“Insane” and “addictive” are just two of the superlatives used to describe the Porsche Taycan by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, who took the German carmaker’s electric sportscar for a spin recently to see just how much fun, and distance, they could squeeze out of one charge.
And it was quite a lot, it would seem.
The two stars of 1980s cult comedy “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” each launched an electric Porsche Taycan electric sportscar along Californian straights, around some pretty tight curves in the hills and then down to the Porsche Experience Centre in Los Angeles to get in some serious drifting.
The Taycan has copped criticism in the past because it is a power-hungry beast, and Porsche are clearly keen to show that despite this there is still a lot of fun to be had.
The whole experience may as well be named “Keanu and Alex’s Insane Adventure” – you can check it out in full at the bottom of this article.
First, the two put the Taycan’s into launch mode, which opens up the full power of the motors for maximum acceleration to 100km/hr in as little as 2.8 seconds depending on the variant you are sitting behind the wheel of (in this case it is the Turbo which can sprint to 100lm/hr in 3.2 seconds).
Neither actors are new to Porsche – Reeves once owned a 911 nicknamed “the sled” while Winter once owned a Targa that he describes as ” absolutely fantastic.”
But neither cars prepared them for the Taycan experience apparently, despite being ready for the “Porsche whiplash,” as Winter puts it.
“Launch mode. The two words I have for you,” says Winter immediately afterwards.
“Launch mode!!” yells Reeves in characteristic Bill and Ted’s style.
“Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever accelerated in a car like that, and it’s electric, it’s insane,” says Winter.
“It can be addictive,” says Reeves.
“It just feels like a Porsche it’s so tight, so controlled. There is so much oomph. I just forget I’m in an electric car, I just think I’m in a high-performance Porsche,” continues Winter.
“But that’s the thing too with Porsche,” adds Reeves. “Yes, it’s a sports car but it’s also an everyday car, go to the store, and road trips it’s just super fun to drive”
Next, they take it for a hill climb. Sitting behind Porsche factory driver Patrick Long in a 918 Spyder on a 3.2-kilometre hill climb of the Pacific Coast Highway, they hug the curves like nobody’s business.
“Two miles of uninterrupted …. treacherous road,” says Long. “There are some places that don’t have guardrails so keep your eyes up.”
All that out of the way and both cars still have more than 40% charge left. Although Porsche is a bit coy about how far they’ve actually driven so far, there’s apparently enough left to get to the Los Angeles Experience Centre.
“Are they gonna put us on the skidpad or are we gonna go play in the water, I’ve got 39%! I hope I can do everything,” says Reeves.
Both actors end up building up speed until they get some serious drifting going on. “It’s like whacky races,” says Winter
Reeves takes it easy at first: “I’m just gonna go in a circle,” he says. But then he lets loose. “I’m going full hooligan.”
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.