Hello again, everyone. This post is a little bit late to the party, as my 1-year anniversary of Taycan ownership was on June 26. Like I’ve done in previous ‘milestone’ posts, I’ll be sharing a Q & A segment as part of the celebration. Also, I’m pleased to share some professional photos of the car that were taken by @deborja.
Before I do that, I’ll also provide an update on how my experience has been since my last (9-month) ownership update post – this part will be relatively brief. Since the ‘big update’, life with the car has been without incident or irregularities other than one trip back to the dealership. This was to get the Freon in the A/C charged up – and just in time for a week of consecutive 35+ °C days, too.
PCM functionality continues to be the Achilles heel of my experience, with performance continuing to be laggy and at times, dysfunctional. Easy work-arounds make the problem far from catastrophic, and the belief that a future update(s) will address the issue has shelved the urgency to get it fixed yesterday.
Anyways, without further ado, here’s the celebratory Q & A!
Q: Are there good incentives for buying an EV where you live (Canada)?
A: Unfortunately there are no provincial or federal EV incentives that any Taycan model will qualify for. That is because of its price. The only one that exists that I am aware of (federal) requires the car to have an MSRP of less than $55,000, and grants a $5,000 incentive if qualified.
Q: How many times do you use public charging, and for how long each week?
A: Ever since my 3 years of free charging @electrifycanada started (about 2 months ago), I’ve been visiting the fast charger 2-3 times per week. Prior to that, I charged 99% of the time at home. Now, I don’t charge at home at all. I typically spend around 20 mins on average at the charger for each session, getting from a low charge to around 85%.
Q: How did you decide on getting the Taycan? Awesome car btw!
A: Great question. And thank you. It’s hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I will say that I was NOT principally motivated to get an EV. As I’ve said before, the Taycan just happens to be an EV, and is more importantly a Porsche, first and foremost. It was more of a “this seems cool, let’s try it out” decision, rather than one I arrived at after going through painstaking amounts of research, analysis and introspection.
Q: How does our Alberta winter effect the efficiency of the batteries? e.g. with cabin heater on.
A: This continues to be one of the biggest challenges of EV ownership, and living in Calgary only exasperates this. All else being equal, expect as much as a 35% drop in range during our extreme winter conditions (-25 °C or colder). In ideal temperatures (near the +20 °C mark), 500 km of range is relatively easy to achieve, especially with mostly city driving.
Q: If you were to change two things about the Taycan out of the factory, what would it be?
A: If I absolutely had to (AND it was free), I’d love to have had PCCB and Chalk exterior paint. Otherwise, I’m very happy with my spec (and the total price) and feel that I got things just the way I want them. This is especially after having driven some of the dealer demo cars, which just don’t “feel right” compared to mine. For example, not having the Sport Chrono knob on the steering wheel is just awful!
Q: Biggest selling point of the Taycan to a regular person (not a car enthusiast)?
A: For someone who isn’t necessarily swayed by the ‘fun’ aspects of Porsche ownership, I’d have to say that for a new (Canadian) owner, it’d have to be the 3 years of free charging at all @electrifycanada stations that come with the purchase of a Porsche Taycan. And for those new to EVs, think of it like 3 years of free gas! Please note that this is only for the Canadian market.
Q: Do you plan on winter driving the car?
A: Been there, done that. And yes.
Q: Is there anything about the Taycan you don’t like?
A: 1) Range anxiety (mostly during winter). 2) For as quick as it can currently charge at fast charging stations, it still requires patience and planning pertaining to when, where and how often you need to plug in. Truly fast charging stations are still very few and far between in Canada. 3) The somewhat laggy PCM interface (i.e. it still takes about 1 minute before I can get Apple Music to work, every time I start up the car).
Q: Do you plan on keeping the Taycan for the long-term?
A: At this very moment, it’s hard to say. But it very much comes down to lifestyle choices, and I’m in a growing mood to do some downsizing/consolidation of my current automobile ownership situation. Namely, I’m looking at the possibility of selling the Taycan and my SUV (Toyota Sequoia) and just getting a Cayenne in their stead. Then using that Cayenne as a daily driver, and very importantly, for towing the race car to track events. That’ll be at least a couple of years down the road, so there’s plenty of time to change my mind.
Thanks to all of those who participated, and for tuning in to T’s Corner!
