Porsche Taycan Turbo 2024 review | Goodwood Test

It’s a full five years since Porsche burst onto the EV scene with the Taycan, and now it’s been updated with more power and a fresh interior to raise the bar for an incredibly broad market spanning luxury GTs and high performance sportscars.

We should come to expect it, but Porsche has expanded far beyond its original billing as a sportscar manufacturer to be arguably the greatest car manufacturer on the planet. The best proof of that is the Taycan, which simultaneously delivers stunning acceleration and handling performance and a silky, sophisticated ride.

The Taycan Turbo might be the ultimate balance of the range, too, fast enough that it will leave you and your passengers stunned, but also substantially less expensive than the top of the range Turbo S.

It’s a subtle update on the outside, with changes at the front end limited to a redesign of the air intakes and a barely discernible tweak to the LED headlights. It does have a more chiselled appearance than before, but at a glance it’s a very similar result to the previous model.

Over the rest of the car, the wings have been accentuated to give the new Taycan a more dynamic look, although again, we won’t mark you down if you didn’t notice, and the LED strip on the rear of the car has been updated with a new 3D Porsche logo design which can be illuminated when you get in or out.

A brand-new element to this new Taycan is a stronger differentiation for Turbo models. They now feature ‘Turbonite’ (a posh word for metallic grey) details for Porsche logos inside and outside the car, window frames and side sills. The alloy wheels are also finished in this Turbo-only colour.

This thing is monstrously fast. Porsche has tweaked the powertrain on the rear axle to deliver substantially more power than before. In Taycan Turbo form overall power output has been increased from 680PS (500kW) to a maximum 884PS (650kW) with launch control. The results are staggering.

Relentless acceleration that feels on the limit of what’s sensible on public roads propels you from 0-62mph in 2.7 seconds. It’s instant performance that pins you back into your seat and keeps you there until you release pressure on the throttle pedal. The 124mph mark is brought up in a similarly striking 8.7 seconds, it just keeps on pulling, we imagine unabated, all of the way to a limited top speed of 162mph.

We just don’t see why you would need anything more than what the Taycan Turbo can offer, and it’s still half a second slower than the quickest Turbo GT in the range. Whether that half a second is worth £50,000 is a question for another time, but we know we’d rather save the cash.

A lot of this new performance has been achieved with a new electric motor on the rear axle chucks out more power and weighs around 10kg less than the previous version, but the system is also more efficient than before with a trick new all-wheel-drive setup that switches off the front electric motor to save energy when traction and grip levels allow. It will of course kick back into gear almost instantaneously whenever you take a stab at the throttle.

Even with such frightening levels of propulsion, the Taycan Turbo still manages to keep everything under control with a keenly tuned chassis setup that incorporates all-wheel drive and torque vectoring that utilises an electric diff lock on the rear axle. With the traction control on, it’s difficult to force the car out of line, which in itself is remarkable.

The adaptive air suspension is a thing of beauty, too. It works together with Porsche’s optional Active Ride system to deliver a faultless ride, especially when it comes to comfort, although the seamless transition from airy spongefest to engaged performance is perhaps more impressive. It’ll lower itself by 22mm when you’re up to speed, which not only gives the car a more settled feel but also improves aerodynamic efficiency, which means the faster you go the better range you’ll get, at least that’s what we tell ourselves. 

When combined with the Active Ride system, the Taycan Turbo is an utterly fabulous thing to drive. Akin to what we’ve seen in the Ferrari Purosangue, hydraulic dampers counteract body roll to keep the car level through corners and under braking to retain a perfect balance that maximises grip and performance. It’s a little odd at first as you lose some of the sensations you’re used to feeling when you brake or turn in, but when you get a sense of the handling you quickly understand its benefits.

For the way this thing clings to the road, for a car that weighs more than two tonnes, the Taycan Turbo is without doubt one of the most impressive machines we’ve driven all year. Even with that heft, and such a keen focus on the comfort element of this car, there is still an inherently capable sportscar underneath.

The interior belies the unfathomable capability of the Taycan Turbo, because just by sitting in it you’d think you were strapping in for an experience of utmost tranquillity. This was especially true of our test model, which was swathed in brown leather from head to toe for a vibe more akin to a classic Bentley. There’s an innate feeling of class about the Taycan that sets itself apart from much of the rest of the range, even though the majority of features inside are broadly recognisable from the Panamera. It’s quiet, too, so you really can cruise in near silence with road noise pretty much entirely eliminated.

Everything feels bulky and solid, it’s heavy by design, and that gives Taycan a very distinct feeling of quality. It’s a hive of technology, too, with four screens making up the entire dashboard and centre console.

The seats continue the theme of mixing comfort with performance, they’re chunky and supportive, but also sculpted to hold you in place when you are cornering more aggressively. They’re heated and ventilated at the front, heated at the back. Front passengers also have the massage feature available to them, which is one of the more vigorous we’ve felt from a car.

We mentioned the four screens. First is a curved 16.8-inch configurable instrument display which is flanked by a set of touch controls on each side, we found they’re generally hidden behind the steering wheel, though, which makes them easy to forget about when you’re driving. It can be personalised to show speed, revs, battery state, G-forces, media info and more.

Next to that is the central infotainment screen with all your standard functions for navigation, car settings, phone connections and media. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are both included, and you can do things like personalise your panoramic sunroof’s appearance here, too.

Beneath that is a second touch display for the climate control. This is where you adjust temperature, and seat settings. It also features haptic feedback that will let you know when you tap any of the four shortcut buttons for the infotainment, and shortcuts for the volume controls.

The final display is the passenger’s own private infotainment that can be independently configured to whatever they fancy. They can see performance metrics if they want to, or watch a bit of TV on Netflix, all away from the prying eyes of the driver who should be focused on the road. There’s a fifth screen, too, for the rear-seated passengers, who can control their own climate and seat heating.

Other features of note are the £3,569 Burmester sound system that left us underwhelmed. It lacked depth and struggled to fill the cabin, we’d lean towards saving the cash on this particular option.

It’s tricky to complain about the Taycan Turbo, because it might be the very best all-round performance EV on the market. Its 376-mile range figure is easy to forget alongside the extraordinary acceleration, but the Taycan is also an incredibly usable electric car if you’re planning to buy this as your only car. We’d suggest owning this alongside something a little less extreme though, because everyone needs a break from mind-melting acceleration now and again.

The quality of the interior lifts this car into an echelon generally populated by the most revered luxury GTs, and that association continues with the way the Taycan irons out road surfaces. A ride this good is rare, especially one that so perfectly tows the line between comfort and engagement.

With the Taycan, Porsche has done what it always does and set the bar incredibly high for everyone else to try to match. It’s getting a bit unfair at this stage, because it’s becoming increasingly difficult for any other brand to get a look into a conversation about engineering and performance.