What's all this about?

The epochal Porsche Taycan is very close to being unveiled in all its glory at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but we've already been invited to have a poke around its interior. And we can tell you that it's very, very high-tech. You can, for instance, have up to five digital screens dotted about the car, four of them touch-sensitive, with the possibility of a head-up display (HUD) further down the line taking the tally to (potentially) six.

Five screens?!

Yes. And no physical air vent controls, either.

You what?! What do you control them by, telekinesis?!

Nope, you use a touchscreen. Indeed, the interior of the Taycan is heavily digitised. Miriam Mohamad, the director of User Interfaces for the EV, says that the driver experience is defined by 'less is always faster'. This is why the Taycan's cabin has very few physical buttons and a streamlined look to the fascia, although it still takes the 911's interior design as its role model. So there's a wide, low feel to the dashboard, the seating position is low and sporty, and the driver's cockpit is focused around their seating position, as is right of a true Porsche.

I've spotted a problem - where's the cowl for the instrument cluster?

There isn't one. This freestanding, 16.8-inch TFT screen has curved glass with a coating that allows it to be legible in bright sunlight and which also prevents it from reflecting up onto the windscreen at night. Light blue highlights for active elements team with customisability and various viewing modes, including one where only the speed is shown on a black background which made us think of an old Saab and the Night Panel, if you know what we mean. Even the headlight 'buttons' and the chassis controls are arrayed on this screen, with touch-sensitive panels arrayed down each side of the unit.

Cor! So what does the centre screen have to do, then?

This 10.9-inch item controls all of the Taycan's onboard apps from one home screen, this being displayed in a tile-graphics formation. Once again, it's fully configurable and has haptic feedback when you press it, while the Notification Centre bundles all types of messages in one place - things like car warning messages, texts from the owner's smartphone, live traffic announcements from the satnav (which has new mapping graphics, as well) and any available over-the-air software updates are found here. Language recognition Voice Control is prompted by saying 'Hey Porsche', the infotainment supports Apple CarPlay (but not Android Auto, as Porsche owners are 80 per cent Apple users) via USB (Bluetooth connectivity of this is on the cards - find the update in the Notification Centre, presumably) and it can be controlled via a 'blank' bit of the 8.4-inch touchscreen below it in a touchpad-stylee.

Is that 8.4-inch item the climate control screen, because I'm still worrying about these air vents?

It is. To keep the Taycan's smooth-looking cabin intact, Porsche has designed a new type of air vent which has flaps located deep within it that are controlled by small motors. If you want to adjust the direction of airflow into the cabin, you therefore use the 8.4-inch screen and a nifty little graphic to move a blue virtual stream of air to where you want it; you should then find the Taycan's HVAC system responds in the real world and cools your face/elbow/thigh etc (delete as appropriate).

So, cluster, infotainment and climate - that's three screens. Where are the other two?

One is in the back of the car, centrally mounted on the back of the (for want of a much better word) transmission tunnel, and it's not a touchscreen - it's just a digital display for the split-zone rear-seat climate control. The fifth is an option, so it won't be seen on all Taycans necessarily, but it's another 10.9-inch touchscreen with infotainment functions on it, only this time mounted on the passenger-side dash so they don't feel left out in HMI terms. This screen cannot control driving functions (suspension, drive modes etc) and is deactivated if there's no passenger in the car (the Porsche uses weight sensors, like a seatbelt warning chime, to detect if the passenger seat is occupied and responds accordingly) to prevent distraction of the driver.

Blimey, this is all very clever. What else can you tell me?

Just a few other details. There's wireless smartphone charging in the centre armrest, behind the 8.4-inch climate touchscreen is a hidden storage area in the lower dashboard, there will be a choice of two different types of steering wheel (normal and GT Sport) and three types of seat (normal, Comfort and Sport), various materials used in the cabin will be sustainable and ecologically sound items like Paldao wood and biologically tanned Alea leather, and Mohamad said that Porsche is working on a HUD to be available for the Taycan as soon after launch as was possible. Oh, and finally, the stubby little gearlever seen in the current 992, which looks like a men's electric razor, is present on the Taycan - but it's mounted on a vertical bit of the dash panel, just to one side of the steering wheel.

Matt Robinson - 22 Aug 2019