The Baby Porsche Taycan 4S Is Still Lightning Quick And Out Of Reach For Most Of Us

Remember when Porsche gave the all-electric Taycan the Turbo and Turbo S designations to signal their position atop the Taycan range? Yeah, we’d like to forget that too but let’s not take away anything from the electrifying sedan.

Porsche has since revealed the baby of the range in the form of the Taycan 4S and we’re all breathing a sigh of relief as the model designation finally makes sense.

The 4S slots in below the Turbo and Turbo S in terms pricing and performance. You can have it with either of the two battery sizes; a base 79.2kWh battery or the 93.4kWh pack. Surprisingly, both batteries will scoot you to 100kph from a standstill in 3.8-seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 250kph.

As the 4S suggests, it’s all-wheel drive courtesy of the two “permanently excited” synchronous motors on each axle; just like the Turbo twins, but in the 4S the rear unit is 80mm shorter for less grunt. Power is rated at 523hp.

The rear axle gets a two-speed transmission. Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) with air suspension is standard.

Stopping power is managed by massive six-piston red-painted cast iron brakes up front and four-piston pieces in the rear biting on 14.2-inch and 14.1-inch rotors respectively. Braking force can generate a maximum regeneration up to 0.39g and up to 265kWh of recuperation.

It’s pretty slippery too against aero drag, cutting a drag coefficient of 0.22. Calculating range is something we leave to the experts and here, the claim is 406km for the 79.2kWh pack while the larger battery gets a bit more range at 462km.

The easiest way to distinguish the 4S from the Turbo models are with the “smaller” 19-inch Aero wheels. Oh, and there's a interior that's leather-free and made out of completely-recycled material.