In today’s highly digitized and electrified world, enthusiasts find themselves lost or excluded in an alien landscape.

Especially for those that grew up driving cars from the 70’s up until the early 20-teens, many of today’s cars focus on maximum efficiency, outright speed, power or whatever other absolutes. The joy of interacting with a tactile machine that feels like an extension of your body is lost. Motoring and mobility is becoming a very black and white world.

But life, as many a sage would say, is lived in different shades of gray. It is these varying shades pf life that provide meaning, context, fullness to an experience and ultimately, joy.

Feeling the progressive throttle, the gradual increase in steering effort as you wind in more lock, the added heft needed to step on the brakes, the tactility of rowing through the gears, and with it, the ever increasing rate of acceleration.

In a very electrified and highly digitized motoring landscape of today, is there anything remotely analog left for enthusiasts?

Thankfully, companies like Porsche continue to soldier on, catering to discerning enthusiasts who look for sheer driving pleasure more than absolute maximum performance metrics and outright peak figures.

Instead of impressive but ultimately callous pursuit of outright horsepower, Porsche focuses on effectively utilizing every iota of performance to accelerate, brake and steer their vehicles for the highest possible performance.This is Porsche Intelligent Performance, a core philosophy.

Instead of focusing on attaining the maximum, be it speed or power, the boffins at Zuffenhausen focus on making the most involving, most balanced and best handling, as well as enjoyable vehicle ever, regardless of where you are in the world. And the most efficient too. Always a true Porsche to the very core.

And in their electric vehicles, while other manufacturers have focused on delivering the greatest possible advertised range, Porsche has focused on endowing the Taycan, its first fully-electric vehicle, with a proper soul, and an analog one at that.

The Taycan’s haunting silhouette is inspired by the 911. It’s a four door coupe but feels like a proper sports car thanks to its swoopy, sensual low-slung body style. Sharing its platform with Audi’s e-Tron, it’s an all-new 800 volt architecture from the Volkswagen Group.

There is also a cross-over body style called a Cross Turismo which is essentially a shooting brake bodystyle with an added versatility of adjustable ride height but over a greater range, giving it almost cross-over SUV-like versatility. We drove an earlier variant of this in Singapore back in late 2024.

In the base variant rear-driven and refreshed 2025 model year Taycan, range has improved to an impressive 610 kilometer range with the now standard and larger 105kw/h gross battery capacity which was previously known as the optional Performance Plus Battery.

There’s more power too. The base Taycan’s rear motor is significantly more powerful, improving 0-100km/h times to ~4.65 seconds. The new rear motor is more efficient and receives updated thermal management contributing to range improvements.

It’s a realistically achievable range but EV pundits will say it’s laughably small given how expensive the Taycan is and how big its battery is. And that is precisely missing the point. Porsche isn’t competing on range. If range is the sole deciding factor in you buying an electric vehicle, look elsewhere.

Also new for the 2025 and beyond model year Taycans are two-stage dual valve dampers for the adaptive air suspension. An optional active ride suspension is available, allowing for individual damper control and thus eliminating traditional anti-roll bars.

The exterior also sees redesigned front and rear fascia, particularly the front and rear LED lamps.

Inside sees a revised dash and infotainment system with a standard driver assistance control stalk.

Bose surround sound system is standard of course,

as is the 4-zone climate control system.

There’s two-tone black and red leather seats grip you firmly in place, yet still provide a good modicum of comfort for long drives.

The Taycan after all is a gran turismo one should be able to comfortably reach, say Baguio, a popular benchmark for range and performance in Philippine car culture.

Despite the Taycan’s versatile design brief, and its ability to be used everyday, just like any Porsche mainstream model, it also remains to be a very emotional purchase, one that encourages you to go for a drive and enjoy every single moment behind the wheel. Few, if any, other vehicles will call out to you for a drive the same way a Porsche does to drive.

How do the changes affect the Taycan’s driveability? It’s quite dramatic: ride improves significantly as it’s far less stiff, and much more compliant yet retains the trademark Porsche firmness that gives you confidence to push harder, brake later and dive into corners headlong.

It shines on long drives. You seek the longer, twistier and curvier drive home rather than the boring highway simply because the curves give you the opportunity to feel the Taycan perform.

Turn-in is crisper, with less understeer and powering out of corners, the rear feels more adjustable with the throttle. Steering feels a bit lighter, but still retains the same levels of feel and feedback. But comfort has vastly improved.

The earlier models felt more sports car in ride and civility whereas this refreshed model feels so much more useable on a daily basis.

All these improvements in comfort and refinement mean the Taycan becomes an even more convincing daily-driver proposition. Because after all, the best Porsche is the one you will use the most often.

The brakes are more impressive than ever. Always a strong Porsche suit, the regenerative braking can now harvest as much as 320kw, aiding stopping performance and making energy recuperation and overall efficiency even more impressive.

Dare I say it, but the Taycan is the one true focused driver’s car in the EV sector: while everyone else tries to build a lifeless, soulless, sterile, one-trick pony EV that has massive acceleration and nothing else, the Taycan shows that electric vehicles can still be highly enjoyable, desirable and memorable cars to drive. It need not be a limp, lifeless and soulless experience.

The steering? Like a proper Porsche, alert but not nervous. The handling? Precise, confident and poised even under pressure. Honed at the legendary Nurburgring, it delivers the goods. The overall feel? Like a living, breathing entity with warmth and emotion. The Taycan has the ability to build a real emotional connection with you, the driver.

The Taycan isn’t your typical electric vehicle that focuses solely on the cold hard numbers game, particularly its range. You buy a Porsche Taycan if you want to feel alive.

The Taycan proves that even with an electric heart, it thankfully retains a truly analog soul.