It would be easy to spend a lot of time in the old Porsche Taycan GTS and find it beyond much meaningful improvement. After all, it was the best model in the range, usefully faster than the variants beneath it while probably being the most enjoyable to drive and still reasonably efficient. And not £150,000. There’s never been such a thing as a bad Taycan, though the GTS always felt like the version that was showing off its talents most prominently.
Yet despite all that, the J1.2 (there’s another one for your Porsche product code database) GTS promises a significant improvement to the sportiest Taycan. ‘The electric sports car surpasses its predecessor in almost every discipline’ was the line that stood out from the press release, because ‘surpass’ certainly doesn’t imply incremental improvement. And it was hardly kicking off from a dud. Still, on paper, you can see where they’re coming from: base power is now 605hp, which is more than the launch overboost delivered the first time around (598hp), and a huge gain from 517hp, as it used to be. Launch is now 700hp, meaning this grey family estate can go from 0-100mph in seven seconds. The race from the autoroute toll will never be the same again.
Yet this GTS can also claim comparable efficiency to its predecessor on paper, despite being so much faster; the WLTP combined efficiency rating is between 3.27 and 2.88 miles per kilowatt hour, where the figure was 3.04 previously. A bigger battery (97kWh against 83.7kWh) means another 74 miles of range - and 390 feels like a usefully chunky amount - which can be charged at up to 320kW, where 270kW was the peak before. And it’s only 15kg heavier. For, er, 2,310kg DIN, yes, but you can’t have everything. The point being that beneath a modest visual update, there’s plenty to suggest the GTS might have really moved things on quite a bit for Porsche’s exec EV.
The first thing you’ll notice, in a car with Active Ride at least, is the comfort entry feature that lifts the car up 5.5cm in an instant to make getting in easier. This comes as quite a shock if you aren’t prepared for it, as a brand-new Porsche bounds up a couple of inches like a show car on air ride. It’s not the only trick the £6,291 suspension has, either, but we’ll come back to that - safe to say it’s another very persuasive Porsche option.
Beyond climbing in at what felt like Cayenne height, the first few miles in a Taycan GTS felt much as they always did: stable, secure, comfortable, accurate and confidence-inspiring. Not every large, heavy, fast EV puts the driver at ease so immediately, and it’s to the credit of the Porsche’s calibration and control weights that the Taycan always gives that impression. The brake pedal is still too spongey and light, unfortunately, though you get used to it.
This is handy, because the driver will have to get very familiar with the left-hand pedal, the GTS accelerating violently and seemingly relentlessly given even half a chance. The intensity doesn’t feel far off early Turbo S wallop, and with the extra power this model probably now shapes up as a slightly more affordable alternative to the Turbo-badged cars than an upgrade from a 4S. The GTS is one of those cars where full throttle at any speed takes your breath away. So with that, and with a less-than-stellar brake pedal, it’d be nice to have more regenerative braking options, because the standard setting doesn’t do a great deal. And while Porsche has dismissed EV gimmicks like sound and shifts, we’d still maintain that a configurable backing track for such wild acceleration would make the experience even more memorable. Porsche’s Electric Sport Sound is maybe a little more prominent than before, if still pretty restrained. And 0-124mph in less than 11 Mississippis doesn’t feel restrained at all. In a derivative some rungs from the top, it feels insane.
What really marks this GTS out over the old car, however, is Active Ride. Yes, another Porsche that requires optioning up to make the best of it. And sure, it was hardly like the first Taycan struggled when it came to ride and handling. But the way the new electro-hydraulic system can retain such unerring composure and comfort, under considerable load or duress, is genuinely remarkable. On the crummy Berkshire B roads we often drive cars, tarmac that can make even the very best flounder and fidget, the GTS honestly glides like it’s on a bowling green. Unperturbed, unflustered, unrelenting.
It can actually be driven everywhere in Sport Plus, ramping up the agility and purchase to unbelievable levels because of how low the Taycan sits while also appearing to offer up boundless wheel travel and excellent suppression. It’s honestly a tad spooky, because your brain prepares for disturbances that never arrive. Put most simply, here’s a GTS that now cruises with greater isolation and corners even more keenly than before, thanks to a cost option tick. Of course, it won’t be sub-par with the standard adaptive setup, though more than most extras it feels like a must-have. Maybe we just have to view a GTS Sport Turismo as a £125k prospect with Active Ride rather than the standard £118,300 offering.
If there’s a gripe, it’s perhaps that one that always existed around 911s, that this latest Taycan update ebbs away a little at the character. Active Ride is so good that you have to think even less about going obscenely fast: drive mode doesn’t matter, entry speed apparently doesn’t either, the throttle floored at almost every opportunity. Naturally, the GTS felt pretty damn brilliant on the very odd squiggles that it did, but more notable was just how seldom they occurred given the low ambient temperatures and commitment involved.
Probably that’s not a real issue: that a crushingly capable Porsche now feels even more omnipotent thanks to advanced suspension sounds very sellable, really. The steering remains as good a point of contact as ever, so the experience isn’t completely magic carpet-esque. It just felt worth pointing out that if a Taycan seemed too easy to go too quickly in beforehand, that feeling is even more prominent this time around.
Which will probably be a reason to buy for many, and alongside its astonishing ride and handling GTS customers will still find a well-built, handsome and practical EV wagon. Now with a useful chunk more range (albeit the ability still to hack efficiency down to two miles per kilowatt hour.) There are more rivals and alternatives than ever, from Audi S6 e-tron to BMW M5 Touring, though as meaningful updates of electric vehicles go, the Taycan J1.2 continues to impress in all its guises. Probably it’ll be a hard one for existing customers to justify, given what the trade in is likely to be against new prices, but for those who find that a Taycan GTS fits their use case (and finances), it’s an even more emphatic display of Porsche EV excellence than ever.
SPECIFICATION | PORSCHE TAYCAN GTS SPORT TURISMO
Engine: Two Permanent Magnet Synchronous motors, 105.0kWh (gross, 97.0kWh usable) battery
Transmission: Front (Single-speed auto); rear (two-speed auto); four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 700 (acceleration overboost; 605 otherwise)
Torque (lb ft): 581 (overboost)
0-62mph: 3.3 secs
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 2,310kg (unladen)
MPG: 2.88-3.27mi/kWh, 320kW peak charging
WLTP range (combined): 390 miles
Price: £118,300 (price as standard; price as tested £156,985*, comprising - deep breath - Slate Grey Neeo paint for £2,732, 21-inch Taycan Exclusive Design Wheels fully painted in Satin Black with Aeroblades for £1,121, Wheels painted in Satin Black for £926, GTS Interior package in Slate Grey neo for £2,981, 4+1 seats for £371, Front and rear seat heating for £338, ‘PORSCHE’ logo LED door courtesy lights for £222, Roof railes in Black Aluminium for £453, Preparation for rear bike carrier for £380, Model Designation painted in black (high gloss) for £185, Rear axle steering for £1,593, Porsche Active Ride for £6,291, Porsche Design Sport Chrono Clock for £783, Light Strip with illuminated ‘PORSCHE’ logo black for £353, Panoramic Roof with Variable Light Control for £3,926, Thermally and noise insulated glass including privacy glass for £1,361, Carbon matt interior package for £639, Roof lining grab handles in Race-Tex with coloured decorative stitching for £648, Interior mirror panel in Race-Tex for £269, Night Vision Assist for £1,751, Remote ParkAssist for £1,458, Porsche Innodrive with Active Lane Keeping for £2,042, Lane change Assist (blind spot monitoring) for £639, Comfort Access for £648, Soft-close doors for £546, Advanced Climate Control for £657, Air Quality system for £329, Smokers Package for £42, Side Airbags in rear compartment for £371, Passenger Display for £1,061, Burmester 3D High-End Surround Sound System for £3,569. *German test car with these options fitted.)
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