You could make a strong argument that the GTS is the epitome of the modern Porsche, and – by extension – that the new 2022 Taycan GTS is sweet spot in its electric line-up. Promising to combine enthusiast-pleasing performance with luxury and practicality, the GTS badge also debuts the first electric Sport Turismo, a third body style for the high-end EV.
Porsche has the GTS styling recipe down to a fine art, by now, and the Taycan flavor doesn’t stray too far from there. The front gets a SportsDesign bumper, more angular under the squinting headlamps to help funnel airflow into the side vents. LED-Matrix Design headlamps are standard, with Porsche Dynamic Light System Plus, though given a black finish unique among the Taycan range.
The skirts are unique, too, with high-gloss black inserts, and as standard the side mirrors are a mix of exterior color and gloss black. Optionally, you can have them match the body completely, or switch to carbon fiber. 20-inch Turbo S Aero Design wheels are standard, while the 21-inch RS Spyder Design wheels you see here – altogether shedding 11 pounds versus the next-lightest set – are available.
At the back, there’s a new louvered-design red diffuser with more high-gloss black inlays. Porsche finishes things off with black logos and badging, along with matching black window trim and red brake calipers.
The result is clearly Taycan, but distinct enough to stand out in the EV crowd. To be more unique, of course, you can skip the standard Taycan and go straight to the Taycan GTS Sport Turismo. Unofficially the all-electric wagon enthusiasts have been blissfully dreaming of for years, it effectively takes the Cross Turismo body style but pairs it with the stance of the regular car and no plastic wheel arch cladding.
I happen to think the result looks epic – I am, I should point out, a big fan of wagons – but it’s also considerably more flexible should you need extra convincing. More than 42 cu-ft of cargo space for a start, and 3.6-inches more rear headroom thanks to the change in roofline. Porsche will sell you not only roof rails to match, but a very fancy rear bike carrier that’s rated to tote up to three bikes (including heavier e-bikes).
Much as with the styling, the performance strikes a balance between the current extremes of the Taycan line-up. 509 horsepower – 590 hp in overboost mode – may be lower than the Taycan Turbo, but the 626 lb-ft of torque is the same. 0-60 mph arrives in 3.5 seconds, an arguably negligible half a second slower than the Turbo, and top speed is an electronically-limited 155 mph.
What’s important is how Porsche has achieved all that. Every all-wheel drive Taycan variant shares the same front electric motor, but the automaker has two sizes for the rear. The GTS uses the same unit as the Turbo and Turbo S – larger and more potent than that in the 4S – only programmed for less horsepower. The sacrifice not only saves you some money but also helps with thermal load since the rear motor doesn’t have to work so hard, an important consideration if you’re considering track days in your EV.
Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) is standard along with PTV+, together with 390 mm front brakes with 6-piston calipers and 358mm rear brakes. They’re iron, but surface-coated and carbon ceramics are optional; so, too, is rear axle steering and dynamic chassis control. Pricing kicks off at $131,400 for the Taycan GTS and $133,300 for the GTS Sport Turismo (both plus $1,350 destination), though as with any Porsche you can easily send the sticker spiraling with extras.
If you’re reticent, don’t take the test drive. The GTS badge has always unabashedly proclaimed a driver’s car, maybe not the most potent or the very fastest in a straight line, but beguiling and engaging in a way the raw numbers can’t quite express. The Taycan may switch out the gas engine, but the GTS spirit is here in spades.
It is, above all else, fun. Fun in the “turn around and run that good road again” sense; fun in the “take the long route home because it twists and turns a little more” way. A rock-solid reminder that chassis and suspension and drivetrain setup are as much alchemy as they are science.
Being electric only helps, not hinders, all that. There are gas cars with similar horsepower and torque, true, but they don’t give it all to you from the very get-go. The immediacy of their delivery turn the Taycan GTS into a rocket, belying the not-inconsiderable curb weight (5,077 pounds for the sedan and 5,152 pounds for the Sport Turismo).
You’d think, once you reached the first corner, that physics and heft would have their collective say. Instead, the GTS sails through the bends, communicative and eager. There are Sport and a Sport+ drive modes, both cranking up the experience, but even at its most uncapped there’s none of that sense some fast cars give that you’re flirting with things seriously out of your depth.
Could you still screw things up royally? Sure, though Porsche’s blend of safety tech and dialed-in polish would give you plenty of warning before that actually happened. The result is a sense of reassurance that coaxes out a little more from you with every straight and corner that passes.
Perhaps the most immediately-noticeable difference between Sport and Sport+ modes is the soundtrack. Porsche cooked up a custom noise – inside and out – for the Taycan GTS, which it compares to the unique sounds that internal combustion GTS models with their sports exhausts produce. It’s based on the actual sounds that the EV’s motors make, albeit synthesized and modified, and then “optimally replayed” according to how you’re driving.
The result is… not bad at all. Maybe the biggest complement I can pay is that I actually stopped noticing it most of the time: it just became a subconscious indicator of speed and motor power. If you want, you can turn it off with an easily-found option in the menus.
