So I bought a Taycan Turbo (2021 with CPO and 14k miles) and I absolutely love it. I’m lucky to be able to pair it with a 911 GTS manual cab. So two cars on completely different extremes. Both are amazing. The torque of the Taycan is a lot like the 991.2 Turbo S I used to own, but I think it’s actually faster than that 911. And the way the Taycan handles is very much like a 911 (low seating position, great view of the road with the fenders providing perspective, etc). Obviously the Taycan is so much heavier but the lower center of gravity makes up for a lot of that IMO.

Anyway, what took me some time to get used to were the brakes - so different than a 911. When I first drove the car for the first couple of minutes, the brakes felt very much like any Porsche. I have the PSCB’s which I didn’t even know existed before I got the car! Then, a bit further into the drive, the brakes felt very different, almost mushier. Now I know that the car uses regen braking at the outset and only uses the calipers if immediate force is needed. But I had thought (that first time) that the regen was just SUPER integrated with the calipers. Then another day I took the car out in the cold after it had rained over night, and I watched the power screen when I first started to drive and used the brakes. No regen (green) indication for the first few presses. Then later in the drive it started to go green with the regen “feel”.

I’ll admit I didn’t read every page of the owners manual, but is the car set up to warm up the discs before going combo regen/discs? Particularly if the rotors are wet? That might explain the initial brake inconsistency (which honestly I was concerned about before I got used to the car).

 

I’ve read that Regen can be diminished if you’re at 90%-100% SoC; at 80% you’ll get full regen.

In the Audi etron the first stop of the day uses the mechanical brakes for ‘cleaning’ purposes, so perhaps the Taycan does the same.

 

Can't get regeneration if the battery is full, I think it has to be 2 or 3% less so there's room for it to go.

 

Regular brakes are used for the first few applications each day to clean up the disc/pad surfaces irrespective of SoC. once complete, the regular blended braking is used. There is quite a difference in pedal feel between regen braking and regular braking.

 

Known issue and it is included in the owner's manual. When the rotors and pad are wet, the car will not brake normally and will take longer to stop. Special attention needs to be paid under the following drive conditions:

• When exiting a car wash
• Driving in heavy rain
• Driving through a deep puddle.

As D00D said, regen will stop working when the battery cannot take any more power. This only occurs when the battery is charged to 100% or battery is too hot or cold. In my car, regen kicks back in when I go from 100% to 98%.

 

Under ~3 MPH it's just hydraulic braking, I almost hit the post at an EA station coming in with wet discs.

From https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2023...ion-30953.html

 

Thanks dood and Kurand. Less than 3mph and first use of day brake cleaning make sense for this behavior. I usually don’t charge to 100% (only 85% to preserve long term battery), so this isn’t the issue (that no regen can be applied to a full battery).

 

After a day where my car sat parked in the rain, I had an unwanted adrenaline rush attempting to stop my car after first application of the brakes. Just like coming out of a car wash! When the pads/rotors are wet, you feel every part of the over 2 tons that this car weighs (especially as the car starts off using mechanical braking only). Inversely, it heightens my appreciation for HOW GOOD the regenerative braking system really is. I think that there is no way this car could exist without regen as pads would wear out daily (a bit of exaggeration!). But the other advantage of regen is that the motors aren’t affected by being wet like rotors (though obviously road surface still affects regen). With the regen braking the car feels really light unless you are taking an extremely sharp corner at speed. I can’t imagine driving this car with urgency with only the physical braking system. It leads to another interesting conclusion for me - while I love PCCB’s, I’m not sure the expense would be worth it as its superior physical stopping characteristics (vs. iron) are masked mostly by the regen part of the system. Also, the lightness/weight savings of PCCB’s might not matter much as a % of the car’s weight. Lower brake dust is a major positive for me, but I get that with the PSCB’s which I have.

But the more I drive this car, the more I realize the genius of how the electronics, mechanics and electrical system meld together in this car. Just beautiful. But I am putting a new sticker on my sun visor that says “BRAKE HARD WHEN WET”

 

that "first brake when its covered with water" feeling always makes me feel sick. its like watching a slo mo car crash at 2 mph.