ELECTRIC DREAM
It’s a moment of neck-snapping acceleration that truly puts the cherry on the Taycan’s kinematic cake. Rolling off the M4 and onto the southbound A34, there’s a brief 40mph speed restriction before the black-and-white striped national speed limit markers hove into view. Clear sighting, four lanes ahead, dry weather. Plant the throttle and… whoosh! We’re doing 70mph. In what feels like significantly less than three seconds, the Taycan Turbo has effortlessly punched its way through the air to cruising speed as if it were operating in a complete vacuum.
It’s not so much the shockingly cultured sensation of the Taycan’s brutal-yet-smooth acceleration that astounds — anyone can predict a vehicle with 616bhp and near instant 627lb-ft of torque on tap will be seriously fast. No, it’s more the juxtaposition that staggers you. Not just of the ridiculous numbers racking up on the speedo during full acceleration (laid against a confounding backdrop of the Taycan’s near-silent operations), but more the manner in which a car that had been civilised beyond compare only moments earlier was now suddenly going at the horizon like a rabid dog after a rabbit.
You see, the other benefit of an electric vehicle, or ‘EV’ as they are most commonly known, is its otherworldly refinement. Without an internal combustion engine onboard – which, let’s face it, is basically a series of controlled explosion chambers – you it are both such undemanding tasks that you might as well be commanding a supermini, not a six-figure luxury sports car. The Taycan is breathtakingly good in this department, irrespective of whatever motive force is powering any rival vehicle you care to pitch it against.
