Porsche’s relationship with the EV has never been entirely comfortable. Is it that the company has struggled to reconcile the performance expectations of their buyer, and the limitations of the still-nascent technology?

Perhaps. But the story is one of a staunchly performance-oriented brand, and it’s more likely that Porsche simply isn’t interested in compromising, and the Taycan stands as an artful symbol of a brand staying true to itself despite the writing on the wall.

So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the range of the Taycan Turbo—which was rated by the EPA at the end of 2019—is only 201 miles, despite the fact that range, for an EV, is a fundamental number. Or that the EPA recently revealed that the Taycan Turbo S’s range registers at just 192 miles.

That’s no Tesla, as critics have scribbled, and Porsche would respond with a definitive amen. The Taycan could never be mistaken for anything except a Porsche in body and soul, and the S suffix—for sport, of course—hasn’t lost a bit of its potent contextual meaning. The ‘Turbo’ moniker may have generated a few snickers, but the well-heeled EV faithful are lining up for the Taycan, so it looks like Porsche—with its legendary engineering—gets the last laugh.

So the range doesn’t push 400 miles between charges. And its efficiency places it on the bottom of the EV range hierarchy. But it can hit 60 from a standstill in 2.6 seconds and, crucially, it feels like a Porsche on the road and on the track. For the Stuttgart-based auto manufacturer, that kind of spirit is still what matters most.