First US Porsche Taycan owner says car’s EPA range is highly conservative

Porsche has started deliveries of the Taycan in the US, just in time for Christmas. And the first US Taycan owner has given his first “drive report,” and it’s pretty much all positive.

Of particular note, he states that the car’s 201-mile estimated EPA range, and commensurate low efficiency, is “conservative.”

Greg Wyler is founder and chairman of OneWeb, a satellite internet access company. He took delivery of his Porsche Taycan in Massachusetts on Thursday, becoming the first US customer, as far as we know.

Wyler gave some of his first impressions of the car on Twitter. He was impressed by the quality of the interior fit and finish and called the car a “quiet monster,” saying it is the “best car I have ever driven, hands down.”

None of this is particularly surprising — we’ve heard lots of good things about the drive experience and build quality of the Porsche. We would expect that a Porsche would be built and drive well, we just haven’t experienced it for ourselves yet (hint hint, Porsche).

Quick Drive Report: This car is a quiet monster. Totally docile, but if you press the throttle and start turning it will rip your insides apart with acceleration and g forces. Best car I have ever driven hands down. pic.twitter.com/ooqgXwqTCM

— Greg Wyler (@greg_wyler) December 20, 2019

The most notable report Wyler made, though, is about the Taycan’s efficiency.  The car’s EPA rating came out recently and was disappointingly low, with just 201 miles of range. That rating was for the Turbo, and Wyler has the Turbo S. The Turbo S is not yet rated by the EPA but has even lower efficiency than the Turbo, according to EU WLTP ratings.

201 miles is more than enough for the vast majority of people, especially when paired with the Taycan’s promised ability to charge at 350 kW. But this number meant the Porsche Taycan is rated as the least efficient electric car currently being sold in the US. Low efficiency makes a car worse in lots of ways, not just in terms of range.

Wyler’s experience suggests that that rating is highly conservative. He drove the car in not particularly ideal conditions — cold weather and spirited driving — and still only used 46% of the battery to go 117 miles.

End of day – heading home. Car to be shipped to me. 117 fun miles,26 deg temp,used 46% battery. Heat- impressive/quick. Full main screen map-well done. Outside car safety noise-Lukes landspeeder. Enormous amount of thought went into this car. Congrats @Porsche!

— Greg Wyler (@greg_wyler) December 21, 2019

If we extrapolate this data, this would give the Taycan 254 miles of total range, even in poor conditions. This is before accounting for any amount of the battery Porsche is holding back to protect against degradation.

And if we apply the same calculation to the car’s efficiency, we get 87 mpge rather than the rated 69 mpge. This is roughly in line with some of Tesla’s earlier Model S numbers — the original 2012 Model S was rated at 89 mpge.

Of course, this is one drive report from one owner in one set of road conditions. And Wyler did not drive the car all the way until empty, so we don’t know where the bottom end of the battery is. It’s even possible that the range display could have been calibrated a little off — this happens sometimes with battery gauges on new products (though that applies more to cheap battery powered products, not to something as well-engineered as a car).

So we can’t go out and say the car is suddenly an efficiency king yet. But it does, at least, look likely to be a bit better than the ratings suggest. Which is nice, since the rating is rather abysmal.

Now that the floodgates are opening on deliveries, we suspect we’ll be hearing more owner reports soon and start to get a sense of what the car really has going for it.