Porsche Taycan 4S Range Test Shows 40% More Range Than EPA

The Porsche Taycan and the EPA testing protocol have not been the best of friends as of late. The German automaker’s first electric car has had a very poor showing when it came to its range rating from the EPA, giving a huge blow to the car when any comparisons were made to the Model S with its 348-mile range on the Performance model. With the entrance of the Taycan 4S to the US market, Matt Farah of The Smoking Tire was able to provide us with a casual range test for the Taycan 4S, and showed that it was significantly larger than the EPA stated range.

This is not the first time that third-party range test for the Taycan family of cars had shown a range that was much greater than the official measurements. Both Autoblog and Nextmove conducted their own tests on the Taycan Turbo and were able to find that the Taycan had a range of at least 250 miles during casual driving and also suffered from less battery loss during hard driving when compared to Tesla.

This time is no different for the Taycan 4S. Even though it is the cheapest and most efficient of the Taycan family, it only has an EPA range of 203 miles with its 93.4 kWh battery. 

What Farah was able to achieve during his casual range test was 276.2 miles actually driven with about 18 miles of range left according to the computer. This leads to the hypothetical range of about 294 miles, which smashes the 203-mile range based on the EPA.

Farah also states that he was not trying to go for the optimum range. He had the cruise control set at 70 mph for most of the trip, had the A/C on, had the seat cooling on, and was charging his phones. He notes that if he was to actually try to get the maximum range, the Taycan 4S would easily push past 300 miles of range.

But why are the numbers so far off? We know that EPA numbers are not perfect, but to be off by such a large margin would get you thinking. Is there something in the testing protocol that doesn’t agree with how the Taycan uses its energy?

What do you guys think is the reason for these discrepancies? Is it only selection bias and only the tests with ranges surpassing the EPA numbers are posted while others are ignored? Or is there actually something in the testing that the Taycan is just not handling well?

Let us know down in the comments below.