Porsche Taycan Turbo S 2025 review

We were not prepared for the updated Porsche Taycan Turbo S. Personally, perhaps your reviewer was blindsided by the noise around electric Macan and 718’s ICE demise and BEV transition, of hybrid 911, of 911 GT3’s stay of execution and, heck, even how the global downturn in EV popularity was affecting, well, everything.

But a recent Taycan facelift slipped quietly by with barely a radar blip.

Squint and you’ll miss the subtle restyling outside, the tech upgrade inside, and the headlining mid-2024 Taycan update that was – yawn – a battery upgrade, one that appeared 10 per cent fitter than the old one.

Adding deception was the lavender paint and purple/cream combination of the example that sauntered near silently into the Chasing Cars garage and into the hands of yours truly.

It’s not Porsche’s style to broadcast virtues from the hill tops, but buried in the finer print of its media communications were a host of ‘green flags’. Such as a range claim of up to 600 kilometres. Such as entirely new battery chemistry. And such as a 0-100km/h claim of 2.4 seconds for a 2.3-tonne four-door.

It’s also not Porsche’s style to exaggerate. Stuttgart’s finest is almost a car industry exception in that it stakes claims of performance and efficiency and then delivers on them fully. Still, nothing rams home a message quite like first-hand experience. And with Turbo S, it’s an experience that can really surprise you if you’d not read the form guide closely enough…

So Tesla Model 3 Performance (3.16sec) sat above AMG EQE53 and Audi RS E-Tron GT (3.26sec apiece) as the quickest cars Chasing Cars have ever tested, the last Taycan on our test track, the GTS (3.59sec), fourth place on the 0-100km/h performance leaderboard.

Then the new Taycan Turbo S fronts up and peels off a 2.57sec pass.

The magnitude of a six-tenths advantage at this level of performance cannot be understated: count to 2.6sec in your head, then imagine the Porsche three car lengths ahead … of the quickest car we’d ever tested.

Then imagine brimming the battery up in Sydney, aiming for Melbourne, then stopping just once for 15 minutes on a fast charger to make the circa 850km trip. In the same 2.6sec electric hypercar.

It’s quite possible that the facelifted Taycan, in its furious Turbo S guise, is a genuine electric game-changer and a bona-fide new EV benchmark.

Impressively, within the current lineup, Porsche also offers variants with longer range (base single-motor), more practicality (Cross Turismo), and, if you can believe it, two versions that are even quicker 0-100m…

What are the Taycan Turbo S’s features and options for the price?

The Taycan Turbo S lists for $373,600, or over twice the outlay of the entry single-motor ‘just Taycan’ at $174,500. And it’s only mid-range. The six so-called ‘super sedan’ variants top out with the GT and GT with Weissach Pack twins, your choice at $416,600, while the jacked-up wagon-esque Cross Turismo can be had in base, 4S and Turbo trims only.

Pricing rose around $10,000 across the board for the facelift lineup at its recent launch, and every version bar the entry single-motor Taycan (89kWh gross) gets the 105kWh gross (97kWh net) Performance Battery Plus. However, the big battery can be optioned on the base car for $12,020.

The Turbo S fits a long list of standard features – with no actual turbocharging, of course – but the headlight spec includes:

• 21-inch wheels
• Four-wheel steering
• 10-piston 420mm front/four-piston 410mm carbon ceramic brakes
• Adaptive air suspension
• HD Matrix headlights
• Four-zone climate
• 10.9-inch media
• Digital driver’s display
• Smooth finish leather trim
• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto
• Bose 14-speaker 710-watt audio

However, our tester fits 20 optional items amounting to $50K, for a total of $427,310 before on-roads. Notable highlights include:

• 4+1 seating ($1000)
• Porsche Active Ride suspension ($16,980)
• Panoramic glass roof with Variable Light Control ($7100)
• 10.9-inch passenger media display ($2860)
• Burmeister 3D Surround Sound ($9630)

Porsche still maintains something of an old-school approach to options, with lots of choice of myriad individual customisation items for a huge breadth of personalisation, budget permitting. In the absence of bundled ‘packages’ on offer, the outlay on a modified configuration can and will skyrocket above the list price very quickly.

How does the Taycan Turbo S drive?

Formally, it’s advertised as 570kW…but it’s not. Instead, the Turbo S actually outputs 700kW, as primed using temporary ‘overboost’ launch mode. That’s 938 horsepower by the old form guide.

Equally outrageous is torque: a whopping 1110Nm, delivered in fine electric style, instantly from zero rpm.

I won’t labour the narrative with what’s easily the quickest-accelerating car I or any of the Chasing Cars team has ever driven. But I will relay this: the brain does struggle to keep up with the pace of 100km arriving in 2.6 seconds. It’s a huge test of driver reaction times, and a thrill ride that’s only really fit for experienced drivers.

Given it’s constantly spinning wheels – mostly the fronts – to 2.57sec suggests that, yes, its 2.4sec claim is genuinely achievable on a grippy enough road surface. And the sheer animation of the car at full noise strongly suggests you only ever attempt this feat off the street.

That you can step up to 760kW and 1240Nm in either the GT (2.3sec) or GT with Weissach Package (2.2sec!) from the Turbo S seems … unnecessary. Ditto the 290km/h top speed.

Less dramatic, though no less impressive, is the Turbo S’s range and charging stats as tested. Our urban cycle returned a range of 542km and a consumption of just 17.9kWh. Amazing stuff. But it was the highway loop – yielding 566km and just 17.1kWh – that clearly demonstrates how much progress Porsche has made with EV evolution.

Charging? The 320kW-capable 800-volt architecture returned a stunning 50km (9.0 per cent battery) to 350km (62 per cent battery) high-speed charge time of just 12 minutes! Keep it charging for a few minutes more and a one-stop jaunt Sydney to Melbourne is, in theory, only marginally less convenient than filling an ICE car on dinosaur juice.

How could one vehicle offer so much dynamite with so much efficiency?

Of course, the new NMC lithium-ion ‘Plus’ battery and a redesigned rear motor do the heavy lifting, though Taycan pulls other clever tricks on the move.

The dual-motor format mostly disconnects the on-demand front axle in most driving situations, with its sailing mode – shutting down both motors off throttle or at a standstill – that saves a lot of electrons, especially on the highway where 2.3 tonnes of freewheeling inertia robs little to no power.

The rear-drive-favoured format means that only the rear axle fits a two-speed gearbox; the ‘traction only’ front axle is single speed. And once regen is activated in stronger deceleration, from as high as 260km/h, its maximum recuperation is now a whopping 400kW, up from the old Taycan’s 290kW.

The level of sophistication and optimisation Porsche has invested in Taycan – now largely carried through to the electric Macan – frankly makes many EV makers look lazy. Of course, it comes at a price to the buyer, though the benefits of such wizardry are tangible indeed.

The rest of the driving experience is a more familiar carryover from the pre-facelift. The old Taycan displayed a distinct Porsche driving character in comparison to its technical cousin, the Audi RS E-Tron GT. Both great drives, though the latter lacked the ‘Porker’ edge and intimacy to a noticeable if subtle degree.

The face-lift is more of the same, particularly the uncanny front-end and steering combination that’s faithful to Porsche hallmarks of detailed feedback, linear input and utmost accuracy. The Turbo S points tenaciously, in a manner no 2.3-tonne, 2.9-metre-wheelbase machine really shouldn’t.

It’s balance and even in dynamic character, perhaps benign against Porsche’s dwindling lineup of ICE-powered sportscar stablemates but incredibly planted and surefooted. Such is the mechanical grip that the Taycan seems to smear itself across the hot-mix.

The Active Ride suspension essentially plants the chassis billiard table flat, no matter how hard you try to pitch and yaw the chassis. It’s more stable.

It works the rubber better for surer grip. But whether it’s worth the $17K upcharge over the already thoroughly sorted regular air suspension with tricky PASM damping is debatable – or rather, purely optional.

Fittingly standard issue, though, are the mutha-of-all-anchors: 10-piston monobloc front and four-pot rear calipers clamping 420mm front/410mm rear carbon-ceramic discs. They’re progressive in feel, squeak free, and haul the Turbo S’s considerable mass to a halt from 100km/h in a Chasing Cars-certified 36.57 metres. Impressive.

But what makes Taycan Turbo S so deceptively heroic is just how placid it is around town as a daily driver, or on a highway when cruising. The ride is disciplined and measured, and more pliant in damping than a machine with this much heft usual needs for the body control it demonstrates.

It’s also very quiet, with a faint (possibly synthetic) soundtrack hum the only sound breaking silence … most of the time. Perhaps by nature of the engineering and the rubber it plies to Mother Earth, the Taycan can drum up the resonate tyre thrum on some surfaces. It’s also present in more potent 911 variants such as the Turbo S and GT3. Nature of the beasts, then.

It’s easy to drive, easy to park and manouevre (thanks to all-wheel steering), and not hard on entry and egress, as we’re about to find out…

What is the Taycan Turbo S’s interior and tech like?

The Active Ride’s little part trick is that it automatically props the ride height up roughly 10cm once you grab the electric door handles, to aid entry and egress. Be it real convenience or a gimmick, it certainly grabs the attention of onlookers.

Like our tester’s lavender-like paintwork, the so-called Bramble (purple) and Crayon (cream) two-tone smooth-leather trim theme is an acquired taste, matched right down to the colour-matched seatbelts.

It’s easy to settle into the sumptuous 18-way electric pews, set super-low regardless of occupant adjustment. Add perhaps the most vertically positioned wheel in motoring and it has, one imagines, the ergonomics of an old endurance racecar…if one soaked in indulgence and tech excess.

And yet, Taycan really is a very straightforward and downright minimalist cabin design for a mega-buck machine.

All of the controls fall neatly and perfectly to hand and foot, and the array really is limited to essentials. How some feature adjustment is located in the outer rim of the curved driver’s display is neat and inspired.

The modest 10.9 media screen, though, is just out of normal reach, though the haptic touchpad where the HVAC controls are usually located is very handy … except, Porsche is pursuing its somewhat clumsy active HVAC integration, where adjusting air vents demands touchscreen input.

Still, the effective media display doubles given the front passenger gets their own media touchscreen that can stream video content. Exclusive content, too, as the tricky glass surface obscures viewing by the driver. Neat stuff.

The ‘motion selector’ – aka transmission control for cars without a transmission – takes a little getting used to.

Back for drive and forward for reverse works intuitively on the usual horizontal plane, but here in a vertical plane perched on the dash fascia, it’s down for drive and up for reverse. It’s not totally intuitive and initially you might tap for the wrong motion direction, I can assure you…

Porsche’s Variable Light Control glass roof is inspired. It transforms from clear to heat-taming semi-opaque at a touch of virtual button, or half-half in all manner of combined ‘panels’ via a slider function in the touchscreen.

It’s vastly superior to the passive heat-soaking glass of other EVs and you can have your Taycan with a regular solid roof if you like.

Material choice is a little unusual. Some of the surfaces, such as the door card tops, look great but feel like hard plastic. Others, such as the leather door trim inserts, are cost optional, which is a little outrageous for a model that lists at around $374K.

Row two is fine enough. Seating is low slung and sporty like the first row, though the sleek four-door exterior form returns quite a low ceiling.

Leg room is good and there’s ample four-adult comfort, though the so-called ‘4+1’ option applied to our example does little more than add a seat belt to a frankly unusable middle seating position.

Four-zone climate control, adjustable in the rear via its own dedicated haptic touchscreen, is real class, though the absence of any rear-passenger device power is a curious omission.

Still, it would be a nice place to spend the long hours while grand touring with the range capability that this EV presents.

However, the paltry 366-litre boot space means that road trips might be luggage limited to smaller overnight bags rather than bigger suitcases. It also fits an 84-litre sealed frunk.

If it’s proper practicality you’re after, you’ll have to opt for Cross Turismo wagon with a more commodious boot space. However, you’re stuck with the ‘Cross’ quasi-all-terrain aesthetic – Australia doesn’t get the Tarmac-themed Sport Turismo offered overseas – and nor is it offered locally with Turbo S potency.

Is the Taycan Turbo S a safe car?

The Porsche Taycan has no ANCAP rating – in fact, Porsche as a brand doesn’t have a presence in the ANCAP website whatsoever.

However, the model scored five stars from Euro NCAP back in 2019, with 85 per cent and 83 per cent for adult and child occupant protection respectively, with 70 per cent for vulnerable road user and 73 per cent for safety assist.

For safety features, the Taycan Turbo S includes:

• 10 airbags, including dual front knee bags
• Active bonnet system
• ‘Warn and brake’ assist with pedestrian protection
• Swerve and turn assist
• Intersection assist
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Lane change assist
• Lane keeping assist with emergency braking
• Adaptive cruise control
• Surround view camera with parking support

Outside of secondary support systems as ‘safety nets’, Porsche’s sportier models often bring very high levels of primary safety: that is driver control. Exceptional driver response, stopping power, road-holding and grip all weigh positively in the Taycan’s ‘core’ safety credentials.

What are the Taycan Turbo S’s ownership costs?

Porsche Australia continues to offer a very ordinary three-year warranty on vehicles. Some consolation is that the high-voltage battery warranty is a more typical eight years of coverage, capped at 160,000km.

Servicing intervals are 24 months or 30,000km, whichever comes first, with no pricing cap – servicing costs are dealer dependent.

This means vehicle warranty will likely lapse before the second scheduled service for the vehicle, and the battery warranty will expire prior to the sixth scheduled maintenance visit.

On the positive side, with genuine circa-17kWh/100km consumption, the Taycan Turbo S is cheap to charge for a vehicle of its performance and magnitude.

The honest verdict on the Taycan Turbo S

Big range. Rapid charging. Otherworldly performance.

Ignore all else about the Taycan Turbo S and this particular trifecta is pretty much unmatchable in any other carmaker’s EVs. The Porsche offers even quicker and longer-range (if equally quick charging) Taycan variants as proof the German marque is on top of this electric car game.

If Porsche’s updated Taycan isn’t the best series-production electric model range on sale, then what is?

Beyond being easily the most ballistic performer Chasing Cars has ever tested, nothing else we’ve tested has such breadth between its polished Jekyll to its mind-bending Hyde.

Still, during our week with the Turbo S, almost every onlooker fixated on its price rather than its capabilities, dismissing the electric Porsche as outrageously pricey even after explaining its trifecta of capabilities. The reality is that excellence comes at a price.

What’s really interesting, though, is where it appears Porsche is heading with its portfolio.

Regardless of where the moving internal combustion landscape settles – with Porsche, with so many other Euro marques – Stuttgart looks to be shoring up its EV future through 2025.

From hereon in, Taycan remains the figurehead as the four-door GT and wagon guises, the just-launched electric Macan sits as the volume seller, and the 718 Boxster/Cayman replacement, due mid-2025, is surely being positioned to lob as the ultimate electric driver’s car.

This leaves 911 ICE or hybrid and Cayenne to add a BEV to internal combustion and hybrid options moving forward).

That’s a fine and safely diverse position to be in if you’re gunning for the mantle of world’s premier premium EV carmaker.