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2025 Buick Enclave vs Honda PilotHead-to-Head: Tesla Model S vs Porsche Taycan
The top end of the EV market is about as impressive as it gets. This is the epic showdown between the Tesla Model S and the Porsche Taycan.
Clash of the (Electric) Titans
So you want to go fast, eh? For that, the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S have you covered and then some. As the premier electric cars of the current moment, the Taycan and Model S delivering the kind of neck-snapping acceleration to make a Hellcat jealous. But not only are they electric dragsters of the first order, but they are also premium-priced luxury sedans, and as such they are expected to deliver all the accoutrements and comforts befitting their hefty price tags.
Thankfully, Tesla and Porsche have their own unique philosophies and their approaches to the Model S and Taycan are quite distinct. If you’re ready to spend close to (or well north of) $100,000 for the very best in electric driving, we’ll help make your choice between the segment’s hottest players a little easier.
Specs
The Porsche Taycan offers four powertrain versions. The base Taycan comes with a single electric motor driving the rear wheels and making 402 horsepower and 469 lb.-ft. of torque. The next three trim levels all get a second electric motor and standard all-wheel drive with the 4S making 562 horsepower and 479 lb.-ft., the Turbo making 670 horsepower and 626 lb.-ft., and the top range Turbo S at 750 horsepower and 774 lb.-ft. There are two battery pack sizes to choose from, the 79kW and the larger 93kW. The Taycan features a two-speed automatic transmission, unusual for an electric car, but this aids in delivering added power at high speed. At its very fastest, the Taycan Turbo S can zoom from zero to 60 in just 2.4 seconds.
Using an 800-volt DC fast charger, the Taycan can go from a 5 to an 80 percent charge in 23 minutes. But such fast-chargers are in short supply, and on a 50kW fast-charger you can expect a wait time of around 90 minutes. The Taycan’s mpgE comes in at 75/79 city and 80/81 highway (depending on trim and battery size). The smaller 79kW battery offers an EPA estimated range of 199 miles while the larger 93kW battery can go as far as 227 miles (many real-world tests give the Taycan closer to a 260-mile range, still far shy of competitors).
The Tesla Model S come in two flavors: the Lang Range and the Plaid, and both feature standard all-wheel drive and a single-speed automatic transmission. The Long Range comes with two electric motors producing 670 horsepower and 723 lb.-ft. of torque. The Plaid gets three electric motors and boasts a dizzying 1,020 horsepower and 1,050 lb.-ft. of torque. This allows the Plaid to achieve the fastest zero to 60 time of any modern production car at right around 2 seconds.
The Model S gets and EPA rating of 121 city and 112 highway mgpE. The Long Range fittingly offers a range of 412 miles, while the Plaid settles for a still good 390 miles.
Driving & Performance
With its electric motors, the Porsche Taycan doesn’t have any trouble pinning you back in your seat. But, as a Porsche, simply going fast isn’t the bar. Thankfully, the Taycan delivers on its heritage with all the athleticism on the track that you’d expect. The steering has just the right amount of heft, is sniper accurate, and, though less feedback is than gas powered Porsches, it’s still good for an electric car. The Taycan is also impressively spry in the corners, especially for a car that weighs in excess of 5,000lbs. The electric power allows the Taycan to rocket out of corners, perhaps its best trick of all. Braking is smooth and strong, with the optional ceramics offering even greater stopping power. Overall, the Taycan delivers where it matters most, proper Porsche handling married to insane levels of electric torque.
The Tesla Model S in Plaid guise is literally as fast as you can go in a production car. As a pure dragster, the Model S Plaid has the character of a funny car, the world blurs momentarily and the nervous system struggles to keep up. But as peerless as the Model S is in a straight line, in other areas, it comes up a bit short. First, handling, while decent enough for your average commute isn’t on par with similarly priced luxury sports sedans, including the Taycan. The Model S can be wallowy in cornering and steering is numb and too light. The brakes are perhaps it’s weakest point. Not only do they suffer from noticeable fatigue, but they are simply not up to slowing down a 5,000-lb. car from the crazy speeds it so easily (and instantly) achieves. A track monster the Model S is not. And finally, the Model S now comes not with a normal steering wheel but with a steering yoke. The Tesla has often traded novelty for practicality … so at least there’s consistency in the choice of a yoke, even if it makes three-point turns a pain.
Comfort & Interior
The interiors also offer contrasting approaches, each with their own merits and detractions. The Porsche Taycan closely resembles the rest of the Porsche lineup with impeccable fit and finish, high-quality materials, and a buttoned-down design philosophy. The front seats are a good balance of supple and supportive, with the rear seats being slightly less so. Space is at a premium in the rear, with less than generous headroom (thanks to the Taycan’s sloping roofline) and cramped legroom that reminds one more of a hatchback than a luxury sedan. We’re also not huge fans of the haptic buttons for the HVAC controls, which take some getting used to.
The Tesla Model S errs on the side of simplicity with clean simple lines, an airy cabin, and a huge infotainment screen housing nearly all of the car’s controls, for good and ill. It’s a far cry from the bells and whistles approach of Mercedes-Benz, but for many buyers, that’s a positive attribute. Material quality is good, and finish is generally good too, though, as with the exterior paneling, you can find the rare gap or misalignment. The big attraction is of course, that big infotainment screen. Though Tesla doesn’t offer Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, their own software is responsive and intuitive, and the graphics are crisp. One downside of the infotainment system is that the upper right corner of the screen can be hard to reach.
Trims & Features
The Porsche Taycan comes in four trims, base, 4S, Turbo, and Turbo S, with horsepower scaling upward at each increment. As with the rest of the Porsche lineup, trim level features tend to be spartan while the options list is long. Thankfully, the base Taycan ($82,700) comes decently equipped to start. It comes standard with wireless charging, navigation, a 10-speaker stereo, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, satellite radio, heated front seats, heated side mirrors, and summer tires. Standard safety equipment includes forward collision warnings, land keep assist, and front and rear parking sensors. The options list is extensive and includes items like adaptive cruise control, 18-way power front seats, a 21-speaker Burmester stereo, four-zone climate control, as well as interior trimmings in wood, aluminum, or carbon fiber.
The Taycan 4S ($103,800) adds 19-inch wheels and adaptive air suspension. The Turbo ($150,900) gets heated rear seats, a 14-speaker Bose stereo, torque vectoring, and upgraded brakes. The Turbo S ($185,000) tops things off with four-wheel steering, performance ceramic brakes, and the Chrono Package that adds a dash chronograph (color matching if you wish), a sport steering wheel, and Sport Plus driving modes.
The Tesla Model S makes do with just two trims: the Long Range and the Plaid. The Long Range ($79,990) starts things off with the it’s huge 17-inch infotainment touchscreen, navigation, a 22-speaker stereo, heated front and rear seats, adaptive air suspension, wireless charging, rear seat entertainment, a heated steering wheel, Wi-Fi hotspot, and tri-zone climate control. Standard safety comes in the form of Tesla’s “Autopilot” system that contains blind spot monitoring, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, and front and side collision warnings. Additional options include 21-inche wheels and Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” system that adds automatic highway driving and automatic lane changes as well as their “summon” feature. Both safety systems offer forms of hands-free driving, but despite their names, they’re not driver-attention free.
The Model S Plaid ($119,990), the top of the mountain, contains all the above features but adds a third motor to achieve its otherworldly level of acceleration.
Flawed, But Fast
Both the Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S have their flaws. The Taycan skips on interior space and its price balloons with every option box ticked. The base model is certainly nice, but it’s not as fleet of foot nor does it have the range of the Long Range trim Model S, two critical factors when it comes to premium EVs. The Tesla Model S, if it’s to compete with the Taycans of the world in terms of performance, needs a suspension upgrade and really needs more serious brakes. With such power comes the responsibility to be able to stop within a reasonable distance. And both these “future cars” lean heavily on their cumbersome touchscreens, leaving some, including myself, missing the ease and efficiency of dials and buttons.
Imperfect though they are, the Taycan and Model S wow with their sophistication and psychotic speed. We love the Porsche’s preternatural grace and stunning good looks inside and out. But its price tag is an albatross that only gets heavier the more options boxes you tick, and its range leaves a lot to be desired in a car so adept at highway cruising. The Model S, especially the Long Range, is a relative bargain. Its standard features are generous, its interior spacious, and its over 400 miles of range will surely allay any lingering EV anxieties you may have.
If canyon carving is your top priority and price is no object, then the Porsche Taycan is the car to buy. But in nearly every other use case, the more affordable, equally jaw-dropping Tesla Model S is the better buy.
