
26:01 And then when you are doing low speeds,
26:02 the steering is so light, it's fantastic.
26:04 So it does firm up a little bit in Sport Plus mode,
26:06 but at low speeds with that sort of turning circle,
26:10 it actually makes it quite easy to drive and park in and around the city.
26:13 One thing I will touch on before we wrap up is the regen braking.
26:16 In Sport mode, it's great 'cause you can really sort of abuse it
26:20 and there's enough regen braking there
26:22 to slow the car up as you need to sort of slow up.
26:25 But in and around the city,
26:26 it's really unpredictable in terms of how it works.
26:28 Often when I go for the brake, I'll hear the friction brake working
26:31 instead of it just using regen.
26:34 And, I don't know, it just seems a bit counterproductive.
26:36 I'd love to just be able to roll out of the throttle
26:38 and have it use a whole lot more regen.
26:40 There is a button on the steering wheel that helps achieve that,
26:43 but...
26:44 ..yeah, it just doesn't really do an amazing job, I reckon.
26:49 So, the Porsche Taycan.
26:53 Look, I'm gonna preface this by saying
26:55 that a lot of people that test these cars,
26:57 a lot of other journalists and stuff like that,
26:58 they're testing them out on the road,
27:00 and when you compare it to a Tesla,
27:01 you know, Tesla's got all the latest gadgets and gizmos and stuff,
27:04 the Model S Plaid is faster and all that sort of thing,
27:07 but we've been fortunate enough to be able to test the Taycan
27:10 at what was a world-class proving ground,
27:12 at one point developing world-class cars.
27:14 So, it gives us a unique perspective
27:16 to really stretch the legs of these things,
27:18 and I can tell you that this handles just so much better
27:21 than any Tesla I've driven before,
27:23 and it feels far more confidence-inspiring as well.
27:26 So, while it may not be as fast in a straight line
27:29 as the latest and greatest Tesla Model S,
27:31 I think this really just has a Porsche vibe to it,
27:34 and that's what you want from an electric car
27:36 that wears a Porsche badge.
27:37 So, yeah, it puts a big smile on my face.
27:39 In terms of things that it could do better,
27:40 there needs to be more storage space inside.
27:42 It's just a really cramped interior,
27:44 and I get that it's like a sort of compact sports car type thing,
27:47 but look at the size of it.
27:48 Surely you could come up with a better storage solution,
27:50 but I think that's something that can work on.
27:52 And on the tech front, yeah, I love the second screen
27:55 and the way that it looks, but I think it's a little bit redundant,
27:57 and I just wouldn't bother wasting money on that kind of thing.
27:59 But outside of that, it's incredibly sporty,
28:01 fast, and charges quickly as well.
28:04 So, yeah, it's pretty awesome.
28:06 Let me know in the comments section below,
28:07 what do you reckon about the Taycan?
28:09 Have you bought one?
28:10 What are you doing with it?
28:11 And if you have bought one, have you gone crazy with the spec
28:13 like the press car is here?
28:15 Let me know in the comments section.
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28:25 we drive one of these fun little things.
28:26 But until next time, take it easy.