Porsche Taycan Turbo S is Road & Track's Over-$100,000 2024 Performance EV of the Year

[JayGT4]

https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a45644406/porsche-taycan-turbo-s-performance-ev-award-2024/

Porsche Taycan Turbo S Is Road & Track's Over-$100,000 2024 Performance EV of the Year

The low and slinky Taycan was never the “Tesla killer” that internet headline writers wanted it to be. It was never a Tesla anything. Since it went on sale in 2020, the Taycan has only ever been the Porsche that happens to be electric.

https://www.roadandtrack.com/reviews/a45644406/porsche-taycan-turbo-s-performance-ev-award-2024/

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[RingoDingo]

Matt Farah, referenced in the article, has always had very high praise for the Taycan, and I really valued his opinion of the driving experience going into my purchase. I think he'd own one if not for his bias against spending over $100k on depreciating cars (I think he currently owns a 718 Boxster Spyder in Frozen Berry, a Ferrari 328, a Lamborghini Countach and a Ford Mach-E Mustang GT). In one of his videos he described the Taycan as handling like a Cayman but with instant torque. Honestly, that was enough for me.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Stunning pics, thanks for sharing.

It was sad to see Daniel Pund leave C&D; otoh I'm not a fan of Matt Farah. The pictures, though, more than offset that aspect.

 

[RAHRCR]

Congrats to you Taycan Turbo S owners. This was a fun read. I am still a happy peasant with my 4S.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

This was also a good read: Trying to Keep Six Electric Cars Charged Drove Me Mad (roadandtrack.com)

I identified with the 'awkward conversations' bit, having been through exactly that not long ago.
Still, you can tell the editors are not really daily EV drivers: despite their common-sense choice of area, what ensued was all predictable. What you do is a) go far out from California to a b) 0-population locale near a major interstate. There'll be a Walmart, with 4 brand-new, virtually-unoccupied EA stalls, all chargers running at full speed.

 

[Tooney]

This was also a good read: Trying to Keep Six Electric Cars Charged Drove Me Mad (roadandtrack.com)

I identified with the 'awkward conversations' bit, having been through exactly that not long ago.
Still, you can tell the editors are not really daily EV drivers: despite their common-sense choice of area, what ensued was all predictable. What you do is a) go far out from California to a b) 0-population locale near a major interstate. There'll be a Walmart, with 4 brand-new, virtually-unoccupied EA stalls, all chargers running at full speed.

Did @daveo4EV write that magazine article?
Where is @thecoloradokid when we need him?

 

[RingoDingo]

Stunning pics, thanks for sharing.

It was sad to see Daniel Pund leave C&D; otoh I'm not a fan of Matt Farah. The pictures, though, more than offset that aspect.

Matt Farah is not for everyone. He's nothing if not opinionated and borderline arrogant. His anti-capitalist rants are especially ironic given that he's an Ivy League graduate and the son of a former Ralph Lauren executive that grew up in true privilege outside NYC. But, he knows cars, breaks them down exceptionally well and has a soft spot for the Taycan, so I'll forgive him.

 

[thecoloradokid]

Did @daveo4EV write that magazine article?
Where is @thecoloradokid when we need him?

Oh, I am still here! I got the CT4S back about three weeks ago, but have been busy with work. Nothing like back to back five day trips to San Diego in October for work, just to come back to the first snow storm of the year in Colorado and the nine inches of snow it brought with it.

I am aiming to take the first road trip in a while in the CT4S down to Scottsdale in a couple of weeks to work remotely for a week or ten days. Honestly, I am a little nervous about it because of the increasing horror stories/articles I see both here and on the Rivian board about how progressively worse Electrify America is getting. While I have had great luck in my EV road trips dating back to 2016/2017, the law of averages will eventually come back to bite me in the a$$. I kind of experienced it when I came back from Lawrence, KS in Sept. and the Flagler, CO EA site was de-rated down to 36kW. There is a great new 200kW charger in Burlington, CO that will be my go to from here on out, but I screwed up and skipped it thinking the EA location in Flager was be working with no issues since they just updated it by installing a solar canopy. Of course, EA being EA, they installed the new solar canopy, but kept the older chargers instead of replacing them with the new ones they are installing in other new sites around the country, so reliability/dependability at that location is still $hit.

When it comes to fast EV charging I am lucky I don't live in California, so I am not waiting while on a road trip on five Chevy Bolts to charge at an EA location with only one or two cabinets working. I am usually driving from Denver to Scottsdale or Vegas and back on a Tuesday or a Wednesday when there is no competition for a charger in places like Trinidad, CO or Grants, NM or Salina, UT.

While I still personally think Tesla should be forced to divest the supercharging network and it should be operated by a company non-affiliated with Elon Musk due to the strategic importance of what it does, I do hope Tesla picks up the pace when it comes to updating the network with the CCS plugs. If the EA chargers in Green River, UT happen to be slow, or broken, it is always nice to have a back up plan with the Tesla chargers just a couple blocks to the east, even if the thought of paying Tesla makes we want to vomit like a 11th grader after their first prom.

 

[WasserGKuehlt]

Oh, I am still here! I got the CT4S back about three weeks ago, but have been busy with work. Nothing like back to back five day trips to San Diego in October for work, just to come back to the first snow storm of the year in Colorado and the nine inches of snow it brought with it.

[...]

Of course, EA being EA, they installed the new solar canopy, but kept the older chargers instead of replacing them with the new ones they are installing in other new sites around the country, so reliability/dependability at that location is still $hit.

Oh wow, hey, he's back! Good to hear the car is on the road again, but we'll probably still want to hear how it unfolded (especially with CO DoT)..

And I am noticing some changes, so I wonder if someone (Dave?) hacked @thecoloradokid's account. Tell you the truth, at some point in the past it had occurred to me that you may be affiliated with EA.. (j/k). Unfortunately, it looks like EA can piss off even the most patient of us.

Welcome back

 

[thecoloradokid]

Oh wow, hey, he's back! Good to hear the car is on the road again, but we'll probably still want to hear how it unfolded (especially with CO DoT)..

And I am noticing some changes, so I wonder if someone (Dave?) hacked @thecoloradokid's account. Tell you the truth, at some point in the past it had occurred to me that you may be affiliated with EA.. (j/k). Unfortunately, it looks like EA can piss off even the most patient of us.

Welcome back

To be honest, I have had about as much drama as I can take with cars over the past four months, so I may be a little on the negative side these days when it comes to all things EV.

I am still dealing with the State of Colorado and their outsourced claims team, so that is pending. The CT4S works looks and is working great, so that is a bright spot.

My Rivian has been to the service center seven times in the five months I have had it for little things - like to replace the two motors that operate each side of the tail gate release process. Each motor broke at different times, so that required separate visits. The Rivian drives great, but there are little things like that that need replacement when they break. I had another service appointment scheduled this week and when I showed up is when they realized they ordered the wrong replacement parts. I totally get that Rivian is a new car company, and I signed up for the growing pains, but seven service center visits in five months on top of dealing with the Porsche has killed a lot of my patience.

I am not, nor have ever been, affiliated with Electrify America, but I have had 98% to 99% good luck with the network in all my road trips in the 6 CCS EV's I have had in the past five years - and that covers 75k highway miles in that time. That being said, I am also part Sicilian, so I know that luck like that does not hold out forever. Hence my desire for other charging network availability.

I am not ready to go full dark side since I know $hit happens, and worse $hit happens to people who are naive enough to think the existing EV charging infrastructure will work perfectly 100% of the time, but between the two vehicle discussion boards I frequent there seems to be an increase in EA reliability complaints. Like I said, I have not gone full dark side yet on EA, but I am also moving away from defending them as well.

Enough about me, let's get back to the Turbo S being recognized for the piece of engineering art on four wheels that it is.

 

[Tooney]

Oh, I am still here! I got the CT4S back about three weeks ago, but have been busy with work. Nothing like back to back five day trips to San Diego in October for work, just to come back to the first snow storm of the year in Colorado and the nine inches of snow it brought with it.

Glad you got your Taycan back. I hope you get back to telling us how great EA is working for you on road trips. I had generally good experiences a year ago, but on same road trip route from midwest to new england and back this year charging rates were noticeably slower.

 

[Tucson_Jim]

Oh, I am still here! I got the CT4S back about three weeks ago, but have been busy with work. Nothing like back to back five day trips to San Diego in October for work, just to come back to the first snow storm of the year in Colorado and the nine inches of snow it brought with it.

I am aiming to take the first road trip in a while in the CT4S down to Scottsdale in a couple of weeks to work remotely for a week or ten days. Honestly, I am a little nervous about it because of the increasing horror stories/articles I see both here and on the Rivian board about how progressively worse Electrify America is getting. While I have had great luck in my EV road trips dating back to 2016/2017, the law of averages will eventually come back to bite me in the a$$. I kind of experienced it when I came back from Lawrence, KS in Sept. and the Flagler, CO EA site was de-rated down to 36kW. There is a great new 200kW charger in Burlington, CO that will be my go to from here on out, but I screwed up and skipped it thinking the EA location in Flager was be working with no issues since they just updated it by installing a solar canopy. Of course, EA being EA, they installed the new solar canopy, but kept the older chargers instead of replacing them with the new ones they are installing in other new sites around the country, so reliability/dependability at that location is still $hit.

When it comes to fast EV charging I am lucky I don't live in California, so I am not waiting while on a road trip on five Chevy Bolts to charge at an EA location with only one or two cabinets working. I am usually driving from Denver to Scottsdale or Vegas and back on a Tuesday or a Wednesday when there is no competition for a charger in places like Trinidad, CO or Grants, NM or Salina, UT.

While I still personally think Tesla should be forced to divest the supercharging network and it should be operated by a company non-affiliated with Elon Musk due to the strategic importance of what it does, I do hope Tesla picks up the pace when it comes to updating the network with the CCS plugs. If the EA chargers in Green River, UT happen to be slow, or broken, it is always nice to have a back up plan with the Tesla chargers just a couple blocks to the east, even if the thought of paying Tesla makes we want to vomit like a 11th grader after their first prom.

I've done that Denver to Tucson run a few times. Grants and Trinidad, plus never forget Wagon Mound!

 

[snstevens]

To be honest, I have had about as much drama as I can take with cars over the past four months, so I may be a little on the negative side these days when it comes to all things EV.

I am still dealing with the State of Colorado and their outsourced claims team, so that is pending. The CT4S works looks and is working great, so that is a bright spot.

My Rivian has been to the service center seven times in the five months I have had it for little things - like to replace the two motors that operate each side of the tail gate release process. Each motor broke at different times, so that required separate visits. The Rivian drives great, but there are little things like that that need replacement when they break. I had another service appointment scheduled this week and when I showed up is when they realized they ordered the wrong replacement parts. I totally get that Rivian is a new car company, and I signed up for the growing pains, but seven service center visits in five months on top of dealing with the Porsche has killed a lot of my patience.

I am not, nor have ever been, affiliated with Electrify America, but I have had 98% to 99% good luck with the network in all my road trips in the 6 CCS EV's I have had in the past five years - and that covers 75k highway miles in that time. That being said, I am also part Sicilian, so I know that luck like that does not hold out forever. Hence my desire for other charging network availability.

I am not ready to go full dark side since I know $hit happens, and worse $hit happens to people who are naive enough to think the existing EV charging infrastructure will work perfectly 100% of the time, but between the two vehicle discussion boards I frequent there seems to be an increase in EA reliability complaints. Like I said, I have not gone full dark side yet on EA, but I am also moving away from defending them as well.

Enough about me, let's get back to the Turbo S being recognized for the piece of engineering art on four wheels that it is.

Thanks for sharing an update, including what it's like to be on the bleeding edge of Rivian's growing pains. It ain't easy, and I appreciate the honest reflection.

 

[JWreck]

To be honest, I have had about as much drama as I can take with cars over the past four months, so I may be a little on the negative side these days when it comes to all things EV.

I am still dealing with the State of Colorado and their outsourced claims team, so that is pending. The CT4S works looks and is working great, so that is a bright spot.

My Rivian has been to the service center seven times in the five months I have had it for little things - like to replace the two motors that operate each side of the tail gate release process. Each motor broke at different times, so that required separate visits. The Rivian drives great, but there are little things like that that need replacement when they break. I had another service appointment scheduled this week and when I showed up is when they realized they ordered the wrong replacement parts. I totally get that Rivian is a new car company, and I signed up for the growing pains, but seven service center visits in five months on top of dealing with the Porsche has killed a lot of my patience.

I am not, nor have ever been, affiliated with Electrify America, but I have had 98% to 99% good luck with the network in all my road trips in the 6 CCS EV's I have had in the past five years - and that covers 75k highway miles in that time. That being said, I am also part Sicilian, so I know that luck like that does not hold out forever. Hence my desire for other charging network availability.

I am not ready to go full dark side since I know $hit happens, and worse $hit happens to people who are naive enough to think the existing EV charging infrastructure will work perfectly 100% of the time, but between the two vehicle discussion boards I frequent there seems to be an increase in EA reliability complaints. Like I said, I have not gone full dark side yet on EA, but I am also moving away from defending them as well.

Enough about me, let's get back to the Turbo S being recognized for the piece of engineering art on four wheels that it is.

I share your frustrations with Rivian as our R1S has been in the shop nearly the same number of times in the 5 months we’ve had it. All little things, but it’s just constant and annoying, and the service experience is absolute garbage in Austin.

Porsche has been great to us though, and have seriously considered grabbing a new Cayenne to replace the R1S.

 

[DoctorLife]

Congrats to you Taycan Turbo S owners. This was a fun read. I am still a happy peasant with my 4S.

At least you know you are happy . I have a Turbo and keep hearing Marlon Brando's voice in my ear "Hey I could have been a contender (for a Turbo S)"...So near and yet so far

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