Remember the whispers about the original Taycan’s range and efficiency?
Yeah.
Some folks weren’t exactly impressed. Sure, it often beat EPA estimates in real-world driving, but seeing competitors like Tesla and Lucid boasting much higher official ranges had to sting a little.
So, did Porsche take those comments to heart? Were their engineers at Weissach simply obsessed with finding improvements everywhere possible? Maybe it’s a bit of both.
One thing’s for sure: the new Taycan seems to be a serious efficiency champion. While official EPA figures haven’t been released yet, all signs point to a significant improvement. I recently spoke with some Porsche engineers at the car’s Spanish launch to understand the secret sauce behind this electric range revolution.
The Battery Gets a Boost
The biggest change to the Taycan is its battery. Porsche swapped the old chemistry for a new one called NMC 811 (think eight parts nickel, one part each of manganese and cobalt). This may sound like gibberish, but for non-chemists, it basically means the battery can store more energy.
It’s worth noting that the new electric Macan uses a similar battery but with slight variations, according to a Porsche engineer.
Speaking of batteries, the Taycan’s standard battery pack now holds 82.3 usable kilowatt-hours (kWh) compared to 71 kWh before (total capacity is also higher). The upgraded Performance Battery Plus offers a bigger jump, going from 83.7 kWh to 97 kWh usable. In simpler terms, the base battery is now as powerful as the previous upgraded option, and the Performance Battery Plus is even better.
More Power, Less Weight:
During a presentation before our test drive, Sarah Razvani, the Taycan battery project lead, explained that the new NMC 811 chemistry is a key factor behind the increased range. This new battery tech is standard on the Turbo S model (which comes with the bigger battery pack) and all Taycan models except the base and 4S sedans.
There’s a catch, though. The new chemistry adds a bit of weight. To keep things balanced, Porsche’s engineers went on a weight-saving mission. They tweaked the copper components (called bus bars), reduced the number of fuses, and even swapped the steel undertray for a lighter composite one. The end result? Success! The Performance Battery Plus shed almost 20 pounds while gaining 12% more total energy capacity. That’s a win-win for both power and efficiency.
Keeping Cool for More Miles: Porsche’s Thermal Tweaks
Porsche didn’t stop at the battery. They also improved the car’s thermal management system, which basically keeps the battery happy. This update lets the battery operate at a wider range of ideal temperatures, which is also good for fast charging. You can now plug into a DC fast charger at a much lower temperature (59 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to the previous 95 degrees.
To achieve this wider temperature range, Porsche added a new heat pump and a more powerful (800-volt) air conditioning compressor. Together, these components can heat and cool the battery more efficiently.
So, what does all this tinkering add up to? Porsche claims a whopping 35% increase in range for both the base Taycan and the top-of-the-line Turbo S. Based on our own tests, we’re confident you can expect a solid 300 miles of range from the new Taycan. It’s clear a lot of effort went into achieving these impressive efficiency gains.
