The 2024 Porsche Taycan is a thrilling performance car with a luxurious interior and volumes of style and cachet. But if you’re looking for range and efficiency from your electric vehicle, look elsewhere.
Pros
- Thrilling power and handling ability
- High-quality interior blending sport and luxury
Cons
- Heavily reliant on touch-screen controls
- Lacks the range and efficiency of most rivals
What’s New for 2024
- No major changes
- Seats 4
- 71-83 City / 71-88 Hwy
- RWD, AWD
- 321 – 616 horsepower
Drive & Performance 9.5/10
The 2024 Taycan is as sporty and dynamic as today’s electric cars get. It effortlessly carves corners with balanced and responsive handling and holds plenty of power on tap when you need it. The Taycan’s fireworks aren’t limited to turns and straight lines. It’s just as enjoyable on long highway drives and during the daily rush, offering a comfortable and composed ride. The brake pedal feels firm, progressive and easy to modulate, without the stiff and wooden nature of many modern regenerative brake systems. Notably, the Taycan’s regenerative braking doesn’t allow for one-pedal driving, a desirable EV feature that aggressively slows the car when you lift your foot off the accelerator. A well-insulated cabin keeps road, wind and tire noise at bay.
Like its gas-powered counterparts, the Taycan’s impressive lineup ranges from capable and exciting to wildly intoxicating and irresponsible. The Taycan leaps forward with the slightest pressure on the accelerator, and its novel two-speed transmission helps deliver smooth, linear and seemingly endless power. A base Taycan can dash from zero to 60 mph in about 5 seconds, and it only gets faster from there. The dual-motor 4S can do the same task in about 3.5 seconds, while weighing about the same as a full-size pickup. The Taycan Turbo models, meanwhile, are some of the most powerful and fastest cars we review.
Fuel Economy 6.1/10
The Taycan has a subpar fuel economy score for the luxury electric car class. Across the lineup, its miles-per-gallon equivalent (MPGe) figures range from 76 to 83 in the city, 74 to 88 on the highway and 75 to 83 in combined city/highway driving. That’s less than most new electric vehicles on the market and much less than its main rivals. For example, the Lucid Air and Tesla Model S base trims are rated at 137 MPGe and 120 MPGe, respectively, while the BMW i5 is EPA-rated at 105 MPGe. For more information, check out What Is MPGe?
The Taycan’s driving range is not impressive, even for a performance-focused model. The Taycan’s maximum range of 246 miles (in GTS trim) falls short of the 270-mile median range of all EVs on sale in 2023. The Taycan base model with the upgraded battery offers 242 miles, while other models span between 208 and 238 miles. It’s worth noting that independent testers have found the Taycan capable of a longer real-world range than its EPA estimates suggest. Depending on battery size, a depleted Taycan can fully charge in about 10 hours on a Level 2 charger, making it a realistic overnight home-charging scenario for many owners. Level 3 DC fast-charging replenishes battery capacity from 5% to 80% in about 90 minutes, although at the fastest 350kW stations, the Taycan can charge to 80% in about 22 minutes.
Thinking of leasing a Porsche Taycan?
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Interior 6.5/10
Abundant tech features and touch-screen displays mark the Taycan’s rich and well-appointed cabin. The Taycan’s base trim comes with shapely seats, soft leather and soft-touch panels, and the interior can be upgraded to seemingly infinite degrees, from sport seats and steering wheels to surfaces and panels wrapped in velvety suedelike material.
The Taycan seats four in its standard guise, and you can add a small rear middle seat. The extra seat will work in a pinch, but no one will want to sit there for long, especially with the battery hump running through the middle of the car. The front seats are comfortable and spacious, with plenty of legroom, but the rear seat is tighter than it should be in a car as long as the Taycan. The interior’s low-seating position and cockpit feel, accentuated by the tall center console, lend the Taycan a proper Porsche sports car feel. This extends to the bucket-shaped rear seats, and combined with the low roof of sedan models, calls for a bit of mobility on entry and exit.
The sedan models have 14.3 cubic feet of trunk space, which is about average for the segment. There’s also a front storage space of about 3 cubic feet. Taycan Turbo models have slightly smaller trunks that measure 12.9 cubic feet. The hatchback Cross Turismo and GTS Sport Turismo models are roomier, with 15.8 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and 42.8 cubic feet when they’re folded down. The Turbo Cross Turismo has about 1.5 cubic feet less in each measurement.
