The Porsche Taycan Is One of the Best Performance EVs I’ve Driven, but Not for the Reason You Think

I have led a lot of electric cars of the biggest brands – everything, from elegant sedans to bulky SUVs – and although many of them impress on paper, very few manage to love in real life. The range is never so good. The load is not as fast as expected. This is what made the Porsche Taycan 4S 2025. I expected at speed, adherence and all the other Porsche party stuff. To which I was not expecting was to delirious on the range and the charging times from more than 0 to 60 and GS side.

Porsche gave me the keys to the Taycan 2025 freshly updated – the one with modified battery chemistry and improved efficiency. Porsche does not shout on this subject in bold letters, but these improvements give you 40 to 50 additional miles of scope depending on the specifications and the driving style. This may not seem revolutionary, but when you really drive EV performance, you quickly realize that all your range anxiety has been left.

The Porsche Taycan is a king of performance, but its range is what sold me

Let’s get away from it: the Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is fast. It will always slam you in the seat with the 598 horsepower available in launching control mode, and time of 3.6 seconds 0 to 60 MPH is extremely impressive for something that has more than enough space in the back for daily use. The ride is tight, the management is sharp, and although it is the real estate version of the Taycan, it feels each little a Porsche in the corners.

But that’s not what impressed me the most in this EV performance. I was rather blown away by the electric experience. The range, load speeds – you know, all boring bits.

I first recovered the HQ Porsche car with approximately 86% remaining load, reading 272 miles of range in sport more. I quickly learned that it was not an optimistic estimate like most other electric vehicles. After about five hours of mixed driving – sports and highway sports, motorway cards, a little crawling in town – I looked down and the car was going to make all the trip.

And it did. After going into the beach driving mode (which is essentially the most effective option), I managed to travel 286 miles with around 16% of the remaining load. It was with a fairly complete trunk, the air conditioning on and zero hypermiling.

The cherry on top? Charge. The Taycan 2025 supports up to 320 kW of ultra-fast load, and I was able to test this with a 250 kW +station. It increased from 10% to 80% in less than 20 minutes. This is not an estimate of the manufacturer, that’s what I saw. Almost an entire load in the time I needed to have breakfast in Starbucks and visit the bathroom. Even in low -power stations, it never felt slow.

Now there is a large range competitor: lucid air. It can travel nearly 500 miles on a full load. He is the champion of the EV range, without a doubt. He also supports an ultra-fast charge and made good promise. But while the lucid air is fixed as a luxury, smooth, refined and wonderfully comfortable cruiser – it is not racing.

Meanwhile, the Taycan absolutely does it. It is an EV of performance above all, and which just arrives at the range and the charge of the nails. And that’s the difference. The Lucid range can be longer, but the range of Taycan is always exceptional – and delivered in a really exciting package to drive.

Inside, the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is all you expect from Porsche: an impeccable quality of construction, a clear design and just enough screens to feel futuristic. That said, everything is not perfect. I despise climatic tactile climatic controls, and Porsche has chosen to include them rather than the physical buttons that you will find in other electric vehicles, including the Macan. Slipping a virtual vent on a screen instead of twisting a button looks like a degradation of usability, not to progress.

But I’m going to forgive this because the rest of the cabin is an amazing. The Provence paint was perhaps not my essential color on paper, but in person? It sings absolutely. It is a light and lilac purple that makes the car feels both chic and a little cheeky. Combine this with the 21 -inch wheels and the additional coating of Cross Turismo, and you have one of the most beautiful electric vehicles.

Practitioner is also there with a giant. The rear passengers obtain more margin than in the version of the living room, and the back adapts to 446 liters of cargo – or more if you fold the seats. There are even an additional 84 liters under the front cover. And that’s not the whole show; I used this space on my fairly long roadtrip.

It should also be noted that all the best features – the adaptive air suspension, the chrono sport package, the panoramic roof and the Bose surround system – appeared on my test car, but they are not standard.

The basic Taycan starts around $ 100,000, but the 4s Turismo Cross that you see here comes around $ 130,000. And once you checked some of these tasty boxes of Porsche options? You can easily hover in the $ 150,000 district.

It’s steep, of course, but for the right buyer – someone who wants an appropriate performance car that is electric – it could well be worth every penny. And you will never have to think twice to find out if the car can go to a longer journey.

Publishers’ note: The travel and load costs linked to this story were covered by the manufacturer, which is common in the automotive industry. The judgments and opinions of CNET staff are ours.