- The EPA testing cycle is 55% city driving, 45% highway driving, so you shouldn't expect an EV to match its advertised range on a highway-only test.
- But the 2025 Porsche Taycan lives up to Porsche's reputation of under-promising and over-deliving.
- The base-model, rear-wheel-drive Taycan with the big battery goes 367 miles in this test, besting its 318-mile EPA range.
I've already written about how the base model Porsche Taycan with the long-range battery is among the best road-trip EVs on sale. That story focused on charging performance. Specifically, that a killer range figure doesn't tell the whole story, because charging speed matters just as much. But if range alone is your priority, don't count the Taycan out. While its EPA-rated 318-mile range may not sound impressive, its real-world performance in the latest Out Of Spec video is exceptional.
Before we get into that, a quick note on EPA ranges. The official range of a car isn't designed to represent road-trip usage. First, the testing cycle involves 55% city driving, 45% highway driving, which is designed to simulate average real-world usage. Second, highway testing is often below the speeds the average driver goes on a road trip. Both factors can skew EV results.
EVs are far more efficient at lower speeds than at higher ones, and their regenerative braking systems improve their efficiency on the city cycle. So while your gas car does better on the highway than around town, the opposite is true for EVs. And as with a gas car, as speed increases efficiency decreases.
That's why InsideEVs, Out Of Spec and others do 70-mph highway range tests. These tests capture how far you can expect to travel in the situation where you're most likely to worry about range: On a road trip. It'd be great for efficiency and safety if we all drove around at 55 mph, but out in the great wide open you hardly see that. Outside of the city, 70-mph speeds are closer to the norm. And there, Porsche's history of under-promising and over-delivering pays off.
Taycan models have consistently beaten their advertised ranges in InsideEVs testing, and that seems to be true for Out Of Spec, too. The base-model Taycan with the big battery goes 367 miles at 70 mph before cutting power, and forcing Kyle Conner to drive in a reduced-power mode for another couple of miles. That's 49 miles further than it's supposed to go in far, far easier conditions. To make matters worse, it was cold when Kyle did the testing, suggesting that fair-weather range may be even better.
Interestingly, though, the Taycan's indicated 0-mile range is the truth. There doesn't appear to be a hidden buffer beyond 0%, like you get in Teslas, many other EVs and most gas cars. When the Taycan says it's dead, apparently it means it. Kyle says he likes that strategy, which makes it easier to plan around how much battery is actually left and gives you clear access to all of the car's capacity. While Kyle is one of the best EV testers around, and he often teaches me things about EVs, I can't say I agree there. I can't count the number of times I've seen a normal person in a gas car push past "0 miles remaining" on the dash, hoping for some margin of error. And I've never seen it fail them.
As normal people transition to EVs, they're going to have range anxiety. Knowing that they can survive an imperfect calculation or a broken charger will be a huge comfort. Because if your EV strands you the minute it hits zero, any hesitation or anxiety you may feel about EV road trips will be validated and intensified. For a power user like Kyle, that clarity on range is useful. But first-time EV users will expect the same safety net they have in a gas car, and it's good that companies like Tesla still provide it.
The better news is that they won't have much to worry about in a Taycan. With 367 miles of highway endurance—far more than the window sticker indicates—and blazing-fast charging that'll get you another 193 miles of range in just 15 minutes, the base-model Taycan should never slow you down on a trip. As mainstream EVs become more efficient and charging speed pick up, hopefully it won't be long until range anxiety is a thing of the past.
Contact the author: mack.hogan@insideevs.com.
