Porsche has added over the air upgrade capability and battery preservation tech to its Taycan EV.
Porsche has updated its new Taycan electric sports sedan for 2021 with new personalisation options and a series of technological tweaks aimed at improving ease of ownership.
Heading up the improvements is a new Functions on Demand (FoD) service that allows owners to purchase and install new features over-the-air without visiting a dealership.
Initially available is Porsche’s Intelligent Range Manager function, with future additions including Power Steering Plus, lane-keeping assistance and Porsche Innodrive, an advanced adaptive cruise control programme.
Customers can choose to buy the new features or, for the lane-keeping assistance and Innodrive functions, subscribe on a monthly basis with a three-month trial period. Once specified, the new feature is sent to the car via satellite and activated within a few minutes.
Also new for the 2021 model year is a battery preservation function that restricts charging capacity where appropriate to reduce power loss. At an 800v Ionity rapid-charging station, for example, drivers can slow the charging speed from 270kW to around 200kW using a new charging mode selector on the central display.
The Taycan can also now be specified with a power guard function, which prevents a system overload when charging domestically and allows for it to be charged using excess electricity generated by a building’s solar panels.
As a byproduct of the battery optimisation tweaks, the top-rung Taycan Turbo S has shaved 0.2sec off its 0-200km/h time and now completes the sprint in just 9.6sec.
Additionally, the 2021 Taycan will do away with the need for drivers to use charging scheme membership cards at public chargers, though this is not yet active in Australia.
Elsewhere, cars specified with the adaptive air suspension package can now be programmed to automatically raise and lower their ride height at certain points in a repeated journey, such as at a speed bump or when approaching a steep driveway.
Seven new exterior colours, including Coffee Beige Metallic, Cherry Metallic Frozenberry Metallic (as worn by the new entry-level RWD Taycan at its recent launch in China)Â are now available to specify, and the Taycan 4S is now equipped with heated front seats as standard.
Felix Page