2021ish Taycan Turbo (..in green)
Discussion
Some controversial PH fodder here, very lucky to have recently taken delivery of a Taycan. First new car for me, first EV, first Porsche - is this interesting? Guess we'll find out if anyone replies..
The story so far:
It started when I learned of a car leasing scheme starting at work. Upon enquiry was told 'you wouldn't be interested, it's only for EVs' (I was running an F10 M5 at the time).
Well, there was this one EV that had captured my interest. On looking into it I started to quickly gain an understanding of how PAYE tax actually worked, along with how people actually buy new cars (leases, HP, PCP - all very new) - up until now the newest vehicle I'd ever bought was a 4 year old bike.
Vehicle history looks like:
Renault 19 8v
Rover 600Si (2.0, 16v)
Kawasaki ZX6R (2001)
Volvo 850 T5-R
Aprilia RSVR (2006)
E39 M5 (still have, WIP)
E46 330i
F10 M5
Some significant amount spreadsheeting later it appeared that a Taycan Turbo on a 3 year PCP would cost approximately the same a month as paying back the loan was on my 2014 F10 M5 competition. Of course, the financial comparison in paying down capital vs depreciation isn't apples to apples, but the M5 was bought AUC, and while utterly delightful and more car than you could ever need, had lost 10k in value in 2 years.
Before buying the M5 I'd tried to scratch my lifelong Porsche itch test driving a 996 Turbo (and a stage 4.25 GTR) at a very generous dealer in single visit. As you might see from my car history though, I've never really hit the sports car thing, and that particular 996 seemed a bit ropey anyway.
It looked like this was finally my chance to get into a Porsche, and a new one at that. It's safe to say I was not expecting that. I was faced with the (enviable) choice of keeping a car I loved and knew well, had zero faults with a levelling depreciation curve, and ordering something brand new with a completely different drivetrain.
I got a 4 hour test drive of a Taycan Turbo in Gentian Blue from Porsche Bournemouth, the car seemed more agile than the M5 and felt smaller to send down a road, despite having almost exactly the same exterior dimensions. Driving it had a feeling of instant 'rightness'. I was surprised (and pleased) by the zero adaption to it being an EV, people say EVs are quiet, but an F10 5 series is a really quiet place to be, so there wasn't actually much difference there. The ride however was far better composed than the M5, being smoother and better damped, while more controlled at the same time.
Needless to say I was convinced and started enquiring around Porsche dealers - wait times were horrific. Coming from only ever owning used vehicles, the idea of waiting 6 months to buy something was pretty shocking. I eventually settled on using Porsche Reading (GB HQ) as they had more allocations and offered an October build slot (I was enquiring late July).
A deposit was paid and the slot secured, so began the fraught process of finding a spec. Again, new car stuff, previously I've only had to worry about having a preference on specific elements of specification, not being the person who had to select them in the first place. Luckily, the Internet exists and between the an excellent thread here on PH, various Taycan specific forums and gratuitously copying a press car (https://e-performance.io/downloads/Vehicle-information-Taycan-Turbo-S-S-GO-163E.pdf), I formed a spec: sports seats, sport chrono, 150kW onboard booster (for faster charging abroad) and not much else.
Significant doubt was placed on the colour, I'd seen mamba green on a Panamera and it was my first choice. Later doubt crept in and I considered dolomite silver (which was very much like the individual moonstone metallic on my M5), it was also more under the radar. I ended up taking some advice and went with my initial choice, it's a bit marmite but I really like it:
The story so far:
It started when I learned of a car leasing scheme starting at work. Upon enquiry was told 'you wouldn't be interested, it's only for EVs' (I was running an F10 M5 at the time).
Well, there was this one EV that had captured my interest. On looking into it I started to quickly gain an understanding of how PAYE tax actually worked, along with how people actually buy new cars (leases, HP, PCP - all very new) - up until now the newest vehicle I'd ever bought was a 4 year old bike.
Vehicle history looks like:
Renault 19 8v
Rover 600Si (2.0, 16v)
Kawasaki ZX6R (2001)
Volvo 850 T5-R
Aprilia RSVR (2006)
E39 M5 (still have, WIP)
E46 330i
F10 M5
Some significant amount spreadsheeting later it appeared that a Taycan Turbo on a 3 year PCP would cost approximately the same a month as paying back the loan was on my 2014 F10 M5 competition. Of course, the financial comparison in paying down capital vs depreciation isn't apples to apples, but the M5 was bought AUC, and while utterly delightful and more car than you could ever need, had lost 10k in value in 2 years.
Before buying the M5 I'd tried to scratch my lifelong Porsche itch test driving a 996 Turbo (and a stage 4.25 GTR) at a very generous dealer in single visit. As you might see from my car history though, I've never really hit the sports car thing, and that particular 996 seemed a bit ropey anyway.
It looked like this was finally my chance to get into a Porsche, and a new one at that. It's safe to say I was not expecting that. I was faced with the (enviable) choice of keeping a car I loved and knew well, had zero faults with a levelling depreciation curve, and ordering something brand new with a completely different drivetrain.
I got a 4 hour test drive of a Taycan Turbo in Gentian Blue from Porsche Bournemouth, the car seemed more agile than the M5 and felt smaller to send down a road, despite having almost exactly the same exterior dimensions. Driving it had a feeling of instant 'rightness'. I was surprised (and pleased) by the zero adaption to it being an EV, people say EVs are quiet, but an F10 5 series is a really quiet place to be, so there wasn't actually much difference there. The ride however was far better composed than the M5, being smoother and better damped, while more controlled at the same time.
Needless to say I was convinced and started enquiring around Porsche dealers - wait times were horrific. Coming from only ever owning used vehicles, the idea of waiting 6 months to buy something was pretty shocking. I eventually settled on using Porsche Reading (GB HQ) as they had more allocations and offered an October build slot (I was enquiring late July).
A deposit was paid and the slot secured, so began the fraught process of finding a spec. Again, new car stuff, previously I've only had to worry about having a preference on specific elements of specification, not being the person who had to select them in the first place. Luckily, the Internet exists and between the an excellent thread here on PH, various Taycan specific forums and gratuitously copying a press car (https://e-performance.io/downloads/Vehicle-information-Taycan-Turbo-S-S-GO-163E.pdf), I formed a spec: sports seats, sport chrono, 150kW onboard booster (for faster charging abroad) and not much else.
Significant doubt was placed on the colour, I'd seen mamba green on a Panamera and it was my first choice. Later doubt crept in and I considered dolomite silver (which was very much like the individual moonstone metallic on my M5), it was also more under the radar. I ended up taking some advice and went with my initial choice, it's a bit marmite but I really like it:
Edited by puttything on Sunday 27th December 22:53
At this point I did what seemed at the time to be a sensible thing and prepared to sell my M5. Que some suitability flowery descriptive text on m3cutters ( https://forums.m3cutters.co.uk/threads/2014-bmw-m5...) and I got an enquiry at 22:00 the same night.
nb: People enquiring about a car from South London late in the evening is a red flag.
The private dealer asked some reasonably sensible questions before trying to lowball me on the price. We went back and forth on the price and as Ed Bolian would say, we met smack dab in the middle at just under my asking price. The dealer also sent me a deposit to secure the car, assuring me a ‘no hassle’ sale which they ‘wouldn’t need to worry about’ as ‘it’s a AUC car with a warranty’.
We agreed I’d take the car to them 70 miles away, and upon arrival the dealer and a colleague set upon looking at the car. They then looked at it some more, and about 15 minutes later finally found something to take exception to. This resulted in a revised offer of £1000 less than we’d agreed. Given we’d already agreed a price I ended the one sided haggling after another 20 minutes and drove the car back home.
I re-advertised the car and within a day had another firm offer with a far larger deposit from a very genuine enthusiast - anyone having credentials including running an E60 M5 must be serious. The transaction was concluded shortly later and it’s safe to say I was pretty sad to see that car go.
Delivery of the Taycan should have been early November but slipped due to the car apparently being sailed to Sheerness, not offloaded from the boat, taken back to Emden (Germany), and eventually being put on another boat.
Due to the delays, Reading loaned me a Panamera GTS. Utterly fantastic car, although I’m not sure I’d spec it triple black myself (a little too stealthy):
Despite being parked next to the chargers, it's not a hybrid, it's the twin turbo V8 (PDK is awesome).
Part of the problem of all this waiting was spec creep - getting into the calculations of monthly costs I realised I could spec it out a bit more, and (as the observant may have noticed) added the optional carbon aeroblade wheels - a bargain at only £5500.. In my defence, apparently the carbon does offer a weight saving, and it's unsprung weight right?
Eventually the collection was scheduled for the 4th of December and despite all the restrictions in place, Reading did a nice job of the handover.
Looks like someone stuck a plug in the side of it..
Definitely haven’t ever owned a car with this little milage before!
nb: People enquiring about a car from South London late in the evening is a red flag.
The private dealer asked some reasonably sensible questions before trying to lowball me on the price. We went back and forth on the price and as Ed Bolian would say, we met smack dab in the middle at just under my asking price. The dealer also sent me a deposit to secure the car, assuring me a ‘no hassle’ sale which they ‘wouldn’t need to worry about’ as ‘it’s a AUC car with a warranty’.
We agreed I’d take the car to them 70 miles away, and upon arrival the dealer and a colleague set upon looking at the car. They then looked at it some more, and about 15 minutes later finally found something to take exception to. This resulted in a revised offer of £1000 less than we’d agreed. Given we’d already agreed a price I ended the one sided haggling after another 20 minutes and drove the car back home.
I re-advertised the car and within a day had another firm offer with a far larger deposit from a very genuine enthusiast - anyone having credentials including running an E60 M5 must be serious. The transaction was concluded shortly later and it’s safe to say I was pretty sad to see that car go.
Delivery of the Taycan should have been early November but slipped due to the car apparently being sailed to Sheerness, not offloaded from the boat, taken back to Emden (Germany), and eventually being put on another boat.
Due to the delays, Reading loaned me a Panamera GTS. Utterly fantastic car, although I’m not sure I’d spec it triple black myself (a little too stealthy):
Despite being parked next to the chargers, it's not a hybrid, it's the twin turbo V8 (PDK is awesome).
Part of the problem of all this waiting was spec creep - getting into the calculations of monthly costs I realised I could spec it out a bit more, and (as the observant may have noticed) added the optional carbon aeroblade wheels - a bargain at only £5500.. In my defence, apparently the carbon does offer a weight saving, and it's unsprung weight right?
Eventually the collection was scheduled for the 4th of December and despite all the restrictions in place, Reading did a nice job of the handover.
Looks like someone stuck a plug in the side of it..
Definitely haven’t ever owned a car with this little milage before!
Edited by puttything on Tuesday 29th December 18:46
Love the colour, if I had a Porsche I'd definitely want one in a proper colour like that, may as well make other people smile rather than frown!
Really interested in these and in how you find it as an owner, the obvious one is how you find charging it especially on longer trips, and the other thing is how well the electric drivetrain is able to overcome the size and weight of the car and make it fun / satisfying to drive. So thanks for sharing and will look forward to updates :-)
Thanks for all the replies, glad this is at least partially of interest to someone other than me
This is when I got it home (excuse the fence that looks like a complete state from this angle):
I finally got it on charge about 22:00 that evening at home, hooking up to my sophisticated newly installed charging apparatus.
Just kidding, it's a bog standard outside socket and an Ohme charger I got cheaply from my energy provider. Charging commenced at an electrifying 0.1 miles per minute (aka, 6 miles an hour, 2.3kW).
Quick note here on home EV chargers since I've got a thread now: everyone tells you if you have an EV you must have a 7kW charger installed (aka, a charger on a 32A circuit). I costed doing it, but made an intentional choice not to as I'd need to run a new cable out to the garage. Not that the project doesn't appeal, it's just that my usage doesn't really justify it - normally I'll do about 20 miles each way to work, and recently 0 miles to work.
Naturally, having made that decision and justification I come into the exact situation when I'd need it after approximately 12 hours of ownership - doing some reasonable miles during the day and having a big trip planned with an early departure the next!
Contrary to what my maths would have predicted, only about 30 miles of range was netted overnight.
An additional quirk of travelling around this time was that most of the Midlands had just been upgraded to Tier 3 restrictions, meaning all the places I'd like to stop for lunch were closed. While I'm sure hanging around in a rainy motorway services car park waiting for charge is what a lot of people _imagine_ having an EV is like I was determined to at least attempt to do better
Instead of taking the predicable route of A34, M40 etc up North from Southampton we planned to go West towards the Welsh boarder and up the M5 to skirt the restrictions and stay in Tier 2 land. Luckily we found an excellent pub option which had a charger too. Bonus.
The route:
We departed (via the Grandparents house for child deposition) to the Lock Keepers pub (https://goo.gl/maps/7jhmiVH7VtZ1vu39A) near Gloucester.
The trip was uneventful and cruising in the Taycan was enjoyable (even without the specification of adaptive cruise control) - we travelled at what I'd describe as normal and some would describe as 'inefficient' speeds without doing anything too crazy, but making use of the acceleration on offer when the situation allowed.
104 miles landed us at the charger with about 40 miles range remaining. The astute readers will have noted that the milage since the start doesn't quite add up. It seems the 235 miles predicted by the car were optimistic, in winter conditions full charge is more like 210/220 miles or 0.4kW/mile.
Just plugged in:
Despite looking ropey as heck, the charger in the carpark worked (although I had to get an app)!
We had a lunch which was good (would recommend) for about an hour and got to about 75% charge which was just about enough for the next 159 miles and 2 hours 30 to Ionity at Blackburn. Unfortunately I put the wrong charger into the built in nav and took an 11 mile detour, plus apocalyptic weather and traffic around Birmingham meant we were in the car for over 3 hours and got a little tight on remaining electricity..
Pulling into the charger at Blackburn in the rain the car was showing 3 miles range, opps!
Still, the car did was it was designed to do and sucked down 246kW from the charger meaning that by the time we'd walked to the services, taken advantage of the conveniences and eaten a Belgian bun it was showing 82% charged in 23 minutes.
That seemed like sufficient charge to make it to the Airbnb, but the fun didn't end there..
Charging in the rain, I appreciated the extra wide charging bays - why can't these be everywhere you want to park a car you care about?
tbc..
This is when I got it home (excuse the fence that looks like a complete state from this angle):
bolidemichael said:
Very nice... I spotted one in the same colour in Wimbledon a couple of days ago; in fact I saw three Taycans in the short journey to Richmond Park!
Thanks! imperium said:
Enjoyed the write up, i think I’d have gone for that green too, bold choice but looks very cool.
Thanks, I had serious doubts, but really glad I stuck with it. Easternlight said:
Thanks for sharing that, Great looking car and a great colour, far too many monochrome cars out there and you'll never struggle to find it in a car park!
A car I can only dream of.
Any more pics of the interior?
Thanks, I don't really have any good pics of inside at the moment - I'd go grab some but it's not here for reasons which I'll save for later as not to destroy the chronology of the thread! I went for the black interior (safe on the inside!), some of the advantages of the Turbo trim level (other than the bigger motors/power) is you get the full leather out of the box, and get a choice of the optional sports or comfort seats as a free option (I got the former) so it's quite nice inside. There is an optional Olea leather you can spec, haven't experienced that but I'm sure it's lovely too! The interior seems to be more 911 than Panamera in style, all feels very solid and Porsche like. The car I test drove had the vegan interior which was functional and felt nice - lots more 'racetex', but didn't have as much of a consistent look for me. A car I can only dream of.
Any more pics of the interior?
DanoS4 said:
well done been thinking about it myslef then I remember that I'm in a 996 myself and already on Santa's naughty list for buying the "wrong" Porsche
I've lusted after a 996 for so long, but I think I've been spoiled by the refinement of non-sports cars, so it just didn't work for me by the time I had the opportunity. Hopefully one day though! been thinking about it myslef then I remember that I'm in a 996 myself and already on Santa's naughty list for buying the "wrong" Porsche anomaly said:
Great write up, thanks. Lovely car and the colour is awesome. Enjoy!
Thanks! samoht said:
Love the colour, if I had a Porsche I'd definitely want one in a proper colour like that, may as well make other people smile rather than frown!
Really interested in these and in how you find it as an owner, the obvious one is how you find charging it especially on longer trips, and the other thing is how well the electric drivetrain is able to overcome the size and weight of the car and make it fun / satisfying to drive. So thanks for sharing and will look forward to updates :-)
Just updated on the first long range trip - the charging has been fairly boring as it's just worked so far. Power wise it seems similar to my F10 M5, but with less turbo lag / gear shifting, I'd say the experience is most similar to driving a big torquey V8. Really interested in these and in how you find it as an owner, the obvious one is how you find charging it especially on longer trips, and the other thing is how well the electric drivetrain is able to overcome the size and weight of the car and make it fun / satisfying to drive. So thanks for sharing and will look forward to updates :-)
CheesecakeRunner said:
Looks lovely. I couldn’t make one work for my driving so ‘settled’ for a Tesla. Maybe next time.
I’m surprised PCP worked out better than a salary sacrifice lease. I’m assuming that was what was on offer by your company in your opening post?
Yes, that was the offer - if I'm completely honest I relied on the accountants for the impact to my monthlies and left it there when the numbers added up for me :PI’m surprised PCP worked out better than a salary sacrifice lease. I’m assuming that was what was on offer by your company in your opening post?
Nickbrapp said:
I love it, certainly the most exciting car you can buy today I think, love the colour, please tell me the interior isn’t black?
Be Intrested to hear about range etc, are you having a home charger?
Sorry, bad news on the interior! That and charging updated below.. Be Intrested to hear about range etc, are you having a home charger?
puttything said:
The day after collection we took a trip from home (Southampton) to the Yorkshire Dales - a holiday and an opportunity for a road trip, plus testing out how the thing handled on a longer run. I'll backfill the details here a bit later..
I missed a step - 55 miles home from Porsche Reading, and popping out later in the way for a much needed post lockdown (at the time) haircut meant when I put the car on charge I was down to about 150 miles range. The remaining charge wasn't a deal breaker but was very aware that we were going all the way to Yorkshire (for a holiday break booked agggges ago) the next day and while I'd planned in a pub lunch stop with a charger it would have been good to have as much charge as possible in the car. I finally got it on charge about 22:00 that evening at home, hooking up to my sophisticated newly installed charging apparatus.
Just kidding, it's a bog standard outside socket and an Ohme charger I got cheaply from my energy provider. Charging commenced at an electrifying 0.1 miles per minute (aka, 6 miles an hour, 2.3kW).
Quick note here on home EV chargers since I've got a thread now: everyone tells you if you have an EV you must have a 7kW charger installed (aka, a charger on a 32A circuit). I costed doing it, but made an intentional choice not to as I'd need to run a new cable out to the garage. Not that the project doesn't appeal, it's just that my usage doesn't really justify it - normally I'll do about 20 miles each way to work, and recently 0 miles to work.
Naturally, having made that decision and justification I come into the exact situation when I'd need it after approximately 12 hours of ownership - doing some reasonable miles during the day and having a big trip planned with an early departure the next!
Contrary to what my maths would have predicted, only about 30 miles of range was netted overnight.
An additional quirk of travelling around this time was that most of the Midlands had just been upgraded to Tier 3 restrictions, meaning all the places I'd like to stop for lunch were closed. While I'm sure hanging around in a rainy motorway services car park waiting for charge is what a lot of people _imagine_ having an EV is like I was determined to at least attempt to do better
Instead of taking the predicable route of A34, M40 etc up North from Southampton we planned to go West towards the Welsh boarder and up the M5 to skirt the restrictions and stay in Tier 2 land. Luckily we found an excellent pub option which had a charger too. Bonus.
The route:
We departed (via the Grandparents house for child deposition) to the Lock Keepers pub (https://goo.gl/maps/7jhmiVH7VtZ1vu39A) near Gloucester.
The trip was uneventful and cruising in the Taycan was enjoyable (even without the specification of adaptive cruise control) - we travelled at what I'd describe as normal and some would describe as 'inefficient' speeds without doing anything too crazy, but making use of the acceleration on offer when the situation allowed.
104 miles landed us at the charger with about 40 miles range remaining. The astute readers will have noted that the milage since the start doesn't quite add up. It seems the 235 miles predicted by the car were optimistic, in winter conditions full charge is more like 210/220 miles or 0.4kW/mile.
Just plugged in:
Despite looking ropey as heck, the charger in the carpark worked (although I had to get an app)!
We had a lunch which was good (would recommend) for about an hour and got to about 75% charge which was just about enough for the next 159 miles and 2 hours 30 to Ionity at Blackburn. Unfortunately I put the wrong charger into the built in nav and took an 11 mile detour, plus apocalyptic weather and traffic around Birmingham meant we were in the car for over 3 hours and got a little tight on remaining electricity..
Pulling into the charger at Blackburn in the rain the car was showing 3 miles range, opps!
Still, the car did was it was designed to do and sucked down 246kW from the charger meaning that by the time we'd walked to the services, taken advantage of the conveniences and eaten a Belgian bun it was showing 82% charged in 23 minutes.
That seemed like sufficient charge to make it to the Airbnb, but the fun didn't end there..
Charging in the rain, I appreciated the extra wide charging bays - why can't these be everywhere you want to park a car you care about?
tbc..
Edited by puttything on Sunday 27th December 18:59
Thanks for all the comments, I'm linking all the images out of Google Photos and some times they appear for me but not via an unauthenticated browser, please let me know if any of them break as my testing is a bit inconsistent.
From Blackburn we travelled on toward the Yorkshire Dales, leaving the motorway and eventually getting onto some very wet and twisting lanes. Observations included appreciating the agility of the car when I had no idea where I was going and it was really dark, also the auto lights work really well illuminating the road ahead. Oh, and in low mode the car did bottom out on some of the more gnarly bits of road, the ride height was swiftly changed back to normal. Overall though not ideal conditions for a car I wasn't super familiar with but good character building stuff.
As you might have noticed from the picture at Blackburn, we were pretty behind on expected time, not least because of a relaxed lunch stop, but it didn't get any lighter after that. The words of the Airbnb host were going round in my head, the lane had been described as 'tight' and they mentioned 'we don't recommend attempting it in the dark for the first time'.
I've stayed at quite a few holiday lets with access via a track, and foolishly didn't think this could be significantly worse. Let's just say I wouldn't recommend attempting the approach to this one in a car you care about, at any time. I had the frankly terrible experience of starting down the track only for it to narrow severely after a corner, I couldn't see anything to reverse. I ended up climbing out of the car window (too narrow to open the door) to go ask the owner for some guidance up the track. The owner was very accommodating and got us through, but I'm ashamed to say (but in the spirit of openness mention) that I caught a wheel on a low lying rock on the way up. Some swears happened.
Anyway, the damage wasn't that bad (only a scuff on the metal of the rim), the stay was amazing, even for just a couple of nights and the host graciously let us plug in to recharge. He also guided us back down the track when we left. Turns out we had about 6 inches each side of the wings of the car down the lane - I had to fold the mirrors in to avoid rocks sticking out of the cobblestone walls.
After completing that ordeal we took a much more direct route home. I'd been planning it the previous night and decided despite the short distance (so a relatively inefficient charge from a high battery) we'd go back to Ionity in Blackburn to get at least 80% to set us up for a long stretch down towards Birmingham which would allow us to take the M6 toll.
Even with the relatively short time tooling around the Yorkshire lanes the car looked like it had just come back from the Somme, and I was sneakily keeping an eye out for a jet wash. Blackburn services came up trumps again with the nearby Shell allowing me to purchase some surprisingly reasonably priced wash time tokens. Not so lucky was the fact that the locals clearly used the place to clean out some sort of livestock transport before I got there, so I ended up using the a significant amount of the time cleaning the wash bay before attending to the car!
As mentioned, my public charging experiences have been rather undramatic so far, all the chargers have worked, been available, no issues at all. Despite that, it's definitely early days for this stuff and I think having a plan (and a backup) is a useful step. Hence sticking to Ionity (Porsche charging service means 350kW@30p/kW) and Instavolt (mostly 125kW@35p/kW) chargers where possible, with Osprey (aka Shell) as a decent backup.
The journey was hugely more pleasant than the one on the way up thanks to improved weather and was mainly passed listening to podcasts on the standard-on-the-Turbo middle-spec Bose sound system (Burmeister is available for just £6000 more of your pounds). In additional spec creep from the initial, I'd also added the acoustic glass option - I'm not sure how much difference it makes having not compared back to back, but it was reasonably inexpensive (as far as Porsche options go) and the main noise in the cabin in tyre and wind, so made sense to me.
The other side of the M6 toll was an Instavolt @ Stroud, I targeted this as it was about the right distance, a reliable charging network and most importantly... The legendary Harry Metcalfe (of Evo) charged his Taycan there when he reviewed it and I wanted to recreate the photo. Typing that I realise I sound pretty hopeless! :P
Anyway, we made it there no problems and grabbed a drink, a toilet and some juice:
nb. 125kW chargers in practice aren't much slower than the bigger Ionity chargers as the peak charge rate is achieved for only a small percentage of the battery charge with the former:
Image credit: https://insideevs.com/news/427335/porsche-taycan-d...
Obligatory photo:
Compared to Harry's thumbnail:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C-dSOf0jp4
From Blackburn we travelled on toward the Yorkshire Dales, leaving the motorway and eventually getting onto some very wet and twisting lanes. Observations included appreciating the agility of the car when I had no idea where I was going and it was really dark, also the auto lights work really well illuminating the road ahead. Oh, and in low mode the car did bottom out on some of the more gnarly bits of road, the ride height was swiftly changed back to normal. Overall though not ideal conditions for a car I wasn't super familiar with but good character building stuff.
As you might have noticed from the picture at Blackburn, we were pretty behind on expected time, not least because of a relaxed lunch stop, but it didn't get any lighter after that. The words of the Airbnb host were going round in my head, the lane had been described as 'tight' and they mentioned 'we don't recommend attempting it in the dark for the first time'.
I've stayed at quite a few holiday lets with access via a track, and foolishly didn't think this could be significantly worse. Let's just say I wouldn't recommend attempting the approach to this one in a car you care about, at any time. I had the frankly terrible experience of starting down the track only for it to narrow severely after a corner, I couldn't see anything to reverse. I ended up climbing out of the car window (too narrow to open the door) to go ask the owner for some guidance up the track. The owner was very accommodating and got us through, but I'm ashamed to say (but in the spirit of openness mention) that I caught a wheel on a low lying rock on the way up. Some swears happened.
Anyway, the damage wasn't that bad (only a scuff on the metal of the rim), the stay was amazing, even for just a couple of nights and the host graciously let us plug in to recharge. He also guided us back down the track when we left. Turns out we had about 6 inches each side of the wings of the car down the lane - I had to fold the mirrors in to avoid rocks sticking out of the cobblestone walls.
After completing that ordeal we took a much more direct route home. I'd been planning it the previous night and decided despite the short distance (so a relatively inefficient charge from a high battery) we'd go back to Ionity in Blackburn to get at least 80% to set us up for a long stretch down towards Birmingham which would allow us to take the M6 toll.
Even with the relatively short time tooling around the Yorkshire lanes the car looked like it had just come back from the Somme, and I was sneakily keeping an eye out for a jet wash. Blackburn services came up trumps again with the nearby Shell allowing me to purchase some surprisingly reasonably priced wash time tokens. Not so lucky was the fact that the locals clearly used the place to clean out some sort of livestock transport before I got there, so I ended up using the a significant amount of the time cleaning the wash bay before attending to the car!
As mentioned, my public charging experiences have been rather undramatic so far, all the chargers have worked, been available, no issues at all. Despite that, it's definitely early days for this stuff and I think having a plan (and a backup) is a useful step. Hence sticking to Ionity (Porsche charging service means 350kW@30p/kW) and Instavolt (mostly 125kW@35p/kW) chargers where possible, with Osprey (aka Shell) as a decent backup.
The journey was hugely more pleasant than the one on the way up thanks to improved weather and was mainly passed listening to podcasts on the standard-on-the-Turbo middle-spec Bose sound system (Burmeister is available for just £6000 more of your pounds). In additional spec creep from the initial, I'd also added the acoustic glass option - I'm not sure how much difference it makes having not compared back to back, but it was reasonably inexpensive (as far as Porsche options go) and the main noise in the cabin in tyre and wind, so made sense to me.
The other side of the M6 toll was an Instavolt @ Stroud, I targeted this as it was about the right distance, a reliable charging network and most importantly... The legendary Harry Metcalfe (of Evo) charged his Taycan there when he reviewed it and I wanted to recreate the photo. Typing that I realise I sound pretty hopeless! :P
Anyway, we made it there no problems and grabbed a drink, a toilet and some juice:
nb. 125kW chargers in practice aren't much slower than the bigger Ionity chargers as the peak charge rate is achieved for only a small percentage of the battery charge with the former:
Image credit: https://insideevs.com/news/427335/porsche-taycan-d...
Obligatory photo:
Compared to Harry's thumbnail:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C-dSOf0jp4
Edited by puttything on Sunday 27th December 22:25
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