As Porsche’s plans for an increasingly electrified portfolio continue to pick up speed — with the Macan Electric already unveiled, and electric successors to the Cayenne and 718 Cayman/Boxster confirmed — it hasn’t forgotten about the pioneering name that served as its very first crackle of new, electric energy.
Yes — the Porsche Taycan is back in Singapore, now in thoroughly enhanced form. Unveiled at Pasir Panjang Power Station on Thursday evening (Sept 5), the car’s local launch also marked its regional premiere — where a beautiful one-off car even made a special appearance.
But let’s get back first to the cars you can actually buy.
Arriving at launch in both the standard sports sedan and Cross Turismo body styles, the first thing you’ll note is that apart from fresh styling, the updated Taycan lineup packs upgrades in driving range, charging capability and of course, sheer power across all variants.
At the same time, however, a new performance flagship is also joining the family: The extreme, record-breaking Taycan Turbo GT.
To get a clearer understanding of what’s new for the Taycan’s mid-life refresh, the base, single-motor Taycan perhaps provides the best place to start.
Central to the Taycan’s refreshed exterior are its slimmer head lights, which maintain the brand’s signature four-point signatures, but now feature HD matrix technology as standard.
Come round to the Taycan’s rear, and you’ll also notice the Porsche lettering now bearing a glassy, 3D-look. For extra sparkle, buyers can even opt an illuminated version with welcome/leaving animations.
As you can expect from Porsche, however, the real updates are more than skin-deep.
With at least half of the development costs for this mid-life refresh directed towards efficiency and performance upgrades, the first key improvement to note is that all variants of the Taycan are now more powerful than before.
A large part of the credit is due to a new electric motor on the car’s rear axle, which produces 80kW (107bhp) more power, but still manages to weigh less (it’s 10.4kg lighter than before, to be exact).
To put that into numbers, the base Taycan with the larger Performance Battery Plus will zip to 100km/h from rest in just 4.8 seconds now: 0.6 seconds quicker than before.
Meanwhile, the ludicrous Taycan Turbo S, which now has a peak output of 700kW (939bhp) with Launch Control, will annihilate the century sprint in a manic 2.4 seconds, or a dip of 0.4 seconds.
If you want a bit more fun behind the wheel, ‘Push-to-Pass’ is now being extended to the Taycan range, too, as an optional add-on for selected variants as part of the Sport Chrono package.
But boosted performance isn’t all that the new Taycan is offering. Thanks to a comprehensive array of efficiency upgrades, all variants of the electric sports car now promise to go further on a single charge.
Unsurprisingly, a crucial factor this time has been the car’s upsized battery capacities: An increase to 89kWh on the Performance Battery, and 105kWh on the Performance Battery Plus.
Again, however, what might be surprising is the fact that Porsche hasn’t made the batteries heavier despite increasing their capacities.
Just as remarkably, the electric architecture’s uprated fast charging capabilities mean that juicing the Taycan back up should now be a zipper affair too — even with the increased capacity of its batteries.
With the Performance Battery Plus able to support DC charging at 320kW, bringing its state-of-charge from 10 to 80 per cent will take just 18 minutes (or as long as it takes to queue sometimes for your favourite plate of hokkien mee).
Instead of peaking just briefly at this level, Porsche also states that charging speeds of more than 300kW can be sustained for a few minutes.
Also noteworthy is that standard equipment has been significantly bumped up across the range.
For instance, the no-options-ticked Taycan used to ride on steel springs — but adaptive air suspension is now the default. On all-wheel-drive variants, the Taycan can also be opted for with the brand’s revolutionary Porsche Active Ride suspension system.
The baseline level of equipment for all Taycans has been raised significantly too, and now includes ambient lighting, four-zone climate control, a BOSE Surround sound system and 14-way adjustable seats.
Standard goodies on the tech front include the brand’s Porsche Intelligent Range Manager (PIRM), and ParkAssist including Surround View with Active Parking Support.
As mentioned, however, the launch of the updated Taycan is also significant for another reason, as the Taycan Turbo S now cedes its crown as the performance flagship to an even more extreme member of the family: The Taycan Turbo GT.
Telling the Taycan Turbo GT apart from the rest of the family shouldn’t be too difficult; there are aggressive bits of aerowork all over the car, alongside the extensive use of carbon-fibre. As standard, the car also rides on 21-inch wheels with lightweight forged rims, behind which lie massive lightweight ceramic brakes.
Even with all of the above as a visual taster, the sheer firepower waiting beneath might still come as a shock.
Capable of a peak output of 1,093bhp and 1,240Nm of torque (with Launch Control), the Taycan Turbo GT marks the fastest-accelerating series production Porsche yet; with the Weissach Package opted for, it completes the century sprint in a scarcely believable 2.2 seconds.
The Purple Sky Metallic car that made an appearance on Thursday was just the ‘normal’ Taycan Turbo GT, though, which takes one-tenth of a second more to get from 0 to 100km/h.
Although based on the Taycan Turbo S, the Taycan Turbo GT tips the scales at 75kg less, and gets upgraded electronic components, a more powerful pulse inverter over its rear motor, as well as modifications to its gearbox to handle all that extra torque.
As if the all-out display — from the base Taycan all the way up to the Taycan Turbo GT — along a runway-like corridor created for the evening wasn’t enough, Porsche had one final surprise awaiting attendees still: The world premiere of the one-off Taycan Turbo S Celestial Jade.
Created by the team at Porsche’s Sonderwunsch programme, the car wears an intricate, gradient-like coat that doesn’t just pay homage to fans and customers of the brand in the Southeast Asia region, but also shows off the most advanced paint technology employed by the brand yet. (You can read more about this special machine here!)
Additionally, Porsche took the chance during the Taycan Turbo S Celestial Jade’s unveiling to debut its all-new ‘Leather to Sample’ programme for the Taycan, which now opens up a whole new world of interior customisation to its customers.
The updated Porsche Taycan is now on sale in Singapore, with prices starting at $392,007 at launch (excluding COE).
Porsche Singapore states that the first deliveries of the car are set to commence towards the end of 2024, and that owners can look forward to three years of complimentary charging across the 130 charging points on its Porsche Destination Charging Network.
Local fans of the brand now also have the recently-introduced Porsche Privilege rewards programme to enjoy, through which benefits with partner brands can be unlocked. Tokens awarded via the purchase of Porsche vehicles or merchandise can also be used for redemption of exclusive rewards.
| Car model |
Price as of press time (excluding COE and options) |
| Porsche Taycan |
$392,007 |
| Porsche Taycan 4 Cross Turismo |
$441,007 |
| Porsche Taycan 4S |
$545,607 |
| Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo |
$571,607 |
| Porsche Taycan Turbo |
$749,607 |
| Porsche Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo |
$755,607 |
| Porsche Taycan Turbo S |
$899,907 |
| Porsche Taycan Turbo GT |
$1,019,407 |
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This article was first published in sgCarMart.
