Seeking A Soul, Mate

PORSCHE’S DEBUT EV HAS ASTONISHING PERFORMANCE AND TOWERING TECHNICAL CAPABILITY, BUT CAN IT REALLY EMBODY THE SPIRIT OF STUTTGART?

- Alex Inwood

AUTOBAHN, 180 clicks south of Berlin. Rain spatters the windscreen as you patiently negotiate the melange of trucks, white vans, and hustling BMW wagons. Then, as if by some invisible signal, the fast lane clears and the road straightens. Flatten it. The Porsche explodes forwards, but not in the way you’re used to. There’s no kick down from the gearbox, no flare of revs, no howl from a collection of pistons, valves, and plugs. There’s only silence, save for some wind rustle and the rising roar from the 21-inch Goodyears. Just silence, and crushing, unrelenting, seemingly unstoppable acceleration.

Ferocious and sudden turns of speed have long been the EV shtick, yet beyond the tonne, combustion cars mostly hold the upper hand. But this is different. Where other EVs start to run out of puff, the Porsche Taycan seems to be only clearing its throat. 160km/h passes in the time it takes to loosen your grip on the steering wheel. Keep it pinned. 200km/h disappears in a matter of seconds as you apply a micron of lock to adjust for a sudden crosswind. Some context? If a McLaren F1 was in the next lane and accelerating hard, you’d be neck and neck.

The official VMAX is 260km/h but so rapid is our accumulation of speed that the Taycan’s speedometer rushes past that number with disdain. Only the sudden appearance of a van turning into the top lane seems capable of slowing Porsche’s EV as you get hard on the brakes at 270km/h.