Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexFL
The Taycan is a nice car but not for this price. However, I’ll take a hard look at the Audi e tron GT RS.
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I'm a bit conflicted with Audi and EV's in general. If they can improve the range, reliability (based on current E-Tron SUV) and drop the price from the Taycan it could be interesting, although I'm still not a fan of Audi's all touch MMI. Although one big positive of EV Audi's is that they can finally produce proper RWD based vehicles that won't plow or understeer so heavily.
As for reliability, I'm a bit reluctant. Less moving parts, but many gremlins, and then there's also reliability of the charging network to worry about. My friend had the E-Tron SUV and reported constant issues with both the car and the charging network, even had the charger stuck in the car twice, with little to no help from Electrify America. He had to cancel a road trip due to EA Chargers randomly failing, and his car even said it needed an oil change once, I guess Audi didn't fix the software? More and more problems and a flatbed tow eventually pushed him towards lemon law and a nasty battle with Audi of America who couldn't be more unsympathetic to an Audi customer of 15-years. I would wait for these E-Trons to be on the market for a while before getting one honestly. My local dealer can't even give them away with discounts, they are now loaners!
Regarding the Taycan, it is gorgeous, and handles well, but lacks feeling (for a Porsche) in the steering and brakes, and engagement isn't as present due to no exhaust (the fake sounds are meh, and don't match with the driving style), and no gearing/revs. The transmission is also very clunky on its shift to second, and the only real engagement is throttle modulation due to the high limits, and the car feels heavy. Its fast, but honestly EV's depend too much on the hype of their 0-60 times. And the price is ridiculous, car I drove was $160k with some options, could get a Model 3 and a GTS 4.0 if I really wanted an EV and a sports car without sacrificing on either front, or just get an AMG GT4D or Panny Wagon with a V8 and a lot more interior space and practicality.
Regarding range, the problem with these cars is not that the range is lacking for long distance trips, setting the cruise and getting ~250 miles isn't an issue for me, but rather when pushing these cars hard (how they are meant to be driven), range decreases fast. When I pushed the Taycan on my test drive, the range dropped by double of what I actually drove, similar to Matt Farah's initial review. When I go backroading, I go up to the mountains and even into neighboring states like Pennsylvania. Constant hills and elevation changes, twists and turns and I'm anywhere from 1-3 hours away from home without a charger in sight, but a lot of gas stations. I have no idea how a car like the Taycan would do on the trip, and the other big issue is the charging network here is pretty much non-existent outside of Tesla, and Electrify America has garbage reliability and customer service, they're only at Walmart's and I don't think I've ever seen one used before. I don't mind the idea of an EV, maybe more as a commuter device than sports sedan, but the charging network needs to improve first, and the designs need to stop being ugly, since there are only a few good looking ones (Model S, Taycan, iPace, Etron, etc.).
Either way, I can see an EV in my future but right now I would not buy one.