THE ICE BREAKER

Outside these windows, it’s absolutely freezing. Battery-sucking conditions, apparently, for electric cars. Fortunately the Porsche Taycan I’m currently snuggled in is prepared for such wintery hell with a suite of onboard heaters quick to pamper the batteries to peak performance.

FHM has been invited to the very edges of the Artic Circle to sample the entry-level Porsche Taycan 4S and to make things more, erm interesting, we’re driving it on snow and ice as well as drifting them around, almost brainlessly, at the Porsche Experience Centre – the sum total of its foundations being a cozy wooden hut and some leveled snowfields.

I think this is Porsche’s way of proving that their first EV is fun… as much fun in fact as some of its revered sportscars. Noise aside, I’m beginning to see their point. But this snow globe is the sort of care-free entertainment that bears little relevance to where and how most Porsche Taycans will be driven so let’s take a step back and review how we got here and why this is one of those pivotal points in Porsche’s narrative.

Kicking on from Porsche’s myriad hybrid models, the Taycan is the company’s electric car debutant, modeled on the shortened silhouette of a Panamera but packing completely new technology underneath. With the Taycan 4S the brand is bridging value, brand cachet, range and performance in one zero-emission footprint, while giving you enough options to spec upwards to within a few technological whiskers of the pricier Taycan Turbo and Taycan Turbo S.

At dinner one of the engineers confessed to me that this is the most exciting project he’s ever worked on because without knowing the limitations, they couldn’t set any. And for the record, his credentials include a lot of Porsche GT3 models…