whitex
Well-Known Member
Wasn't meant to be a review. There are some very nice things about the Taycan, and other annoying things, which would make for a more complete review. I just mentioned the 2 biggest reasons why I didn't put an order in.Even though your review is short , it's great feedback on another great EV.
I think there are 3 things at play here:What I find strange though is how the Taycan is not as smooth as a Tesla. I just assumed an electric motor applied in any car would just be very smooth, period.
- Throttle pedal to output power mapping. For example barely touching the throttle on a taycan made it jolt forward, why? I get you want this when the pedal hits the floor, but no need for such jarring change early in the pedal travel. Maybe that let them shave off a fraction of a second for 0-60 (which should be launch mode job, not for every day driving). Tesla has had a lot of experience tuning that. I suspect Taycan can tune that via software too, though updates are not over the air today, but through a dealer (which is both good and bad, but that is a whole different topic).
- The power electronics software - I only had the car for an hour, and it started raining part way through, so I can't be certain, but it seems the power application is not very smooth. Even when full throttle accelerating on the highway, the power seemed to modulate somewhat, rather than a smooth acceleration. Maybe the car was losing traction and throttling down too much, I don't know. Again, this may be something Porsche could fix via software updates, not sure.
- The 2 speed transmission. There is no avoiding the shift jolt when in the middle of high acceleration. I'm not sure why the transmission is there. If it's for top speed, maybe they could keep it in first gear under 100 mph, which would make it a non-issue for every day driving. If it's for efficiency, well, there isn't much you can do.
It has regen, just works differently - when you press the brake the computer decides between regen and physical brakes. There is a setting to enable regen when you just let the accelerator go, which makes it more familiar to Tesla drivers (I didn't find that setting until the second half of my test drive, but it's there). Once I enabled that setting (sorry, don't remember what it was called) regen was not an issue for me, though it might have been slightly overshadowed by the twitchy accelerator profile.What did you think of the lack of regen (videos I've watched show it does some some adjustable regen, but it's not as great as in a Tesla) and the resulting no concept of one-pedal driving? I cannot imagine buying an EV without that .
I have high hopes for the eTron GT. There was noticable improvement between the eTron SUV and Taycan, so VW is catching up. Hopefully the GT will not have the multi-speed transmission, maybe solve efficiency via cruising front motor and rear motor sleeping on the highway or something like that (rear motor can wake up in milliseconds and it doesn't reduce the acceleration from front motor while waking up, like shifting does). Maybe some other alternative will show up in the meantime, like Rivan or Faraday Future - though those are also newcomers, and after Tesla I am a little weary of those. Or, dear I say it, Hummer EV?
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