New Porsche Taycan offers cult colors, better range and faster charging

German luxury carmaker Porsche has overhauled its all-electric Porsche Taycan, introducing a range of cult colours that made the brand’s combustion vehicles such as the 911 Carrera 2 and 4 so iconic in its 2022 version.

The 2022 Taycan range will also have more driving range, says Porsche. The carmaker says that when coasting or stopped, no energy will be directed to the drive anymore – a development that comes as something of a surprise since when coasting and stopped there is no need for power.

What was it being used for? Porsche hints at why it was sending power to the drivetrain: “The motors are (now) switched on again within milliseconds only when the driver requests more power or changes the driving mode.”

So, rather than start the motor up again, it sounds like Porsche was in fact keeping it whirring lest its driver need an extra millisecond of acceleration. OK.

Although Porsche has not specified what the range increase will be, it says it has also “decoupled and de-energised in the partial load range” to decrease energy usage in Normal and Range modes.

It has also improved thermal management and charging functions so that the battery can withstand more heat.

This doesn’t mean a higher charging rate, unfortunately. According to a spokesperson for Porsche Australia, the charge rate reaches its optimum speed faster, and maintains it for longer. The official 270kW top charging rate remains the same.

At the time, this meant the Taycan would out of all the EV models on the market – including the Tesla Model S – have the fastest charge rate anyway.

But with Hyundai and Kia both preparing to introduce their own 800-volt EVs with 350kW top charge rates in coming months, the Taycan will soon have fast-charging competitors to contend with. We’ve reached out to Porsche Australia to determine what the Taycan’s new charge rate will be and will update this article with more information when it comes to hand.

But back to the colours, because if anything we can all do with more colour in our lives right now.

The Taycan range is now available in 17 standard colours, with the new additions including 90s classics such as “Rubystar” and “Acid Green”, as well as “Moonlight Blue Metallic”, “Riviera Blue” and “Viola Metallic”.

If that doesn’t ring your bell (and you’ve got a wallet big enough to accommodate a minimum $156,300 electric sportscar), Porsche is also offering a “paint-to-sample” service giving Taycan owners “almost complete freedom in their choice of colour”.

The 2022 Porsche Taycan also gets a connectivity boost in the form of Android Auto. No longer will Android phone owners be left on the outer with Apple CarPlay the only smartphone connectivity option.

This article has been updated with more information about the charging rate.