Porsche Taycan Turbo S: The Electric Benchmark

When Porsche announced they were building a fully electric vehicle, the automotive world held its breath. Porsche’s entire identity was forged on the mechanical scream of the flat-six engine and the lightweight agility of the 911. How could a massive, heavy, silent battery-powered sedan possibly live up to the crest on its hood?

The answer arrived in 2019 with the Porsche Taycan (originally previewed by the Mission E concept at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show). It was not just a good electric car; it was a phenomenal Porsche.

And at the absolute top of the hierarchy sits the Taycan Turbo S. (Yes, Porsche retained the “Turbo” nomenclature despite the obvious lack of forced induction, using it instead to denote the highest performance tier—a decision that generated some controversy but is consistent with the Taycan’s identity as a Porsche first and an EV second.) The Turbo S proved that an EV could possess genuine soul, communicative steering, and handling dynamics that seemingly defied the laws of physics.

The Mission E Concept and the Decision to Build

The 2015 Mission E concept was Porsche’s announcement of intent. A four-door, four-seat sports car with 600 horsepower, a 500-kilometer range, and a charge time of under 15 minutes—these were the goals, stated publicly, that Porsche’s engineering teams were given to achieve.

At the time, these specifications seemed optimistic to the point of being aspirational marketing rather than engineering targets. The Tesla Model S was the state of the art in electric performance, and while it was impressive, it did not drive like a Porsche. Its steering was numb, its handling was adequate rather than engaging, and its charging infrastructure was proprietary.

Porsche’s engineers spent four years proving that the Mission E concept could be realized as a production car. The result was the Taycan—a vehicle that matched or exceeded the Mission E targets in every meaningful category.

The Powertrain: 800-Volt Architecture

The core of the Taycan’s technological superiority lies in its electrical architecture. While almost every other EV on the market at the time utilized a 400-volt system, Porsche engineered the Taycan around an 800-volt system.

This higher voltage allowed Porsche to use thinner, lighter wiring throughout the vehicle, saving weight and reducing heat buildup. More importantly, it allowed for incredibly fast charging times—capable of adding 100 km of range in just five minutes under ideal conditions at a high-power DC fast charger (800-volt Porsche Turbo Charging station at 270 kW). This charging speed remained unmatched by any mass-produced electric vehicle at the time of the Taycan’s launch.

The Turbo S is powered by two massive permanent-magnet synchronous motors (one on the front axle, one on the rear). During normal driving, the car produces 625 PS. However, when Launch Control is engaged, the “Overboost” function unleashes the full potential of the battery, resulting in a staggering 761 PS (750 hp) and 1,050 Nm (774 lb-ft) of torque—available instantaneously, from zero rpm.

The Secret Weapon: The 2-Speed Gearbox

Electric motors generally do not need multi-speed transmissions because they produce maximum torque from zero RPM and can spin to incredibly high speeds.

However, Porsche engineers identified a fundamental compromise in single-speed EV transmissions: if you gear an EV for explosive low-end acceleration, it loses efficiency and pulling power at high highway speeds (like on the German Autobahn, where Porsche’s engineers routinely test at sustained speeds above 200 km/h).

To solve this, Porsche fitted the Taycan with a bespoke 2-speed automatic transmission on the rear axle.

First Gear: Incredibly short, used almost exclusively for “Sport” or “Sport Plus” launch control starts. It provides the violent, concussive acceleration that pins occupants to their seats. The gear ratio is so short that the motor reaches maximum rpm within the first few seconds of acceleration.
Second Gear: A taller ratio that the car uses for normal driving and high-speed cruising, optimizing efficiency and allowing the Taycan to pull hard all the way to its 260 km/h (162 mph) top speed without the motor spinning beyond its optimal efficiency range.

This gearbox is a crucial factor in the Taycan Turbo S’s ability to rocket from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 2.8 seconds, and to maintain genuinely strong acceleration from 100-200 km/h—a range where many single-speed EVs begin to run out of steam.

The 2-speed transmission also provides a small but measurable efficiency benefit on highway driving, reducing motor speed at cruising speeds and extending range by a few percentage points compared to what a single-speed equivalent would deliver. This is exactly the kind of engineering detail that separates Porsche’s approach from a more straightforward EV implementation.

Defying Weight: The Chassis

The Taycan Turbo S weighs roughly 2,370 kg (5,225 lbs). By all traditional sports car metrics, a vehicle this heavy should understeer wildly, feel sluggish in corners, and require enormous brakes to stop safely.

Porsche solved this problem first by mounting the massive 93.4 kWh Performance Battery Plus as low as possible in the floor—a flat-pack layout with the battery spanning the entire floor of the vehicle—giving the Taycan a center of gravity actually lower than the 911. This is a remarkable feat of packaging: a vehicle that weighs twice as much as a 911 nevertheless handles its weight more efficiently in terms of dynamic response because of where that weight is located.

Furthermore, Porsche threw every piece of advanced chassis technology in their arsenal at the car:

Three-Chamber Air Suspension: The Taycan uses a three-chamber air spring system—unique in the industry at the time—that provides a massive breadth of capability. In Normal or Comfort mode, the springs are pillowy soft for urban driving. In Sport Plus, they become rock-hard for circuit use. The three-chamber design allows more variation in stiffness than conventional two-chamber air springs.
PDCC Sport: An active electromechanical roll stabilization system (the first in any Porsche product to use electromechanical rather than hydraulic actuation) that actively counteracts body roll. In corners, the system applies forces that resist the natural tendency of the heavy body to lean, keeping the Taycan surprisingly flat through bends.
Rear-Axle Steering: Artificially shortening the effective wheelbase for low-speed agility and lengthening it for high-speed stability—a system proven in the 911 range and adopted directly for the Taycan.
PCCB: Massive 420mm front Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes provide the stopping power necessary to halt the heavy vehicle repeatedly without fade—essential for track use where the high mass creates enormous kinetic energy that must be dissipated through the brakes.

The Driving Experience: Soul and Silence

The most impressive aspect of the Taycan Turbo S is not its straight-line speed (which is closely matched by rivals like the Tesla Model S Plaid), but its steering feel, handling precision, and dynamic communication.

Porsche insisted on tuning the steering to feel distinctly mechanical. The system provides genuine feedback through the wheel, letting the driver know exactly what the front tires are doing—their loading, their slip angle, the approach of the limit of adhesion. This is not a given in electric vehicles, where the absence of engine vibration and mechanical noise can result in a sensory isolation that many EV drivers describe as disconnection from the road. The Taycan’s engineers specifically tuned the steering to compensate for this, creating a system that communicates more through the wheel than most combustion-engined sports sedans.

Furthermore, Porsche recognized that silence can be unnerving during high-performance driving. They developed “Porsche Electric Sport Sound”, a synthesized audio profile that amplifies the natural frequencies of the electric motors and projects them into the cabin, providing the driver with a futuristic, sci-fi hum that increases in pitch and volume with speed. This gives a vital auditory cue to the car’s momentum that the physics of electric drive would otherwise eliminate entirely. In Sport Plus mode, the sound is genuinely exciting—clearly artificial, but designed to create an emotional engagement with the driving experience rather than merely masking silence.

Nürburgring Performance

Porsche’s commitment to the Taycan’s driving dynamics was validated at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. In 2019, a production Taycan Turbo S set a lap time of 7:42 minutes—making it the fastest sedan ever recorded at the circuit at that time, beating the previous record held by a Mercedes-AMG GT63 S.

The significance of this achievement extended beyond the lap time itself. It demonstrated that an electric sedan weighing over 2,300 kg could sustain high-performance driving for the entirety of the Nürburgring’s 20.8-kilometer lap without the battery overheating or the motor power declining—a capability that many competitors at the time could not match. The Taycan could complete multiple hot laps in succession without significant performance degradation, a quality that Porsche’s engineers called “repeatability” and that they specifically engineered the 800-volt thermal management system to achieve.

Range and Real-World Usability

The Taycan Turbo S with the Performance Battery Plus offers a WLTP-certified range of approximately 405 km (252 miles). Real-world range in mixed driving conditions is typically 320-380 km depending on driving style and conditions.

For a car with 761 horsepower, these are reasonable figures. The 800-volt charging architecture means that range anxiety on long journeys is manageable—where 400-volt EVs might require 45-60 minutes to add significant range, the Taycan can accept charge at rates that make brief charging stops genuinely brief.

The four-door body style provides genuine practicality. The rear seats comfortably accommodate adult passengers, the boot space is usable for weekend luggage, and the frunk (front trunk, where the combustion engine would normally live) provides additional storage. The Taycan is a car that can serve as a primary vehicle in a way that a 911 or 918 Spyder cannot.

Rivals and the Competitive Landscape

The Taycan Turbo S’s primary rivals are the Tesla Model S Plaid and the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53. The Tesla is faster in a straight line—its Ludicrous Mode launch control delivers a sub-2-second 0-60 mph time—but trails the Taycan significantly on driving dynamics, steering quality, and build finish. The Mercedes EQS 53 matches the Taycan’s luxury credentials but is a heavier, more GT-oriented vehicle rather than a sports car.

The Taycan’s positioning is unique: it is simultaneously the most dynamic electric performance car available and a genuinely capable long-distance cruiser. No rival combines these qualities as effectively.

A New Era

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S successfully translated the DNA of Zuffenhausen into the electric era. It proved that the transition away from internal combustion did not have to mean the death of driving pleasure. It remains the absolute benchmark for how a high-performance electric vehicle should handle, steer, and make the driver feel.

More broadly, the Taycan’s success—both commercially and critically—demonstrated to Porsche’s management that the brand’s values were transferable to an electric platform. The 800-volt architecture, the 2-speed transmission, the communicative steering, and the obsessive attention to dynamic quality are all Porsche ideas, as authentically representative of the brand as a flat-six engine or a rear-engine layout. The Taycan proved that Porsche’s identity is defined by how it drives, not by what powers it.