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In-depth reviews

Porsche Taycan review - Range, charging & running costs

Efficient motors and fast charging but a steep asking price

Carbuyer Rating

4.3 out of 5

Owners Rating
Be the first to review
Range, charging & running costs Rating

4.5 out of 5

Fitting the large 105kWh Performance Battery Plus pack and efficient motor has allowed Porsche to give the Taycan a very usable driving range in the standard rear-wheel drive model, and it gets up to 421 miles – this is the model you want if range between top-ups is your top priority. As standard, however, entry-level cars get an 89kWh battery pack, which is good for up to 367 miles.

Porsche Taycan range & charging

While the entry-level rear-wheel drive model’s range is the most impressive, elsewhere in the lineup this can vary. In the four-wheel drive 4S, range drops slightly to an official 399 miles with the larger battery, while the smaller battery delivers up to 346 miles to a charge. Turbo models and above are fitted with the larger unit as standard, but the extra performance comes at the cost of some range, so none of the four-wheel drive models are more efficient than the 4S. Turbo and Turbo S get an official 391 miles to a charge, while the Turbo GT and Turbo GT with Weissach Package get up to 344 and 345 miles respectively.

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When we tested the Taycan Performance Battery Plus on a warm day in the UK, we found it was achieving around 4 miles/kWh during a motorway run and a very impressive 5.7 miles/kWh efficiency over a suburban route of around 15 miles, making a real-world range of around 400 miles seem feasible.

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The Taycan’s charging speed has been increased by 50kW in Performance Battery Plus models – that means it can now charge at up to 320kW with a compatible charger, for a 10 to 80% top-up in just 18 minutes. Maximum charging speeds for the smaller battery are up to 270kW. When we plugged in our test car with a quarter of its charge remaining it hit speeds of 262kW and charged from 24 to 82% in 18 minutes.

Charging from home with an 11kW home wallbox charger will take 11 hours for the larger battery, while the smaller battery takes nine hours to charge.

Insurance groups

As expected, the Taycan slots into the current highest insurance classification, group 50. All versions of the Tesla Model S find themselves in group 50, and even the cheaper Jaguar I-Pace with just over half the Taycan's power is in group 49.

Warranty

The Taycan gets the same three-year warranty as other Porsche models but the battery pack is covered by its own eight-year warranty for added peace of mind. Porsche also guarantees it won't drop below 70% of its original capacity during that time.

Servicing

Porsche says its Taycan models require routine maintenance and servicing every two years or 20,000 miles. During a service, Porsche will replace your cabin air filter, flush and replace the brake fluid and check the tyres.

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Charlie writes and edits news, review and advice articles for Carbuyer, as well as publishing content to its social media platforms. He has also been a regular contributor to its sister titles Auto Express, DrivingElectric and evo. As well as being consumed by everything automotive, Charlie is a speaker of five languages and once lived in Chile, Siberia and the Czech Republic, returning to the UK to write about his life-long passion: cars.

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