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The Porsche Taycan made a splash
when it was first released at the end of 2019. It was one of the first credible potential
competitors to Tesla's reign over the EV world. But is it really a competitor at Tesla at
all? After driving it for the past couple of days I don't think it is. And it doesn't
have to be. I'm Matt Ferrell, Welcome to UNDECIDED.
Right off the bat, I need to thank Kevin Song
for lending me his Porsche Taycan 4S for this review. He's the owner of Craft Detailing
in Dedham, Massachusetts, which is where I got my Model 3 wrapped and ceramic coated.
So it shouldn't be a surprise that this has a beautiful stealth wrap on it. It looks good
on camera and even better in person. Now I'm not a traditional car guy, I'm an EV guy.
I'm all in on electrifying our transportation. So in Porsche announced the Taycan. It really
caught my eye, but I did have some issues with it. Everyone including Porsche was comparing
it to the Tesla Model S including me. Everyone talked about this as the first real competitor
to Tesla, but that always felt wrong to me. We're talking about a car that starts at around
$104,000 and goes up beyond $185,000. Now I don't care how good the car is, that's going
to be a very small seller, to a very particular audience. And that's where I think a lot of
people went wrong with the comparison with Tesla. It's a little strange to compare a
car that starts at around $70,000 and ends right around where the Taycan starts. So what
do you get for that huge chunk of change? Well, if you like Porsche you get a Porsche,
except it's just an EV. That in itself is not insignificant for a lot of people.
It's a beautiful car and the fit and finish is spectacular. And that shouldn't be a surprise.
On the outside of the car, you get some pretty nice details, like a charging port on both
sides of the car. On one side is AC only, the other side is AC and DC fast charging.
Necessarily to have two? No. But it's a nice touch. On most EVs the charging port door
swings out, but not here. With a swipe of the finger under the side camera, it slides
up inside the car like some kind of spaceship air lock opening up. Is that necessary? No,
but it's a nice touch. Opening the door is also interesting. If you have a key fob on
you, when you touch the door handle, it pops out from the car so that you can open it up.
It's somewhat similar to the Model S. And when you drive or relock the car, they automatically
retract but you can also lock the car up by just touching this part of the handle. Again,
not necessary, but it's a nice touch. No pun intended. The trunk also has a very obvious
button to open it. Now this is something that I typically hate about every other car that's
out there. They always hide the button somewhere under the lip. So sometimes you find it yourself
or you miss it a little bit. This one is obvious, press it and the power lift gate opens up.
To close it back up, there are two buttons on the inside. One closes the trunk, the other
close to the trunk and locks the car. Why two buttons? Why not just have a double tap
on a single button for the same behavior? I guess, for this kind of money, it doesn't
really matter. And while we're back here the rear view camera has an interesting add-on.
It has this mini spray jet that cleans it off if it gets dirty. Again, it's a really
nice touch. Inside the car, the trend of top notch fit and finish continues. Beautiful
stitching and materials, it's clearly a luxury car. At this point, I'm starting to feel like
John Hammond from Jurassic Park, because they clearly spared no expense. As a Tesla Model
3 owner, the inside of this car, couldn't be more different. One is minimalist and forward-looking
towards a self-driving future. This one is all about customization and tailoring to the
driver's experience. Tons of switches and levers and buttons, all over the cabin, both
physical and digital. The screens are the most prominent aspect from this design with
four of them across the dash, one, right behind the wheel, which I know a lot of people seem
to prefer. Another one right above the center console, one on the center console, and then
one front of the passenger seat too. And that one only turns on if there's somebody sitting
in the passenger seat. The screens are absolutely incredible. You can't tell where the screen
starts and where it finishes. The borders of the screens and the edge of the monitors,
they all just kind of blend together. It gives it a very magical and futuristic look, both
in a good way and a bad way. The good is that you can tailor the screen to do pretty much
whatever you want. The bad, they kind of over engineered the UI and made it more confusing
than it needs to be. The screen that's right behind the wheel can be configured to do pretty
much whatever you want it to do. You can select which one of the three thirds that you want
to configure. You can go to a map, an extended map, you can do a reduced view, which only
shows you the speedometer and nothing else on the screen. On the right third, you can
choose between things like, the navigations and directions, sport drive, drive modes,
the media that's playing. And if you go over to the left third, traffic signs, the G-Force
meter to show you G-Forces that you're driving. There's a lot of options in different ways
that you can configure this, that can work for pretty much anybody. The center two screens
on the center console and right above it, they work together as a tandem pair. And they
both do what you'd probably expect. They include all of the infotainment features from things
like terrestrial radio to Sirius XM. It even has Apple CarPlay, which is kind of amazing.
I had never used it before. I just plugged in my phone, and after a couple of taps, my
CarPlay enabled apps were accessible on the screen. Having my favorite podcast app, which
is overcast working directly on the car's UI is awesome. I wish I had something like
this in my Tesla. Now shameless plug, you should check out my podcast that I do with
my brother, Still To Be Determined. It's related directly to the show. Anyway, you can get
the other car settings here as well. The lower screen is kind of like a shortcut screen with
touch controls that also controls the top screen. The screen has haptic feedback when
you press down on it. And I actually liked that feature a lot. It takes a little more
pressure to register the tap than I'd like, but having physical feedback is a nice confirmation
of a successful tap. The controls for the HVAC system are here too, but it's on the
top screen that you can redirect the control for the air vents, where you're directing
the air. And for any Model 3 or Model Y owners out there, this is going to look very familiar.
But I find it kind of odd that the car has what looked like traditional air vents across
the dash. But yet there's no like levers or switches directly on the vents, which doesn't
make a whole lot of sense to me. Why not just add a lever there for you to control the direction?
I guess they thought they were sparing no expense. Now, I don't think they're implemented
as nicely as Tesla's since it's a little buried in the menus but once you're there, they have
some really nice preconfigured settings to focus the flow on the driver, and the passengers,
or to diffuse it throughout the cabin. You can of course, completely customize it any
way you want. The lower screen also acts as a track pad for the upper screen. Why? I have
no idea. Your finger is only inches away from the other screen. So there's less thinking
involved, just reach up and tap whatever you want, versus having to navigate a disconnected
highlight across the interface on a different screen. Two methods to achieve the same thing.
Why? I guess they spared no expense. From this screen, you can also quickly access your
battery charge information as well as your car button to quickly get controls for the
trunk and the charge ports. But one of the weirder things is that you can hand write
your destination address on this screen, instead of typing your address into the top screen,
when using the navigation system. Why they spend time building that out, when it's easier
to use the voice controls to enter address hands-free? Again, I have no idea. But they
spared no expense. One of the weirder controls is this gear switch, or a lever. I'm not sure
what to call this thing, but instead of using one of the stocks for a gear selector or including
something on the center console, they created this oddly shaped thing that you flick up
and down to go between drive, neutral and reverse. And there's a separate button right
next to it for park. And what's really weird about this design is that it's right behind
the wheel. I can't see it unless I lean over to the right. It's really odd. Once you know
it's there and how it works, you can get used to it, but it's weird. And there's even some
buttons that run along the edge of the screen, behind the steering wheel, for things like
your lights, your running lights, your fog lights. It's pretty nice.
The seats are very comfortable and supportive, which is what you'd expect in a sports car. And they include
all of the usual adjustments and controls for getting it set just the way you like.
And the backseats are very similar in design. But remember, this is a sports car. I would
not consider this a family sedan by any stretch. The cabin is roomy. I'm six foot one, and
I have plenty of headroom and leg room, so I'm very comfortable. The backseats aren't
the most spacious, but I can comfortably fit back there. But looking back to the trunk
for a second, it's small. If you're a golfer, I think it might be challenging to get your
set of clubs back there. And just like Tesla, there's a secret sub trunk, but unlike something
like the Tesla Model 3, it's very, very small. I'm not sure what you could fit in there.
And jumping back to the frunk, it's also surprisingly small considering how big the front of the
car is. But how's it drive? Before I get into that though, I'd like to thank Surfshark for
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for supporting the channel. So how does it drive? Well, in a word it's amazing. It shouldn't
be a surprise that a Porsche is fun to drive, but the Taycan is at blast. It's got that
very torquey kick to it that you expect from an EV, but with all the available customizations
that you can do with the drive, terrain and the suspension, you can really dial this in
to any style of driving that you want. Put the car into normal and ranged mode, and you'll
get better range along with a smoother ride. Put it in sport plus and lower the ride height,
and you feel very connected to the road. It corners so smoothly. There's hardly any sway
to the car at all, which is incredible, given that this thing weighs more than a Model S,
but it doesn't feel like a heavy car. Then there's this.
That fake, electronic, acceleration noise is just weird. I understand why they would put something like that in the car,
because people will feel connected to their cars, with their motors, and they know when
to shift and downshift but this is an EV, you don't have or need that. It makes different
sounds that you'll learn over time. To add something artificial like that in makes no
sense. It's just weird. Thankfully, you can turn it off in the system menus, but it comes
on by default when you put the car into like sport mode. And aside from that, the cabin
is very quiet. And that brings me to my one big disappointment, in how this car drives.
The regen braking. Why Porsche? Why don't you just give an option for a more robust
regen braking? By default, it's turned off, which I can kind of get for a car that's designed
for more traditional diehard car fans that are out there. When you first get in the car
to drive it, it feels like it's tuned to replicate the feeling of driving a gasoline car. Take
your foot off the accelerator, and it keeps coasting. When sitting at a stoplight, and
you take your foot off the brake the car starts to inch forward. I get it. But when you turn
on regenerative braking, it barely feels like it's doing anything at all. Why not have a
few options for the diehard EV fans out there? For daily driving, I've gotten so used to
one pedal driving in my Model 3, it's hard to go back now. I really prefer it. And that
brings me back to my point that this car isn't a true competitor to Tesla. It's a car tuned
to a different audience from Tesla. While I'm not the audience, I can see who they're
talking to and it can recognize they're nailing it. Porsche knows exactly who they're talking
to. They know who their customer is and what they want, and they're delivering it to them
in the Taycan. Not everyone wants a minimalist design, with one pedal driving in a car that
will eventually drive itself. I do, but I know not everyone else does. Some prefer the
act of driving and feeling connected to the road and in the case of the Taycan, doing
it in luxury. This isn't a car for everyone, it's a car for a very specific kind of person.
And it really nails it.
One of my biggest complaints about the Taycan when it was first
announced was the battery efficiency. There's no other way to say it, but it's horrible.
The Model S is hitting 400 miles of range on a a hundred kilowatt hour battery pack.
The Taycan 4S with the 93.4 kilowatt hour performance battery is around 260 miles on
a good day. Bjorn Nyland did a range test of this model and actually got around 360
miles or 579 kilometers in ideal conditions. And at faster speeds, he got to run 264 miles
or 425 kilometers. It's impressive but a long way off from Tesla Model S territory. But
I don't think it really matters for the audience that Porsche is talking to. Can and should
they do better with efficiency? Absolutely. And I hope they do in time, but again, consider
the customer that they're trying to reach. But the efficiency leads me to the Achilles
heel of the Taycan experience. Charging infrastructure. When Kevin handed the car off to me, he said,
the worst thing about the car was the charging network. Now I'm going to be doing a separate
video on this. So be sure to subscribe to not miss out on that. But the state of non-Tesla
chargers is a problem. There's a much higher rate of arriving at a charging location to
find that many of the charters aren't working, or the prices that they charge are really
expensive compared to the supercharger network. And for the Taycan specifically, Porsche touted
the fast charging capabilities of the car, but finding fast charters capable of coming
anywhere close to that are very difficult to find. So what do I think of the Porsche
Taycan overall? I really, really like it. I've been having so much fun driving this
and really appreciate all of the, we spared no expense, to the fit and finish of the car.
It's crazy expensive, but it's a car that knows who its audience is and speaking directly
to them in their own language. And on that, I have to tip my hat to Porsche, but would
I buy one? No, I'm not the audience for this car, but I'm really glad that it exists. The
more people we can get interested in EVs, the better. And jump onto the comments and
let me know what you think of the Taycan. Is it an EV that you're interested in? And
as always a special thank you to all my patrons. All of your support is really helping make
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