Table of Contents The Porsche Taycan Is One of the Best Performance EVs I've Driven, but Not for the Reason You Think
I've driven plenty of electric cars from the biggest brands -- everything from sleek sedans to bulky SUVs -- and while many of them impress on paper, very few manage to like up to that in real life. Range is never quite as good. Charging isn't quite as fast as expected. That's what made the 2025 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo such a standout. I was expecting speed, grip, and all the other Porsche party tricks. What I didn't expect was to be raving about range and charging times more than 0 to 60s and lateral Gs.
Porsche handed me the keys to the freshly updated 2025 Taycan -- the one with tweaked battery chemistry and improved efficiency. Porsche doesn't scream about it in bold letters, but those upgrades give you an extra 40 to 50 miles of range depending on spec and driving style. That might not sound revolutionary, but when you're actually driving the performance EV, you quickly realize that all your range anxiety has been left behind.
The Porsche Taycan is a performance king, but its range is what sold me
Let's get this out of the way: the Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is fast. It'll still slam you into the seat with all 598 horsepower available in launch control mode, and the 3.6-second 0 to 60mph time is wildly impressive for something that has more than enough space in the back for everyday use. The ride is tight, steering is sharp, and despite it being the estate version of the Taycan, it feels every bit a Porsche through the corners.
But that's not what impressed me most about this performance EV. Rather, I was blown away by the electric experience. The range, charging speeds -- you know, all the boring bits.
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I first picked the car up from Porsche HQ with around 86% charge remaining, reading 272 miles of range in Sport Plus mode. I quickly learned that this wasn't an optimistic estimate like most other EVs. After around five hours of mixed driving -- some sporty backroad shenanigans, some motorway cruising, a little crawling through town -- I looked down and the car was actually going to make it the whole trip.
And it did. Having switched into the Range driving mode (which is essentially the most efficient option), I managed to drive 286 miles with around 16% of the charge remaining. That was with a pretty full trunk, the A/C switched on, and zero hypermiling nonsense.
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