Recently, it has been hard for me to be truly decisive when it comes to making my mind up on how I feel about new cars. I wrote about the Mazda, which I really wanted to like to but unfortunately I could not. I wrote about the Maserati which initially charmed me with its spurious passion but then when I got to know it I realized it was not really what it was made out to be. You could call me a cynic, and you would probably be right. So do not take this lightly when I say that the Porsche Taycan Turbo, in my eyes, is exactly what the car industry needs.

Before I explain the one moment of certainty I have had regarding the automotive world in the last six months, let us discuss the plain hard facts. While the name does have the word “turbo” in it, the car is completely electric. Weird but true. The car can accelerate from 0-60 mph in a staggering 2.6 seconds (with launch control) and can do the now almost obligatory top speed figure for sports sedans: 155 mph. What really serves to impress, however, is the level of intelligence Porsche engineers have brought to the Taycan.

The name of the game for these engineers was efficiency, and you can see the implications of their focus starting with the energy unit. The Taycan uses a 800V performance battery, almost double the normal amount seen in electric cars, which allows the system to run on lower current levels. This means thinner wiring all around the car as well as lower heat level in the motors. This, of course, allows the car to run more efficiently and for a longer period of time. Then there is the insane Porsche Recuperation Management (RPM) system on this car which takes efficiency to an even more unhinged level. With the RPM, the company claims that up to 90% of the energy wasted from braking can be saved and then recycled to drive you even further. They say that if the driver used only recuperation energy to decelerate from 124 mph to 0 mph the energy recovered by the system could then be used to drive the car another 2.5 miles.

Every single fact and figure just affirms to me that in terms of hard facts and pragmatic analytics the Porsche Taycan Turbo will be a slam dunk. What I appreciate even more, though, is the company’s angle with this car. Porsche have openly admitted that with this new car they are trying to reach new audiences, but if you ask me they are doing so without truly leaving what Porsche is about. For so long the manufacturer has been a staple of what sports performance should be, and with them making the decision to go to electric and presenting the Taycan as their first effort, they now have set a precedent for the rest of the industry to follow.

Sure, Tesla definitely opened the door for the electric car to become a legitimate option, but now with Porsche walking through the door the conversation becomes much more serious. Porsche has brought the same level of intelligence to the Taycan that Musk has with all of his creations, but more importantly they have brought a soul to the electric car. For so long fans of the electric car have loved it for being a wonderful piece of technology, and with the Taycan the story is no different. The technology is there. The design is there. The performance is there. The practicality is there. However, what I truly love- what I do not think other electric car manufacturers have captured just yet- is that this is finally an electric car that car enthusiasts can truly appreciate.

Citations:
“FIRST LOOK: Porsche Taycan Turbo | Top Gear.” YouTube. N. p., 2020. Web. 27 Jan. 2020.
“Porsche Taycan Turbo – Porsche USA.” Porsche HOME – Porsche USA. N. p., 2020. Web. 27 Jan. 2020.
“Bloomberg – Are You A Robot?.” Bloomberg.com. N. p., 2020. Web. 27 Jan. 2020.
“Porsche Taycan.” En.wikipedia.org. N. p., 2020. Web. 27 Jan. 2020.