When automakers update one of their vehicles, they typically either give it a minor mid-cycle refresh or introduce a new, next-generation model. Porsche claims that it has put in significant effort to enhance the all-electric Taycan to the point where the refreshed model has undergone nearly as much thorough testing as a second-generation model.
“Faster, higher, further – we have improved the new Taycan in practically every discipline compared to its predecessor,” said Kevin Giek, the model line’s vice president. “And because the changes are so extensive, the grueling testing program is almost comparable to that for a new model.”
That has resulted in over 2.2 million miles (3.6 million km) of testing conducted across the sedan, Cross Turismo, and Sport Turismo models. During this extensive testing, the Taycan has endured extreme conditions, from the scorching heat of Death Valley to the frigid Finnish Arctic.
And the development team’s work has already borne fruit. This mid-cycle refresh has been so extensive that the updated Taycan has already set a lap time of 7:07.55 at the Nurburgring, an improvement of 26 seconds over the fastest current version of the series.
Now, we suspect that time may have been set by a new, range-topping trim level that will be introduced with this update, but Porsche says that improvements are coming for the entire lineup. And that means faster everything, not just lap times. The automaker says that its cold weather testing has allowed to halve charging times when the mercury drops.
Read: New Porsche Taycan Crushes Tesla Model S Plaid’s Nurburgring Lap Time By 18 Seconds
“Alongside exceptional performance, a key requirement is uncompromising day-to-day usability under all climatic conditions,” said Florian Stahl, head of Taycan testing. “At its market launch in a few months, the substantially upgraded Taycan will have completed extensive worldwide tests in a total of 17 countries in temperatures ranging from -41 to +53 degrees Celsius [-42 to 127 degrees Fahrenheit].”
Porsche says that its rigorous test program will end soon, though, and that the updated Taycan will hit the European market in the spring of 2024 with North America to follow shortly after.
