We all have heard by now that the Porsche Taycan is a spectacular first try in electric vehicles for the German luxury brand, offering genuine supercar pace along with an adequate driving range. But one of most important questions remained unanswered: will it drift?
The answer comes from Autocar’s video series that returns to examine whether a Porsche Taycan Turbo is capable of going around a circle sideways. It’s no secret we’re entering uncharted waters with electric cars in general but if someone can make an oversteer-y EV, let’s face it, it’s Porsche (and Ford with its Mach-E).
As with any car using all four wheels to get the power down, the Porsche Taycan Turbo isn’t what you would call a drift-ready machine. As Matt Prior demonstrates, it takes some time to find the way of sliding the electric Porsche and keep the electronics happy with the process.
As it turns out, the optimal driving mode to keep the Taycan sideways is Sport, enabling it to spin all four wheels and carve a perfect curve in almost a WRC-like fashion with minimal steering efforts and the front wheels mostly facing the same way with the rear ones.
The Porsche Taycan Turbo is motivated by a twin-motor setup with a combined output of up to 616 HP under normal driving and up to 670 HP with the overboost function. 0-60 mph comes in 3.0 seconds flat (0-100 km/h in 3.2), while the quarter-mile is a matter of just 11.1 seconds. Flat out, it will reach 161 mph (260 km/h). If by any chance these numbers don’t impress you, there’s always the pricier option of the Taycan Turbo S.
The battery pack measures 93.4 kWh in capacity, which according to the EPA allows for a driving range of just 201 miles (323 km) but so far all real-world tests paint a different, more positive picture for the electric Porsche.