The 2020 and 2023 Porsche Taycan Turbo S models both reach 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, but they have been getting faster over time. At 90 mph, the cars split apart, with the 2023 model doing two-tenths better than the first one. When going 100 mph, the gap gets to half a second. At 150 mph, it’s a full second. Two software updates made the improvement possible. If you took your older Turbo S in for maintenance that wasn’t related to this, it may have already received these updates. When the Porsche Taycan Turbo S came out in 2020, the Turbo script painted on the back of the car caused a lot of anger. In just 2.4 seconds, it went from 0 to 60 mph, and at 130 mph, it took 10.5 seconds to go the quarter-mile. It was definitely turbo-quick. When we recently tested a 2023 Turbo S for our sister publication, Road & Track, we were surprised to find that the newer car was much faster at the top end. More boost means faster speed Both cars can reach 60 mph in 2.4 seconds, which shows that they are going the same speed. On the other hand, the new car keeps getting better; it now takes 4.7 seconds to reach 90 mph instead of 4.9 seconds. The quarter-mile now takes 10.3 seconds and 132 mph, down from 10.5 seconds and 130 mph. The newer machine also gets to 120 mph in 8.3 seconds instead of 8.8 seconds. The difference was 14.2 to 15.2 seconds at 150 mph. What’s going on? It all comes down to one word that is used too much: boost. On the other hand, over boost is a better word. When it comes to electric cars, letting the motors run at higher power for short amounts of time can temporarily improve performance. But you have to be very careful about when these intervals happen so that too much heat doesn’t build up and damage parts. You can only use over-boost in Sport Plus mode when the launch control is turned on. Because of this, it doesn’t happen very often, but how long should you let it go on? When the Taycan Turbo S first came out, three seconds was a reasonable response time. It was then okay for the overboost to last for ten seconds. Porsche made this change after looking more closely at how people used their first electric vehicle (EV) and testing it all the time, which is something they always do to make their products better. There is a clear difference between the effects of three seconds of over-boost and ten seconds of over-boost in our two tests. Two Important Updates to Software These advantages come from two software updates that were put in place after the car came out. The first event, which happened in August 2020, was better than the second. It has a color head-up display, a Plug & Charge feature, a Battery Save mode, and an unannounced performance update that changes how aggressively the front motor uses its power. In terms of raw performance, the second update from March 2021 was more important. It was partly a response to the Taycan with rear-wheel drive, which came out and was improved much later than the all-wheel-drive model. Early AWD Taycans could drive in front-wheel drive when Range mode was turned on, but not for rear-drive Taycans. Lastly, the engineers’ new rear-drive Range mode method was smart enough to work with all-wheel-drive cars. Since the Taycan has rear-wheel drive, it doesn’t need overboots. However, the three- to ten-second boost in over-boost was added quietly during the same update. In the Sky, but not there If you have an older car, you may have gotten one or both of these updates without knowing it. In this case, the word “likely” is important because Porsche says that performance and safety updates will never be sent over the Internet. It doesn’t matter that the 2020 Taycan can’t even do OTA; that’s a different story. Routine updates like these are done when the diagnostic equipment is plugged in at the dealer, even if you brought the car in for a different reason. You may be missing out if you own a 2020 or early 2021 Taycan Turbo S and have never had it serviced by a dealer. This is especially true if you over-boost the boost. Put your early AWD Taycan in range mode and use the traction display to see which wheels are moving it. This will let you quickly find out how up-to-date it is. The Taycan is Porsche’s first electric car, even though it might seem like an EV shouldn’t need dealer service. The company is willing to share new information as they continue to work on making an electric Porsche. They want to send out only some things through OTA updates, though.
