- Only two versions of the 2021 Taycan family have had their EPA range numbers released—the 4S with two different battery packs—but Porsche’s high-performance EV gets substantially improved ratings this time around.
- Last year, the 4S was rated at 203 miles, while the 2021 scores 227, a 24-mile increase.
- These improved range figures are not a result of any significant hardware or software changes, but rather adjusting to reflect the fact that customers have been buying Taycans with the more efficient wheel-and-tire combinations.
Relative to its EV peers, the Porsche Taycan launched for 2020 with conservative EPA range figures. As proof, we just put a 2020 Taycan 4S through our 75-mph highway range test, and it came closer than any other EV we’ve tested to achieving its EPA combined range figure. For 2021, Porsche is dialing back on some of that conservatism and bumping up the range figures. So far, EPA figures are out for only two variants of the Taycan family, but for the one comparable model—the 4S with the larger battery pack—its range figure increased from 203 miles to 227.
That’s for the 2021 Taycan 4S with Performance Battery Plus, the higher-capacity, 83.7-kWh battery pack. With the standard 71.0-kWh Performance battery, the Taycan 4S will officially go 199 miles (there was no equivalent 2020 4S to compare to). The other 2021 Taycan variants that we’re still waiting on official numbers for are the base Taycan (which will be available with either battery), the Taycan Turbo, and the Taycan Turbo S (both the Turbo and the Turbo S come only with the larger pack). The biggest difference between the entry-level Taycan and the 4S, Turbo, and Turbo S models is that the base model is rear-wheel drive powered by a single motor instead of the two-motor, all-wheel-drive setup found on the other models.
What changed to achieve these gains? The short answer: nothing. Porsche has simply adjusted the results to account for the fact that customers are gravitating toward the more efficient wheel and tire combinations.
Although ratings on the Turbo and Turbo S models aren’t out yet, those, too, will increase for 2021 for the same reason. Documents that Porsche has submitted to the EPA suggest those figures could be as high as 221 miles for the Turbo and 211 for the Turbo S, both gains of roughly 10 percent. However, as it did in 2020, Porsche continues to voluntarily reduce the Taycan’s range figures for 2021. For example, for 2021 the 4S variants earned 235- and 212-mile ratings in the EPA tests, respectively, but Porsche chose to label them at the aforementioned 227 and 199 miles. (Automakers can always set fuel-economy or range figures as far below the test results as they’d like.)
As always, take the EPA-range numbers for EVs with a grain of salt when trying to predict out how far a fully charged EV will actually go, but we’re fairly confident that the Taycan’s new figures are more in line with those of its EV peers and also that a 2021 model won’t go any farther in our 75-mph highway range test.
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