Porsche Taycan updated before it’s on-sale

Australians will get the chance to jump straight into the 2021 Porsche Taycan when the highly-anticipated electric vehicle goes on sale here in December.

Taycan pricing and details were announced for Australia in June, but the specification was based on the 2020 Porsche Taycan model.

In typical fashion, Porsche has wasted little time refining its first EV with a series of updates on offer in Europe from October.

The new features will roll into the Australian Taycan just a couple of months later. Prices actually go down slightly – between $600 and $1000 – because of changes to the luxury car tax threshold on July 1.

That doesn’t affect the Taycan’s status as Australia’s most expensive EV, with pricing stretching from just under $200,000 to almost $340,000 before on-road costs.

So what’s changed?

To the charging system first. A 22kW AC onboard charger will become available soon, replacing the 11kW unit now used; for overnight home charging there’s likely to be little benefit, although for those quick top-ups at a shopping centre AC charger it’s more useful.

Also introduced is preservation technology designed to extend the service life of the battery while fast-charging. It does this by restricting capacity when practical to around 200kW.

The idea is to reduce battery degredation (batteries lose their ability to hold charge over time) and extend the battery’s service life and reduce power loss. Porsche says it’s a logical function to use when longer stops are planned. Unfettered, the Taycan has the ability to charge at up to 270kW.

There are also new intelligent charging functions including the ability to prevent an overload of the domestic connection and optimised charging with domestically-produced energy.

Another new feature for some markets – not Australia for now – is Plug & Charge, which automatically recognises the car and pays for charging at compatible charger stations without the driver having to register for individual apps or cards.

This Porsche system will work with the Australian-developed Tritium fast-chargers that are part of the Ionity network in Europe.

A colour customisable head-up display that offers sat-nav, power output and user-defined section is now offered with Taycan. Digital DAB radio tuning is also standard.

Taycan’s air suspension now gets a function called ‘Smartlift’ that automatically raises the ride height over speed bumps and driveways and lowers it at high-speed on freeways (Tesla has had a similar system for years).

The ability to make over-the-air updates is also now available with a feature called functions on demand. FoD allows the download of items such as active lane keep assist, Porsche’s InnoDrive semi-autonomous cruise control and power steering plus.

Customers can choose if they want to buy functions or subscribe on a monthly basis.

FoD is not scheduled for Australian introduction at this time.

And of course, being a Porsche, the Taycan has heaps of performance. But that has been addressed too.

The flagship Taycan Turbo S now rips from 0-200km/h 0.2 sec faster at 9.6 sec with the assistance of launch control, while the 0-400m time drops 0.1 sec to 10.7 sec. Those are amazing times.