• Four doors, four seats
• Enough space for adults
• Two boots, neither is huge

How much space is there?

At nearly five metres long and two metres wide, the Porsche Taycan is a big car. While it’s not as spacious as similarly-sized electric saloons such as the BMW i5 and Tesla Model S, we found the space on offer to be pretty generous, albeit with a couple of caveats.

Space up front is plentiful, particularly leg and shoulder room. However, the high and broad centre console can make you feel a bit hemmed in. Similarly, there’s lots of legroom in the back thanks to what Porsche somewhat cringeily calls ‘foot garages’ – recesses in the battery pack under the front seats. However, headroom is restricted. One of testers is five-foot-ten and found his head touched the ceiling.

It’s also worth noting that the Taycan only has four seats as standard. You can pay extra for a three-person rear bench seat, but the middle position is more of a perch than an actual chair that’s unlikely to be comfortable on longer journeys.

Then there’s the Turbo GT which, when fitted with the optional Weissach package, only has two seats. Which is a bit odd for a four-door saloon. Its back seat is replaced by a carbonfibre panel with recesses for a couple of racing helmets, which is useful if you do a lot of track days.

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Boot space and storage

Though the Taycan’s fastback shape suggests it’s a hatchback, it is in fact a saloon, which compromises boot space somewhat. And we found you have to bend down quite a long way to access it (minding your head on the lid) especially if something has rolled to the back.

Boot space is most generous in the Taycan and Taycan 4S, which have 407 litres of capacity. Contrast that with the 490 litres offered in the BMW i5. At least the back seats fold down in a 60/40 split, so more space is available if needed. And there’s a small cubby under the boot floor to store the charging cables.

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More powerful models have less boot space because they have bigger rear electric motors. The Turbo and Turbo S have 366 litres, while the Turbo GT has 326 litres – though that increases to 367 litres with the optional Weissach package thanks to loss of the back seats.

There’s also an extra 84-litre box under the bonnet of every model which could prove particularly useful as there’s very little interior storage. The door bins are slim, the owner’s manual fills the glovebox, the cubby under the centre armrest is shallow, the space under the centre console is useless, and there’s just a pair of cupholders on the centre console. One of our testers particularly bemoaned the complete lack of anywhere to put his sunglasses.

Practicality is very much a mixed bag, then. But at least you can get a Taycan with a bit more space in the shooting brake-bodied Sport Turismo and Cross Turismo.   

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Is it easy to park?

The Taycan is a long, wide car with a very low driving position and slim windows – particularly at the back. The view forward through the windscreen is absolutely fine, but we found reverse parking without assistance to be tricky at best.

Fortunately, all models come with a comprehensive suite of sensors and cameras that provide accurate information which makes parking considerably easier.

View the car’s dimensions on our Porsche Taycan specs page.

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Safety

• Five-star Euro NCAP rating in 2019
• Lots of optional driver assistance tech
• Extremely good road-holding

Car safety body Euro NCAP awarded the Porsche Taycan a full five-star safety rating when it was assessed in 2019. Though NCAP’s criteria have become more stringent since then, the Taycan remains a very safe car that’s loaded with standard safety features. They include:

• Automatic emergency braking
• Lane keeping assist
• Traffic sign recognition
• Reversing camera
• Matrix LED headlights

Many more driver assistance features are available from the options list, though they are rather pricey. The latest facelifted version of the Taycan is also available with what Porsche calls HD Matrix LED headlights. They have 32,000 individual light ‘pixels’ and can cast their beam up to 600 metres ahead of the car. What’s more, they can recognise narrow roads and adjust the ‘light carpet’ to match the width of the car, making it easier to plot a safe path through restrictions.

Isofix child seat mounts are found on the outer rear back seats.

Watch: Porsche Taycan crash test video