Porsche Taycan saloon - Interior & comfort
The Porsche Taycan's interior is futuristic and solidly built
We'll need to drive a Taycan in the UK to decide if its air suspension and 21-inch alloy wheels provide a smooth ride here, but early indications suggest it should be little different to a Porsche Panamera in this regard. It's very quiet up front, and we'd suggest leaving the Porsche Electric Sport Sound pack unticked for the Turbo, because we found its fake V6 engine soundtrack irritating. Hushed progress is preferable, although it's louder in the back seats, where there's more noise from the wide rear tyres.
Porsche Taycan dashboard
Porsche has grabbed the chance to create a cutting-edge interior, replacing its traditional analogue tachometer with digital screens for the instruments, infotainment, climate control and even one ahead of the passenger. The latter is optional and displays information like your speed and navigation - it’s a nice piece of tech but does feel a little gimmicky. The instrument display is a huge 16.8-inch item with four layouts, including one for the sat-nav, and a Pure mode with just essential information. Smaller touchscreens at either side allow for control of the interior lighting and chassis settings.
Fit and finish is as good as you'd hope from Porsche, and a major advantage over the cheaper Tesla Model S interior. You can choose from five colour themes and leather upholstery or a sustainable microfibre upholstery.
Equipment
As standard, the least expensive 4S version includes plenty of tech, including adaptive air suspension, automatic LED headlights, part-leather upholstery with electrically adjustable front seats, sat nav and 19-inch alloy wheels.
The Taycan Turbo comes with 20-inch alloy wheels, sports seats and Matrix LED headlights, among other extras. Its infotainment system has wireless Apple CarPlay, but not Android Auto, and a Bose stereo is fitted. The Turbo S version gets larger 21-inch wheels, bigger brakes and more adjustable front seats.
Options
As with all Porsche models, the options list is comprehensive and you can personalise everything from its exterior and interior colours to the alloy wheels. A ceramic brake upgrade is one of the costliest options at well over £6,000 (and we’d recommend putting your money elsewhere unless you’ll be taking the Taycan on track days), while a Burmester surround sound stereo costs over £3,000. A Sport Chrono stopwatch for the dashboard costs around £250, while adding 2+1 rear seats to boost practicality is just under £350. This also includes a 40:20:40 split and fold backrest.
It’s a shame that the 4S doesn’t come with a few features that are surely considered must-haves on a near-£85,000 car. If you want heated front seats, a reversing camera, keyless entry or adaptive cruise control, you’ll have to pay extra - and you could find all this equipment on a number of sub-£30,000 family hatchbacks. It's a similar story with the £2,100 adaptive cruise control, which is now commonplace in much cheaper models.
