Porsche Taycan – MalaysianMotoring

German luxury marque Porsche has unveiled its answer to the growing wave of electrified mobility, a car that offers the spirit of the Stuttgart brand while staying on-point at the bleeding edge of engineering innovation. The Porsche Taycan is the brands first-ever all-electric series production vehicle, designed to take on cars like the Tesla Model S and the Audi e-tron GT, as well as indirect competitors like the Mercedes-Benz EQC and BMW iX3.

The Taycan will most notably be offered in Malaysia with the Performance Battery Plus option as stnadard, which upgrades the power capacity to 83.7kWh over the standard 71kWh. This means that range o the new Taycan will never be an issue regardless of which model you opt for.

	Taycan 4S	Taycan 4S*	Taycan Turbo	Taycan Turbo S
Battery (net)	71.0kWh	83.7kWh	83.7kWh	83.7kWh
Range	407km	463km	412km	450km
Power	530hp	490hp	625hp	625hp
Overboost	530hp	571hp	680hp	761hp
Torque	640Nm	650Nm	850Nm	1,050Nm
0-100km/h	4s	4s	3.2s	2.8s
0-200km/h	13.3s	12.9s	10.6s	9.8s
Price	RM725,000	TBC	RM999,000	RM1,195,000

*with Performance Battery Plus

What we find particularly interesting is that Porsche Malaysia offers an innovative range-predictor function on its site, that you can play around with to show precisely what kind of driving you have in mind. That allows you to more accurately figure out just how much range you can expect to see in real-world conditions – needless to say, all numbers we saw were comfortably in excess of 300km no matter how we fiddled with it.

As important as range is charging – the Taycan claims to be as fast ‘standing still as it is in motion,’ and thanks to its 800-volt architecture it really an soak up the juice at record speeds.

Via the Mobile Charger Connect unit connected to an 11kW power point, the Taycan can be recharged to full in about 8-hours. Step up to the Porsche Charging Dock, and weirdly you’ll drop your charging speeds to 9.6kW and your charging time will go up to as much as 10.5-hours.

With a 50kW DC fast charger, the Taycan can go from 5% charge to 80% charge in just 93-minutes – this is important as these types of DC fast chargers are expected to spring up more readily throughout the country. The fastest charging option is the Porsche Turbo Charger – available at selected Porsche dealerships across the country, 5%-80% charge can be completed in just 22-minutes and 30-seconds, with an average of 100km of range added with every 5-minutes.

All Porsche Taycans will come with the same complimentary 4-year maintenance & warranty program offered by SDAP, with the battery covered under an 8-year warranty. Customers can option to extend the warranty coverage for both the vehicle & battery for up to 15-years.

Despite being a full-electric vehicle, the Taycan offers true Porsche performance with incredible traction & handling. The Taycan Turbo S goes from 0-100km/h in just 2.8-seconds, identical to what can be achieved by its Formula E sibling, the Porsche 99X.

“The Taycan is the first purely-electric sports car from Porsche and marks the beginning of a new era into the field of electromobility. It is still undeniably a Porsche – you can feel the soul of the Taycan the second you get behind the wheel. It feels and drives like a true Porsche.”
– Christopher Hunter, Chief Executive Officer, Sime Darby Auto Performance

To accommodate charging at home, a full electrical check of parking facilities will be conducted at the homes of all Taycan owners by a certified provider engaged by SDAP. A report will be issued after the home visit to determine the compatibility of the charging equipment and next steps for optimal home charging. Of course, you can always make do with Porsche Turbo Charging with its 175kW DC fast-charging, able to add 100km of range in just 5-minutes.

GALLERY: 2020 Porsche Taycan Turbo S

Sime Darby Auto Performance, the sole official distributor of Porsche vehicles in Malaysia, has reiterated its intent to launch the all-electric Porsche Taycan in our market this year. Despite the pandemic and global economic recession, SDAP is still keen on introducing the first-ever all-electric production Porsche this year, likely as a way to celebrate its 10th year as the official Porsche distributor in our market.

There were concerns about whether or not SDAP would be able to do it, given the current state of things. But via a short clip on their Facebook page, SDAP made clear that the new Taycan will be here before the year is up, but it hasn’t gone as far as to confirm when exactly it’ll do so.

However, while SDAP made clear that the new Taycan will be here before the year is up but it hasn’t gone as far as to confirm when exactly it’ll do so.

What’s also unclear is how the Taycan will arrive in our market – the Taycan is available globally as a standard model (dubbed ‘Taycan’), the Taycan 4S, the Taycan Turbo, and the Taycan Turbo S. The most powerful of the four models packs two electric motors (one on either axle) to produce 751hp and 1,050Nm, capable of rocketing the Taycan Turbo S from nought to 100km/h in just 2.8-seconds, and on to a top speed of 260km/h.

The Turbo and 4S also use a dual-motor setup but they’re down-tuned to produce 671hp/850Nm and 523hp/640Nm respectively. That said, the 4S can be upgraded to include the ‘Performance Battery Plus’ pack (which is standard on the Turbo & Turbo S models) which then upgrades performance to 563hp and 650Nm.

The Turbo, Turbo S, and the Performance Battery Plus-equipped models come with a 93.4kWh battery pack, while the Taycan & Taycan 4S make do with a 79.2kWh unit. All variants offer both AC and DC charging, with a 463km maximum range via WLTP testing standards.

In addition to the Taycan, it’s likely that Some Darby will be throwing out more goodies to mark its decade of cooperation with Porsche in Malaysia. Back in 2020, Porsche Asia Pacific (PAP) sought a new main distributor for the Porsche franchise here in Malaysia, and Sime Darby stepped in to fill the role.

GALLERY: 2020 PORSCHE TAYCAN TURBO S