Winter Driving First Impressions

kmcdonal

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I know people have touched on winter driving in other threads, but I thought it was worthy of a dedicated thread. I have had my Taycan for about four months and have been anxious to see how it would do in the snow. I bought the car so I could have a sports car I could drive year round, but honestly I was skeptical of how it would do in the snow with 500+HP. I was very pleasantly surprised by how well it did.

I have the 4S with 20" wheels and torque vectoring. I recently put the Pirelli Zero Winters on. I have been driving in the snow for 35 years and have been in more than my fair share of blizzards and other dicey conditions. Historically my car of choice in the snow has been Subaru or Audi although I have driven a lot of different vehicles in the snow.

Today we had some rain that froze and was covered with about 8 inches of powder. Most of the roads had not been plowed at all. In other words, it was pretty sketchy.

I was super impressed with how the car put the traction down to the ground. I was quite concerned about how it would do with all that torque. However, it was better than the Subaru we own, and Subaru is a snow machine. The Taycan very quickly redistributes the power to whatever wheels have traction. It is much more fluid than the AWD systems on other cars have I tried. Even our Subaru will allow the rear tires to fishtail a bit more before it sends the power up front. The Taycan just keeps the car pointing straight. I went up this steep and very slick hill with zero problem - really impressive.

I did go down several streets where the snow was deep enough that the grille was starting to plow the snow. (It is hard to see, but in the second photo the snow is 8 to 10 inches deep.) I did raise the suspension up to make sure I didn't get high centered, something you may have to watch with this car if the snow is really deep.

The ABS did kick in a little sooner than I was expecting in a few places. It wasn't the ABS per-se, but the lack of traction. The P Zero Winters have a lot of traction in the snow, but it is still a wide tire. This is totally a gut feel thing, but my sense is that some of my prior cars with narrower tires might not have triggered the ABS quite so quickly.

Overall I was super impressed and will have no qualms taking the Taycan out in big snowstorms. Just keep an eye on the speed. It is not hard to imagine building speed quickly enough that you get in trouble.

P.S. The picture of the snowboarders / skiers being towed by a jeep has nothing to do with the Taycan, but it cracked me up.

Porsche Taycan Winter Driving First Impressions Taycan in the snow


Porsche Taycan Winter Driving First Impressions unplowed road


Porsche Taycan Winter Driving First Impressions snowboarders on the street
 

Chowster

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Thanks for letting us know what to expect when the snow falls. Reaffirms my decision for a winter wheel and tire setup.

That is some serious snow for October 25th!
 
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kmcdonal

kmcdonal

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Thanks for letting us know what to expect when the snow falls. Reaffirms my decision for a winter wheel and tire setup.

That is some serious snow for October 25th!
It is Colorado. My neighbors used to have a photo of them swimming on a 98 degree day in July the day after a blizzard that dumped four feet of snow. You never know what will happen here.
 

PanameraFrank

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Awesome!! I'll add my thoughts on the Pirelli Scorpions I'm putting on in a week or two after I get them in some snow.
 

Schlossj

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Awesome!! I'll add my thoughts on the Pirelli Scorpions I'm putting on in a week or two after I get them in some snow.
So maybe a dumb question but will the All Season tires be suitable for a New York City light snow / slush kind of situation? If it’s real deep I’ll take either the SUV or the Truck but just wondering if I can whip around in less than 6 inches of snow without dedicated snow tires.
 


PanameraFrank

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So maybe a dumb question but will the All Season tires be suitable for a New York City light snow / slush kind of situation? If it’s real deep I’ll take either the SUV or the Truck but just wondering if I can whip around in less than 6 inches of snow without dedicated snow tires.
As I always say, All Season tires are fine until they aren't. Modern winter tires are very effective without really much compromise, they're still fine in 50 degree weather.

Buying Winter tires effectively extends the life of your tires overall so you're really just paying the $400 or so a year to swap them on and off. In exchange you're gaining a significant bump in safety. Easy call if you ever plan to drive in sub 40 degree wet weather, IMHO.
 
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kmcdonal

kmcdonal

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So maybe a dumb question but will the All Season tires be suitable for a New York City light snow / slush kind of situation? If it’s real deep I’ll take either the SUV or the Truck but just wondering if I can whip around in less than 6 inches of snow without dedicated snow tires.
Not a dumb question at all and the answer isn't entirely clear. All season tires can be more like summer tires or more like winter tires or be somewhere right in the middle. There is a huge range of capabilities and it all comes down to what the manufacturer decided to do with that tire.

My assumption was that given that these all seasons were developed for the Taycan, they probably are more biased toward summer performance, but that is a total guess. You might be able to research the tire a bit and find out.

As @PanameraFrank said, it is hard to go wrong with switching to winter tires. All it really costs in the long run is about $100 twice a year to swap the tires.
 

Arno

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As I always swear; “Best tires - to correct conditions - at all times” !!

By the way, ‘all season tires’ VS ‘winter tires’ are also discussed on another post here in the forum, so I link here: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...g-winter-tires-and-or-wheels.2554/#post-37522

@kmcdonal: Great winter pictures :D This winter I actually look forward to the snowy season myself, in the new Taycan TS with ‘Nokian Hakepelitta 3’ tires for Nordic conditions:

Porsche Taycan Winter Driving First Impressions 10210536-6BA1-4643-BE44-2BF89F240A62
 
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Mouse House

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As I always swear; “Best tires - to correct conditions - at all times” !!

By the way, ‘all season tires’ VS ‘winter tires’ are also discussed in another post here in the forum, so I link here: https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...g-winter-tires-and-or-wheels.2554/#post-37522

@kmcdonal: Great winter pictures :D This winter I actually look forward to the snowy season myself, in the new Taycan TS with ‘Nokian Hakepelitta 3 tires’ for Nordic conditions:

10210536-6BA1-4643-BE44-2BF89F240A62.jpeg
The winter wheel set looks really good. Nice job.
 
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kmcdonal

kmcdonal

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How did you do that, please?
I am just talking about the button on the right side of the dash that lifts the suspension. I assumed it was available on all cars in all regions, but maybe that isn't the case.

Porsche Taycan Winter Driving First Impressions Suspension raise
 
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kmcdonal

kmcdonal

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Does the winter mileage drop a lot??

I cannot find the thread, but as I recall @louv posted about how his range went from ~250 miles to ~200 miles when it got cold.

I haven't driven enough in the cold to have a lot of observations myself. I do really like the ability to start the heater remotely. So nice to get to the car and find it is already warm. However, it definitely doesn't come for free when it comes to range.
 

6offsetin

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Have you tried setting the traction control down a step (single press vs all off) I'm wondering how it handles that...my big E63 was quite fun to slide around :D
 
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kmcdonal

kmcdonal

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Have you tried setting the traction control down a step (single press vs all off) I'm wondering how it handles that...my big E63 was quite fun to slide around :D
Haven't tried that yet. Will have to give that a shot in the right place.
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