KITTILÄ, Finland – It’s cold. The kind of cold that threatens to fuse your eyelashes together if you blink too slowly. The kind that makes you question every life choice that led to you disembark a Finnair Airbus via an exposed front staircase, then make your way across a desolate, snow-packed Scandinavian airstrip while an Arctic wind slices through your best thermals like a scalpel.
Three flights via Helsinki to get here – to Kittilä, a place famous for recording Finland’s lowest-ever temperature: -60.7˚F (-51.5˚C) in 1999. It’s not quite that extreme today, but it’s close. It’s dark, too – a thick, impenetrable kind of dark, the sort that makes you wonder if daylight is just a myth up here.
But there’s a good reason we’ve come this far, to the absolute edges of northern Finland. That reason? The new Porsche Taycan 4.
Yes, another Taycan. But this one is different. An all-wheel-drive version of the base model – something Porsche, for reasons unknown, hadn’t bothered to offer before. Now, with the facelifted range, it slots neatly between the base rear-wheel-drive Taycan and the punchier all-wheel-drive Taycan 4S. More traction. More security. And, presumably, more fun. That last bit? That’s what we’re here to find out.
But first, there’s a warm Finnish dinner. Then, a bed. A glorious, warm bed, before we wake up early to face the frigid conditions again in something that can actually handle it.
The Road to Ice and Glory
Before we reach Porsche’s Arctic Experience Center, where we’re set to put the latest addition to the Taycan lineup through its paces, we have to drive there. And this being Finland, the roads are suspiciously well-maintained – almost unnervingly so, considering they spend half the year entombed in ice. But that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing. There’s the ever-present threat of wildlife – a moose, a reindeer or something even worse: a battered old Saab or Volvo wagon materializing out of the darkness like some kind of Scandinavian specter.
And here we are, in a Taycan 4, slicing through this icy wonderland before the sun has even bothered to drag itself above the horizon. Porsche’s LED matrix headlights carve through the darkness with the intensity of stadium floodlights, while a combination of air conditioning and seat heaters creates the illusion of a balmy summer afternoon somewhere far, far away. The only real noise is the crunch of tires on snow and ice, a crisp, rhythmic soundtrack to an otherwise eerily silent landscape.
In many countries, these roads would be considered treacherous and likely closed to the public. But not here in Finland. The Taycan 4 shrugs off the challenge – gripping, clawing, and gliding along with effortless confidence. It’s composed, stable and weirdly relaxing, cruising at the posted 50 mph (80 km/h) speed limit with unruffled assurance. The dual-motor setup ensures there’s always power exactly where you need it, though for now, we’re exercising restraint.
The Ice Rink: Porsche Arctic Experience Center, Levi
Porsche’s Arctic Experience Center in Finland is the biggest ice rink you’ve ever seen – except instead of figure skaters, it’s packed with Porsche models of all sorts pirouetting in glorious four-wheel drifts. Located just outside the northern Finnish ski resort of Levi, this vast frozen playground is a dreamland for anyone who thinks traction is overrated. Porsche has sculpted a network of tracks, drift circles, handling loops and slalom sections, all designed to push both car and driver to the absolute limit.
As well as acting as a test center for the development of new Porsche models, this vast, 74-acre (30-ha) facility is also used for driver training courses. Anyone with a valid driver’s license is welcome. It’s not cheap, though; the most basic Porsche Driving Experience course costs about $7,000, with the most extensive running to $29,000. The season starts in January and ends in March.
The idea behind our drive of the Taycan 4 here is beautifully simple: take a moderately powerful car, strip away most of its grip, and see who’s got the reflexes to keep it in check. It’s not about outright speed – it’s about balance, finesse and, let’s be honest, embracing the inevitable moments of spectacularly uncontrolled chaos.
The instructors, all absurdly talented and as patient as a Finn waiting for spring to arrive, glide through the various disciplines with effortless precision, holding angles of oversteer that seem to defy physics. Then they toss you the key and let you have a go. That’s when the real fun, and the inevitable ego check, begins.
What’s New Under the Skin?
Before we start flinging this thing sideways, let’s talk about what makes the Taycan 4 different from its rear-wheel-drive sibling. Mechanically, the biggest change is the addition of a front motor. It’s a smaller unit than the one at the rear, but it transforms the electric sedan, providing it with advanced all-wheel-drive capabilities that enable it to shuffle power precisely where it’s needed most.
The all-wheel-drive Taycan 4 boasts a combined output of 429 hp, together with 450 lb.-ft. (610 Nm) of torque. This is the same power output but 74 lb.-ft. (100 Nm) more than the facelifted single-motor, rear-wheel-drive Taycan, giving it an official 0-62 mph (100 km/h) time of 4.6 seconds and a top speed of 143 mph (230 km/h).
By comparison, the Taycan 4S packs an additional 134 hp and 74 lb.-ft. more, at a respective 536 hp and 524 lb.-ft. (710 Nm).
Additionally, the new Taycan 4 comes with the choice of Porsche’s standard 89-kWh Performance battery or an optional 105-kWh Performance Plus battery, providing it with a WLTP range of between 347 and 400 miles (559 and 644 km). But let’s be honest: No one is buying a Taycan to break efficiency or range records. They’re buying it for the performance, the dynamics and the driving experience. Oh, and the cachet of that Porsche badge on the nose, of course.
The price? $103,300 – some $3,900 more than the rear-wheel-drive Taycan and a good $15,200 less than the all-wheel-drive Taycan 4S.
Driving Impressions – Slide, Countersteer, Repeat
With 20-in. Michelin Pilot Alpin 5 winter tires – rather than the studded tires commonly used in these regions – and an expanse of snow and ice ahead, the Taycan 4 feels like it was expressly built for this. At first, it’s all understeer – push hard into a corner, and it plows on like a husky that’s just spotted its dinner. But then you learn the trick: throttle. The moment you breathe on the accelerator, the all-wheel-drive system delivers and suddenly, you're in a controlled slide, steering more with your right foot than your hands.
And the Taycan 4 is beautifully predictable. Sure, it lacks the sheer ferocity of the Taycan GTS, Taycan Turbo, Taycan Turbo S and Taycan Turbo GT. But this actually makes it more enjoyable in these conditions. There’s enough power to play with and keep you engaged but not so much that you’re constantly worried about the next application of throttle sending you into the nearest snowbank.
Charging and Tech – Faster, Smarter, More Efficient
Along with the obligatory styling tweaks and interior equipment upgrades, a big part of the developments brought to the Taycan 4 involves charging speed and battery management. While the maximum DC fast-charging rate has increased to 320 kW over earlier Taycan models, that’s only part of the story.
An updated compressor has also increased battery cooling power from 9 to 12 kW, and the energy allocated for heating the battery has more than doubled from 7 to 17 kW. That means faster preconditioning in all climates. Porsche claims its new charging capabilities have halved charging times, allowing a 10%-to-80% top-up in just 18 minutes at 59˚F (15˚C).
Final Thoughts
The Taycan 4 might not be the most powerful or the most extreme Taycan, but out here, on Porsche’s Arctic Experience Center in temperatures well below freezing, it’s just about perfect. It’s fast but not intimidating, playful but never unpredictable. Giving the base Taycan a second electric motor and all-wheel drive isn’t just a technical improvement – it’s made it a much more complete car, particularly in these driving conditions.
On this giant frozen ice rink, where real driving fun is measured not in speed but in lurid opposite-lock angles, the latest addition to the Taycan sedan lineup is not only enormously gratifying but terrifically reassuring. The best Taycan yet? Here, some 105 miles (169 km) north of the Arctic Circle in the freezing cold midst of winter, it’s a definitive “yes.”
