Category Archives: Porsche

News and reviews of Porsche electric cars (including plug-in hybrids).

Used Car of the Year Awards: Electric cars

November 10, 2023Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Renault, Skoda, Taycan / Mission E, Tesla, ZOERepost

With living costs on the rise, getting a good deal on your next car is more important than ever. That’s where our Used Car Awards come in. These are our favourite electric cars…

Credit where credit is due: Elon Musk has led Tesla to become one of today’s most popular car brands. He’s no stranger to controversy in other matters, but Tesla’s Model 3 has proved to be an electric vehicle (EV) milestone.

This executive car has sold immensely well since its launch, and it continues to do so today, meaning the used market is flooded with them. Examples start with the Standard Range Plus, which can be found for a very tempting £23,000.

While this entry-level model can’t come close to matching the Performance’s 0-60mph time of 3.3sec (in our hands), it’ll still manage the sprint in a hot-hatch-like 6.1sec. You won’t see such acceleration behind the wheel of a Kia e-Niro.

The range is impressive, too: the Standard Range Plus officially travels 254 miles on a single charge, or 267 miles if you go for a post-2020 example. If you need 300-plus miles of range (more than any Jaguar I-Pace can offer), you can pick up a Model 3 Long Range or Performance for a few thousand pounds more; these versions have larger batteries.

The Model 3 is more reliable than the I-Pace, too. In the latest What Car? Reliability Survey, the Model 3 ranked eighth out of 20 cars in the EV class, with an impressive 93.9% score.

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Top Gear’s greatest cars of the last 30 years: BMW i8 and Porsche Taycan

November 9, 2023BMW, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission ERepost

In our increasingly electrified world, two pioneers have stood taller than others

We were surprised as well. Only one Porsche has ever been crowned TG’s Car of the Year, and it’s the one without a combustion engine. Meanwhile, no BMW M car has ever taken the top prize. The only Beemers to walk away with the laurels are an executive saloon still held in high regard today, and a petrol-electric sports car that bravely looked to a future that hasn’t materialised. Raises the question really: which of this pair is a surefire future classic?

We know a winner when we see one. BMW’s £900m investment in its i range is now a cautionary tale of how to go too far, too fast with cars of the future, with the i3 and i8 now relegated to history and the current range taking the far more conventional shape of stuff like the iX1, i4 and i7. The only ‘bespoke’ EV BMW makes these days is the iX. A fine luxury pod dressed up like a robo-hippo, but a far cry from the days when bespoke aluminium chassis bore recycled carbon-fibre superstructures.

When aerodynamics, not marketing, styled the cars. When BMW would sell you a butterfly door streamliner powered by a 3cyl Mini engine tuned to deliver over 230bhp, boosted by an electric motor for 0–62mph in 4.4secs, plus claimed economy of 134mpg. Not the i8’s fault the test cycle was laughably flawed.

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On the hunt for the best plug in hybrid cars for 2023? I’m a car expert and these are my top picks

March 27, 2023Cayenne S E-Hybrid, Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, Peugeot, PorscheRepost

If you read our guide to the best electric cars, you’ll know that here at Marie Claire UK, we’re passionate about protecting the planet and investing in vehicles that cause less pollution.

Interested in a more sustainable vehicle but not ready to go full-bore electric just yet? There are other options available, like plug in hybrid cars, which are cars with a decent electric range alongside a petrol or diesel engine for longer trips.

Why is it important we start investing more sensibly now and taking care of our planet? Well, because global warming is increasing at a rapid rate that even scientists didn’t predict. Not only that but petrol and diesel cars will be banned from sale in the UK in 2030, asking consumers to seriously consider where they invest their money.

As a car expert and Editorial Director at AutoTrader UK, I know a thing or two about what makes a car good, taking into consideration its sustainability credentials, affordability, and how enjoyable it is to drive, too. For my edit of the eight best plug in hybrid cars for 2023, keep scrolling.

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I’ve driven 20 electric cars — here are the 7 most important things I’ve learned about charging, range, and why Tesla still dominates

February 24, 2023Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, TeslaRepost

As electric vehicles have taken the world by storm in recent years, I’ve gotten to drive heaps of clean cars from Tesla, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Rivian, and more.

I’ve tested 20 electric cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks from Tesla, Ford, Porsche, Polestar, and more.
I learned that their advertised range isn’t always accurate and charging can be a major pain.
But electric cars are quick, convenient, fun to drive, and quiet.

Hours behind the wheel taught me some important lessons about range, charging, and our electric future.

The range you see isn’t always the range you get

I learned this one the hard way. During my first long trip in an EV, I put a little too much trust in the range estimates that the Ford Mustang Mach-E I was driving provided. I watched anxiously as the SUV’s battery level drained lower and lower until I was left with just a 6% charge at my destination, which was miles away from the nearest fast-charging station. (When I set out, the Mach-E claimed I’d arrive with plenty of mileage to spare.)

Long story short, an electric car’s advertised range — on paper or from its software — isn’t always what you experience in the real world. Sometimes it exceeds expectations, and sometimes it falls short due to factors like frigid temperatures, speedier driving, a heavy payload, or hilly roads.

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Porsche Says Its EVs Will Soon Be More Profitable Than Its Gas-Powered Cars

August 5, 2022Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission E, UncategorizedRepost

Porsche expects that, within two years, its electric cars will be as profitable as its conventional cars, and that within five years, its electric cars will prove even more profitable.

Speaking at the company’s capital markets day, chief financial officer Lutz Meschke said that Porsche expects the margins on electric cars will equal and then surpass the margins on gas-powered cars as consumers grow more willing to pay for battery-powered vehicles, Bloomberg reports.

Until recently, automakers had lamented the thin profit margins on electric vehicles, which are more costly to manufacture and have historically held less appeal for consumers. Now, with EV manufacturing facilities scaling up and consumer interest on the rise, things are starting to change. “There are even signs that the EV business could be at least as good as the business with the conventional cars,” Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, said in March.

Porsche expects that EVs will account for roughly half of the luxury car market by the end of this decade. The German automaker is aiming for 80 percent of its sales to be fully electric by 2031.

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What’s the best electric vehicle for shaming supercars?

February 25, 2022Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission ERepost

The Porsche Taycan Turbo S puts the ‘fast’ in ‘fasten your seatbelts’

It’s one of the best things about an electric car – that instant slug of full-on torque, wheels scrabble then the rubber bites into the road, none of the other drivers can see your Nissan Leaf for dust away from the traffic lights.

We might have laughed at all those Reva G-Wiz drivers weaving about the road into the paths of overtaking cyclists, hunched painfully behind the wheel, those hairiest of hair-shirted early adopters. But it’s clear now that these were performance pioneers, in the same way that someone taking a corner too fast in their Benz Patent-Motorwagen was setting us all inexorably on the road to world rally championships and Grand Prix glory.

And sure there have been upstarts and disrupters on the electric path so far, but of course we all knew that the big daddies of car making would come through with the sort of tech that would make others weep.

Porsche has spent decades and decades refining the 911 formula that people said couldn’t work. It positively crushed the naysayers under the bluff front end of its Cayenne performance SUV when they said that pseudo-4x4s were too dumpy to drive well.

Latterly the Stuttgart-based firm has electrified us all with the delights of its Taycan EV, a car that juggles the old-fashioned dynamic delights of a Porsche with the brave new world of electromobility. Critics will wiffle on about the lack of engine noise and aural titivation, or they complain in the same whiny tones as an electric motor about the fact that the Taycan has a Turbo model in its line-up when it doesn’t even have a turbo in its engine. “Watt’s going on”, they say. “Ohmigod”, they cry.

Maybe the Taycan Turbo S doesn’t even have a turbo, but with 751bhp on overboost you definitely won’t even care. A 2.8secs 0–62mph run will leave most other drivers sobbing pathetically in its wake – it’s basically a bargain at £139k and the polar ice caps will practically refreeze themselves as you thunder along. What’s not to like? You’ll be the envy of all the sad chumps at the charge points.

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Porsche Taycan Turbo S 2020 review

October 10, 2019Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Porsche, Taycan / Mission ERepost

Range-topping version of Porsche’s first all-electric car shows the rest of the world how it should be done

What is it?

I think this handsome thing is the world’s best electric car. I suppose it should be, because the new Porsche Taycan, in toppermost Turbo S form, costs £138,826 before options – and you’ll need to specify some of those, as we’ll come to.

First, though: this electric car/Turbo combo. There’s something not quite right there, wouldn’t you say? Although Supercharger and Autopilot don’t seem to mean what I thought, either. Look, we all know Turbo is a sub-brand, not a literal thing, says Porsche. It means souped up, which is why there are Turbo versions of vacuum cleaners or already turbocharged 911s.

Figuratively, Turbo means chuffing powerful. The Taycan Turbo S figuratively and literally is that. It has 751bhp, albeit on overboost, for a few seconds, during launches, when it can hit 60mph from rest in 2.6sec. Even the regular Taycan Turbo (merely £115,828) has 670bhp in the same mode. Both, strangely, make 617bhp when you’re not launching.

Cheaper, less powerful, non-Turbo Taycans will follow, but when early adopters with heavy wallets are waiting, why offer those now?

This expensive market entry, then, is Porsche’s first pure EV, but the company has form with electricity via its hybrids, plugged in or otherwise, in road cars and motorsport. The Le Mans-winning 919 has been running an 800V electrical system since 2011 and the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid is the kind of car we use on a drag race video when we want to give a Tesla Model S’s Ludicrous Mode a hard time.

The Taycan will be able to fill that brief without the Panamera’s internally combusted element. It’s a five-door hatchback, marginally smaller than a Panamera, built on a new platform, with a raft of lithium ion batteries beneath the floor. They total 93.4kWh, good enough for a WLTP range of up to 280 miles in the Turbo (which has an exceptional drag coefficient of 0.22) or 256 miles in the Turbo S (Cd 0.25).

There are two motors – one front, one aft – powering all four wheels. The rear motor has a two-speed transmission, although it drives around mostly in second gear, with the low ratio reserved for the sportier of its drive modes at lower speeds. The Turbo S gets active rear steer, carbon-ceramic brakes, a different inverter to allow the overboost and bigger wheels as standard, but generally the differences over the Turbo are limited.

Has the country that invented the car fallen behind on tech?

June 5, 2019Audi, BMW, Electric Cars, Mercedes, News, Reviews and Comment, Opinion, Porsche, VolkswagenRepost

The relief was palpable from Berlin to Munich when Germany – announced its latest GDP figures.

After months of gloom, modest growth of 0.4pc in the first quarter was heralded as a sign Europe’s largest economy might weather the global slowdown better than most experts predict.

For the first time in six months, Germany is growing again, and the figures follow last week’s announcement that exports rose unexpectedly by 1.5pc in March.

That such lean figures are seen as something to celebrate is a clear indication of how Europe’s industrial powerhouse has slowed – and behind the numbers lurk unpalatable truths.

That there is any growth is down to the service sector and a construction boom fuelled by housing shortages.

The manufacturing sector that is the engine of the German economy, in particular its fabled car industry, is in trouble. Automotive orders fell 5.3pc in the first quarter. In mechanical engineering, the outlook is more bleak, with orders down 7.3pc.

…

But its growth strategy is built around industrial exports, and that has left it exposed. The car industry – the jewel in Germany’s economic crown – has been through a torrid time since the emissions scandal in 2015, when Volkswagen admitted it had installed software in millions of cars to help cheat emissions tests.

This year EU regulators accused BMW, Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler and VW of colluding to block the development and introduction of clean air technology, raising the spectre of multi-billion euro fines.

Already facing expensive recalls, carmakers have run into the growing wave of diesel bans as cities struggle to bring air quality within EU limits. In Germany alone, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt have outlawed older diesel cars.

VW announced investment in a new battery cell production plant this week but German carmakers lag far behind US and Chinese rivals in battery technology. The country that invented the car is rapidly falling behind.

Who’s Winning the Electric Vehicle Race?

March 29, 2019Audi, Electric Cars, Ford, Honda, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, Porsche, Sales, VolkswagenRepost

Automakers are focused on developing models, but ad spending surge is sure to follow

Oil-rich Texas is an unlikely spot for an electric vehicle demand surge. But John Luciano, general manager of a Volkswagen dealership in Amarillo, says his customers are juiced about EVs, suggesting the market might finally emerge from niche status nationally.

“If there is interest in Amarillo, Texas—which is truck country—there is definitely interest,” he says.

Automakers are banking on it. Billions of dollars are flowing into the sector, with Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Honda and other big auto brands making grand pronouncements about their electric vehicle ambitions. Volkswagen Group, whose brands include Audi and Porsche, last week announced it will launch an estimated 70 new electric models in the next 10 years—up from its previous 50-model projection—accounting for 22 million vehicles globally. Audi last month ran a Super Bowl ad touting its claim that one-third of its new models will be electrified by 2025. “A thrilling future awaits. On Earth,” the ad boasted.

But there could be plenty of chills along with the thrills as brands look to overcome long-held consumer concerns about EVs. These include their relatively expensive pricetag when compared to similar gas-powered models, and so-called “range anxiety,” which refers to fears of being stranded, out of power, with no charging station in sight.

Technological advances, including investments in charging infrastructure, will quell some of the angst. But it will be up to marketing departments to get the word out with advertising that reaches beyond tree-hugging EV loyalists or wealthy, tech-obsessed buyers—all without overspending on a sector that remains unpredictable.

Porsche stops making diesel cars after VW emissions scandal

October 10, 2018Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, News, Reviews and Comment, Pollution, PorscheRepost

The German carmaker Porsche says it will stop making diesel cars, and concentrate on petrol, electric and hybrid engines instead.

It follows a 2015 scandal in which its parent company, Volkswagen, admitted it had cheated emissions tests for diesel engines.

Diesel cars over a certain age have been banned in parts of some German cities in a bid to cut pollution.

The Porsche chief executive said the company was “not demonising diesel”.

“It is and will remain an important propulsion technology,” Oliver Blume said.

“We as a sports car manufacturer, however, for whom diesel has always played a secondary role, have come to the conclusion that we would like our future to be diesel-free.

“Petrol engines are well suited for sporty driving.”

Existing diesel car customers would continue to be served, he said.

Porsche did not build its own diesel engines, preferring to use Audi ones.

“Nevertheless, Porsche’s image has suffered, Mr Blume said.

“The diesel crisis caused us a lot of trouble.”