- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 4 seats
- Engine
Perm Magnet, LI
- Engine Power
NA
- Fuel
36h 30m chg, 403km range
- Manufacturer
RWD
- Transmission
Auto
- Warranty
3 Yr, Unltd KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
2022 Porsche Taycan RWD review
All the best Porsche cars are AWD in 2022 right? Not so fast. With the introduction of a new entry point to the Taycan range, you get a more affordable EV, but it's also RWD. Trent Nikolic finds out whether the 2022 Porsche Taycan RWD delivers a quintessential Porsche driving experience.
- Exceptional combination of ride and handling
- It is RWD, but it's still plenty fast enough
- Cabin execution and design are excellent
- Cost of options remains high
- Boot capacity needs to be larger
- Longer warranty please
Introduction
Since its release, the Porsche Taycan has been a real standard-setter in terms of what buyers can expect from an electric vehicle platform. You might have expected it to look like a Porsche or be built like a Porsche, but without the wailing flat-six engine, without the hissing and spitting of turbochargers, and without the metronomic precision of a PDK, you could be forgiven for expecting that it wouldn't drive or feel like a Porsche.
And yet, it did. And how. Now, we take a look at the most affordable Taycan in the range, the 2022 Taycan RWD. There's been a price revision as you can see in our pricing and specification guide, and we've listed the starting price below. The fact you can get into a fully electric Porsche for $156,400 before on-road costs is something that will attract a lot of buyers. That represents an almost $40,000 saving from the next most affordable Taycan, the 4S.
Outside, despite looking nothing like any other Porsche, the Taycan still looks exactly as we'd expect a Porsche to, and it's an attractive, svelte sports sedan from any angle. It's got LED headlights, 19-inch alloy wheels, privacy glass, and a slightly higher ride height thanks to the steel springs, but it looks purposeful and stylish.
You've read our musings before that the electric vehicle segment has traditionally been a tough one to compartmentalise, because a vehicle like the Taycan doesn't really have a direct rival in terms of it being RWD. Until recently, we couldn't even really compare by body style.
That's changing, though, as more EVs become available, but the RWD platform is an interesting one. It's relatively easy for a manufacturer to add a second motor to the front or rear axle, and therefore make the platform AWD, and that's what most of them are doing. We've therefore listed the Taycan's closest rivals as best we see it right now.
Key details | 2022 Porsche Taycan RWD |
Price (MSRP) | $159,700 plus on-road costs |
Colour of test car | Cherry Red metallic |
Options | Performance Battery Plus – $12,020 LED Matrix headlights – $3620 On-board AC charger (22kW) – $3500 Panoramic fixed roof – $3370 Bose surround-sound system – $2840 19-inch Aero wheels – $2400 Metallic paint – $2300 Electric charging cover – $1310 Home Energy Manager – $1150 Porsche Electric Sport Sound – $1050 4+1 seats – $1000 Heated front seats – $910 Ambient lighting – $890 Adaptive sports seats – $800 Porsche logo LED courtesy lights – $600 |
Price as tested | $197,460 plus on-road costs |
Rivals | Audi E-Tron GT | Mercedes-Benz EQC | BMW i4 |
Inside
It's important to me – vital even – that any Porsche feels like a Porsche when you're behind the wheel. Close the driver's door, get comfortable in the seat, and it needs to feel like you're sitting in a Porsche sports car. That's true regardless of the vehicle platform. Doesn't matter whether it's a Macan or a Cayenne, or in this case a Taycan. Crucially, the Taycan feels exactly that.
Describing what that 'feeling' is, though, is a tough one. Porsche doesn't do 'cheap' in that its most affordable models have never felt low-rent or like they are missing out on anything, so in one way, you're getting that high-end feel without the high-end spend. There's a sense of insulation, a tactility to the controls, something about the seating position, and the quality of the fit and finish, which all leave you in no doubt as to what you're driving.
Taycan RWD gets part leather trim, a 14-way adjustable driver's seat, electric steering wheel adjustment and an electric passenger seat. My only bugbear in the cabin is the armrest, which doubles as the lid for the centre console and is impossible to keep open. So, it keeps closing on you even when you don't want it to. Annoying.
That gripe aside, there's little to dislike about the Taycan's cabin. The seats themselves are excellent, visibility is good, and the ergonomics are high-end. The second row will easily accommodate two tall adults, but three is a push, and the five-seat layout is a $1000 option. I reckon most Taycan buyers will go four-seat and be happy. The raked roof line does little to eat into headspace, too, despite the way it might look from the outside.
The Taycan's boot is a little on the small side – 407L at its largest, but 366L if you tick the box for the optional 14-speaker Bose audio system – and despite an extra 84L up front, an SUV-mad market like ours would appreciate more luggage space.
2022 Porsche Taycan RWD | |
Seats | Five |
Boot volume | Front 84L Rear 407L (366L with Bose sound system) |
Length | 4963mm |
Width | 1966mm |
Height | 1395mm |
Wheelbase | 2900mm |
Infotainment and Connectivity
If you love screens and you love interactivity, you'll absolutely love the Taycan. Three screens, with an optional fourth, mean you can tailor your level of interaction with the Taycan to suit your desires. The curved 16.8-inch driver's display is a potent reminder that the loss of gorgeous mechanical dials is nothing to fear, such is the clarity, customisation, and quality of the digital display. There are configurable views, and a level of control that you can access to control features like the adjustable dampers.
In the centre of the dash, you'll find the 10.9-inch touchscreen, which runs the usual infotainment systems, like satellite navigation, Porsche Connect and specific vehicle settings like cabin lighting. Apple CarPlay and Bluetooth all worked well for us on test, and pairing your device is easy. The proprietary satellite navigation is also a good system that is accurate and easy to work out, but I preferred to go with my smartphone mapping.
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I like the third screen that Porsche has added, which works specifically to control the audio system and HVAC. I understand that buyers not as familiar with the technology might feel like there's a lot going on, but trust me when I say you'll get used to it. It's actually a neat way of not incorporating everything into one overloaded screen. Crucially, despite a lot going on, and a lot of functionality within the systems, the OS that Porsche has chosen is easy to master once you spend some time with it.
Our test Taycan's optional Bose audio system is excellent. At this level, it's $2800 well spent and adds to the premium feeling inside the cabin.
Safety and Technology
Across the Taycan range, there's a hefty list of standard equipment, and that washes down to the most affordable model we're testing here. The only airbag it doesn't have – that more and more vehicles are starting to feature – is a front centre airbag.
There is no official ANCAP rating, of course, because the Taycan has not been crashed by our local body. It did, however, get a five-star Euro NCAP, so it's a high-rating platform on that test criteria.
Also standard is lane-change assist, lane-keep assist, cross-traffic assist, collision avoidance, adaptive cruise control, front and rear sensors, front and rear park assist, and front- and rear-view cameras. There are two ISOFIX options in the back seats for baby seats.
2022 Porsche Taycan RWD | |
ANCAP rating | Untested |
Value for Money
Value for money is an interesting one, in that electric vehicles aren't cheap or 'affordable' in the old sense. However, a Porsche has never been cheap, and the most affordable Taycan makes a strong value statement. You don't 'need' any of the pace that comes with more performance-focused Taycans, and as such, the entry model we've tested here makes a lot of sense. If you want a Porsche and you want it to be electric, the RWD Taycan puts a compelling case forward as the clever buy in the range.
As we always write, though, value includes warranty – which we'd like to be longer – and the cost of options, which will blow the price of a Taycan right out if you don't exercise some restraint.
At a glance | 2022 Porsche Taycan RWD |
Warranty | Three years / unlimited km |
Service intervals | 24 months or 30,000km |
Energy cons. (claimed) | 26.2kWh/100km |
Energy cons. (on test) | 28.9kWh/100km |
Battery size | 93.4kWh (Performance Battery Plus) |
Driving range claim (WLTP) | 434km |
Charge time (11kW) | 6h 46m |
Charge time (50kW) | 1h 33m (5-80%) |
Charge time (270kW max) | 22.5m (5-80%) |
The Taycan's energy consumption is a multi-layered beast depending on how and where you drive it. With the Performance Battery Plus, Porsche claims 434km range from 26.2kWh/100km energy consumption. You'll get close to that in the real world, too, with a caveat.
Around town, where the Taycan can cleverly scrounge back charge, you'll be able to travel a lot further than if you hit the highway for a long road trip, or get too excited with the accelerator pedal. With a 60/40 mix of city/motorway running, we saw a return of 28.9kWh/100km. That's a real-world 323km range.
Driving
As Glenn noted at launch, we first need to address the optional equipment fitted to our Taycan. A hefty $12,020 gets you the optional Performance Battery Plus, which brings with it added performance prowess. First up, the battery itself is a 93.4kWh unit, power climbs from 240kW to 280kW. In 'overboost' mode, that means you go from 300kW to 350kW. Torque remains the same.
Whether or not you need to tick this options box is a difficult one to answer, because I haven't driven the base/base Taycan and we haven't tested them back to back. You could argue the case for the 240kW option, given you're probably not buying a RWD Taycan for outright pace in the first place. However, the tester we had with the optional battery certainly has plenty of punch.
With the power aspect taken care of, focus shifts to how the Taycan rides and handles across the regular expectation of the daily drive. Track duties are less of a concern than they might be with a Turbo or Turbo S, despite the RWD Taycan still being fast. I'm more inclined to assess how it behaves on-road.
Steel springs rather than air suspension, but with adaptive dampers, seem to me to be a genuinely quality compromise on-road around town. The Taycan RWD does a beautiful job of splitting ride quality on poor surfaces, with body control and handling on a twisty country road.
The weight of the battery pack is mounted low, body roll is as minimal as possible, and the way the chassis responds to steering inputs is excellent even when you have some speed on. You will keep having to remind yourself that you're driving a reasonably hefty electric vehicle. Taycan RWD feels lighter than it really is.
Around town, I spent most of my driving in Range mode to give the Taycan its best chance of being as efficient as possible. There are four modes to choose from, and Normal is a reasonably efficient mode in town as well, with a little bit more punch than Range offers. Move into Sport and Sport Plus, you'll feel a noticeable sharpening of the performance response, but I feel like this model will spend less time in the sharpest modes than other models further up the chain.
You could argue that the Taycan RWD we tested 'feels' like a real Porsche because of the extra performance that comes with the Performance Battery Plus option, but I have a sneaking suspicion even the real base Taycan still feels like a premium sporting sedan. As it should be with a Porsche badge. It's not like Porsche has a history of releasing middling cars.
All round, the driving experience from behind the wheel of the RWD Taycan is a quality experience. It's insulated – not just in terms of sound, but also in terms of how it rides on the road – it's solid and comfortable, and it's enjoyable to drive. Which are traits we always expect from a Porsche.
Key details | 2022 Porsche Taycan RWD (Performance Battery Plus) |
Engine | Single AC synchronous electric motor |
Power | 280kW (350kW overboost) |
Torque | 345Nm (357Nm overboost) |
Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
Transmission | Two-speed automatic |
Power to weight ratio | 131.5kW/t (164.3kW/t overboost) |
Weight | 2050kg |
Turning circle | 11.8m |
Conclusion
Porsche – in a move that probably surprised no-one – delivered an electric vehicle that somehow remained imprinted with the manufacturer's unique pedigree when the first Taycan hit the market. It's the hallmark of a great car builder that everything it releases looks, feels and drives the way we expect it to.
And, that is something that is not easy to achieve with an EV. The Taycan remains the current standard-setter for performance EVs and, perhaps most importantly, the RWD variant we've tested here is no less faithful to that expectation. It's a great sports sedan in its own right, and it's a clever electric vehicle as well.
If your budget doesn't stretch further up the Taycan ladder, you're not lacking anything by driving the most affordable Taycan on sale.