We’ve watched the Porsche Taycan get incrementally closer to reality for years. Now, Jonny Smith of the “Fully Charged Show” on YouTube has become the first automotive journalist — and “the first non-Porsche employee, if you take Mark Webber out of the equation” — allowed behind the wheel of Porsche’s battery electric performance car.
Which he launches. Again and again and again and again. “Fully Charged” says Smith drove it 0-to-200 km/h (124 mph) dozens of times.
“I actually felt the jowls try and leave my face then,” Smith says after one blastoff at an airfield near Stuttgart. “I didn’t actually know I was that jowlly. Clearly I am.” He later reports an issue with his scrotum.
“Repeatability” is the term that is, well, repeated, over and over in the video, both by Smith and his Porsche handlers. The Taycan might not be quite as fast as a Tesla P100 D, with a 0-to-62 mph time of “under 3.5 seconds” vs. the Tesla’s 2.6. (Though Smith presses for “well under 3 and a half?” and gets a coy “maybe.”) However, like one of its many gasoline-electric cars with PDK and launch control, Porsche has aimed for the Taycan to be launched over and over indefatigably. Which this video demonstrates.
“We set out with a goal to build a Porsche,” says Taycan program director Bernd Propfe, “and not have the driver feel the de-rating of the car in any situation.”
There are some facts the Porsche folks reveal: The car rates at over 600 horsepower. It’s 800 volts. It has a two-speed transmission. The battery is liquid cooled. And there are other facts they won’t divulge. Smith made some specific queries about the battery pack that yielded only a smile.
If you’re curious about the Taycan, and boy aren’t we all, then check out the video above.
