Whenever a new model year rolls around, automakers usually issue press releases detailing any minor changes. Take the 2027 Porsche Taycan, for example. This electric sedan gets updated infotainment, a native NACS port, a larger standard battery pack, and a more powerful wireless smartphone charger. That’s all well and good, but none of those are the headline story. See, the largest addition to the 2027 Taycan is an option called E-Shift, and it’s a pretty big deal.
Tick that, and you’ll get a blue button on the front of the steering wheel and paddles on the back for Hyundai Ioniq 5 N-style virtual gear shifts. Will the Taycan be slower with simulated shifts enabled than with them turned off? Almost certainly, but that’s not the point. Simulated shifts promise additional feedback and reference: A third-gear corner is a third-gear corner, hitting a simulated rev limiter keeps a lid on wheel speed in a powerslide, and the promised torque interruption between faux-shifts should add a bit of engagement when you’re just out on the roads.
Of course, the other component of engagement is sound, as simulated shifts would be incredibly weird if they were silent. On that front, Porsche’s cooked up a new variant of its Electric Sport Sound, and it seems V8-ish. Listen for yourself:
Not as raspy as a flat-six, more baritone than a 918 Spyder, closer to the four-liter twin-turbocharged V8 in the Cayenne Turbo GT than anything. So far, it’s the best-sounding fake-shift soundtrack I’ve heard, but there’s an asterisk here.
Porsche didn’t simply copy and paste the same calibration across all trims. Instead, the marque claims “The transmission mapping and sound characteristics are tailored to each model, giving each variant its own acoustic and driving profile.” Theoretically, this means a Taycan Turbo GT will behave differently in E-Shift mode than a Taycan GTS, which will behave differently than a Taycan 4. This means that the sound clip Porsche released might not apply to all models. Actually, it definitely won’t apply to all models as standard.
Aside from on the Taycan Turbo GT trim where they’re standard-fit, Porsche’s paddles for simulated shifts are a $1,030 option on their own. However, that’s not the end of the story because certain trim levels force option bundling. On the Taycan 4, for example, it must be paired with the $1,380 Sport Chrono package, the $530 Electric Sport Sound option, and a premium audio system, the cheapest of which is the $1,310 Bose setup. The result is a bundle cost of $4,250, although it’s worth noting most customers opt for premium audio and the Sport Chrono clock anyway. The same bundle on a Canadian-market Taycan 4S will run you $5,712 CAD, although it’s worth noting that Taycan GTS and Turbo models let you just tick the box for paddles with no extra requirements.
Is that a lot of money for something that Hyundai throws in for free on its fast electric cars? Absolutely, but it’s also a sign of hope. In 2024, Australian outlet Drive interviewed Porsche factory test driver Lars Kern, who said “We don’t want to fake the combustion engine because we still produce combustion engines, so we don’t we don’t see the point of doing it.” Then Porsche got its hands on a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N. In late 2025, Drive chatted with Porsche 911 and 718 VP Frank Moser about Hyundai’s landmark EV, and Moser was singing a different tune about simulated shifts than Kern was a year prior.
“The customer could decide if he wants to drive in complete silent mode, or he wants to be part of the game, feeling the virtual sounds of a flat six and the virtual gear shifts.”
“That would be the direction for the future.”
It seems that Porsche came, saw, and, like reasonable people, changed their minds on the concept of simulated shifts. You don’t have to option them, but they’re now there if you want them. Are they anachronistic? Sure, but at a time where it feels like internal combustion is getting at least another model cycle, simulating that behavior is a way to add familiarity. Plus, it feels like virtual gears are exactly what the upcoming electric Porsche 718 needs, and Porsche now has the expertise to port that technology over.
Top graphic images: Porsche
It’s a shame the Enterprise never had a feature on the transporter where you sat on the pad for 30 minutes getting an experience making it feel like you were actually taking a shuttlecraft to the away mission.
Or, hear me out, if I want the sound of an engine and the feel of gear shifts, I could just buy a car that does all of those things because it has an engine and a multi-speed transmission. I could even *gasp* shift my own gears with a clutch pedal.
Given that most of these are the owner’s fourth car that only gets used every other weekend, I’m dubious of the planet-saving value of an EV Porsche, especially if they’re so boring to drive that they have to resort to stupid tricks to make them “fun”. Just buy the ICE Porsche and DD a boring EV.
That said, I have exactly zero time in a performance EV, so I don’t know if they’re actually boring. I’m a little dubious that 0-60 in stupid.fast seconds is actually boring, but if Porsche wants to lend me a Taycan I’d be happy to be proven wrong. 😉
I have an EV that does 0-60mph in a bit over 3 seconds and it is not at all boring. Mine doesn’t have the silly fake shifts, and I would honestly not use them even if it did. I daily drive a long, curvy road where picking the right gear so you have torque on tap makes things a whole lot more fun, but my EV has torque ready no matter what, so faking a gearshift would add no value.
I tend to agree. I haven’t driven a Taycan or a faux gear-shifting EV, but I have driven a Tesla Model S P85D and it was very fast and never in the few days I was borrowing it from my brother did I think, you know what this needs, a fake manual gear box and vroom vroom noises. I didn’t drive it long term so maybe the thrill of that speed does diminish but can’t say that I found it boring, not when an accidentally over enthusiastic application of the go pedal would risk bruising passengers. It’s just an entirely different experience of driving, embrace it for what it is. IMO these are just growing pains, like manuals now the average driver won’t care about their EV sounding and feeling like a gas car, and indeed one of the main selling points is how smooth and quiet EVs are.
Seriously, offer Carrera GT V10 soundtrack and it should boost sales
I fully support the option of fake gearshift’s in performance EVs. For a little programming might as well let people have the choice to use or not as they see fit.
Great, more effin’ video game crap. Can we get the adults back in the room please?
I guess it proves the point that EVs are boring to drive and just being fast isn’t enough. There has to be a better solution than mimicking old technology.
Click this button to drop a scalded cat bathed in hot sauce down my pants.
Sorry, don’t get too excited, it will probably be buried in the touch screen menus.
The bait is to get mad about the thing, but my actual reaction once I close this article will be ‘meh’ and I’ll go on with my day.
At one point in my life, Porsches, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis were the ne plus ultra of desirability. Maybe it’s a personal age thing, or the weird corner these manufacturers peacocked themselves into, but my interest is seemingly inverted to the price/performance specification of modern hypercars.
Admittedly, those manufacturers don’t care about poor swine like me, so I suppose the feeling is reciprocated. Their vapid wet dreams of appealing the hyper-rich mostly serve to remind me they’re some of the banal people on planet Earth.
The fake patina truck is another off-putting zone where attempting to appeal to the hyper-rich leads to mild revulsion. Fetishizing the common-man mobile of yore for people with too much money.
Give me more Jason 2CV adventures. Or SWG wrenching stories. Or David Jeep build articles. Cars for normal people.
The rich can go flap their paddles.
Fuckin’ A. COTD (Year, even? Decade? Century??)
You know what could be an interesting novelty feature? If you could have pre-programmed profiles that matched the performance of Porsches in the the past at the press of a button.
And then have fake engine sounds to match.
So basically, make the thing slower, noisier and possibly less controlled.
Yes!
All for experiencing “the good old days”.
And once that novelty wears off, it could be turned off.
It’s as pointless as a Casio digital watch imitating analog hands on its screen rather than leveraging its far more useful alphanumeric displays.
Or setting my Apple watch to the analog hands display. It looks nice! And I like it when I’m feeling like a Mr. Fancy.
Wow, after reading the comments, it seems like my hot take on this matter is being totally neutral.
It’s an option that doesn’t have to be purchased. If its in the car, it doesn’t have to be used. Ever. Its rather innocuous. I appreciate the arguments that Porsche copying Hyundai is a bad sign. I agree with that. But being annoyed by the existence of the feature, when 100% optional, seems like you are trying to hard.
<facepalm>
Don’t do that too hard… you’ll bruise your face. Then your GF or wife will ask you about why you got into a fight and she won’t believe you when you tell her it happened over reading about a Porsche with fake gearshifts.
She’ll think you got into a bar fight or worse… got slapped by SOME OTHER GIRL YOU’RE SEEING!!!
SO WHO IS THIS OTHER GIRL YOU’RE SEEING?
AND DON’T LIE TO ME!!!!
LOL – that would most likely be boyfriend if I wasn’t single (but I am open-minded to a point). Not that dudes can’t be batshit insane too. Just not QUITE as frequently as women.
I have long said that when it comes to girls, I found the hardware to be fun but the software too buggy to deal with. 😉
Well since you’re single and don’t date women… then it’ll be your sister… or your mother.
YOU’RE NOT SELF-HARMING ARE YOU? DO I NEED TO TAKE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL????
LOL! At this point a little self-harm might feel pretty good. A distraction from the state of the world in general.
That’s a lot of effort for zero benefit.
Meh, I find it hard to get worked up about (1) something completely optional, and (2) in a vehicle I cannot afford and do not desire. There is no “purity” for Porsche, or any brand, so I don’t understand actually caring about this inclusion?
Doesn’t the (some?) Taycan actually have a real 2 speed gearbox?
How that combine with the (frankly preposterous) fake shifts?
Stoooopid.
I’ll die on the hill of engine sounds in an EV being absurd and shameful. If a legit hotshoe can actually utilize the torque reduction fake shift thingy in the corners then I could be convinced there. But wouldn’t something similar be possible with just, you know, not pushing so hard on the throttle?
I was just saying above… You know what could be an interesting novelty feature?
If you could have pre-programmed profiles that matched the performance of Porsches in the the past at the press of a button.
And then have fake engine sounds to match.
IT WOULD BE GLORIOUS!!!
I get it for sporty cars where rose-colored glasses idealize harmony between man and machine. But keep it there! I do not want this crap on my daily driver EV. Not when everyone tried so hard to make ICE as smooth as electric.
Can Autopian please get rid of the autoplaying videos???? Its incredible annoying and makes this place start to feel like jalopnik. especially when the video moves around the screen.
David Tracy runs this site, goddammit, and he’s going to make sure his face follows you everywhere you go so you don’t forget it!
You gotta use a better adblocker, or become a member. I think those are the only two ways.
I do both of those things and I don’t even know what videos you mean, so they must work.
Lame.
The only simulated shifts I want to hear is in Pole Position.
Porsche, like all German luxury manufacturers other than BMW right now, is currently circling the drain and this feels like desperate grasping at straws. Frankly the rich are so goddamn rich right now and the high end market is so oversaturated that I think Porsche has run out of runway. Despite the robber barons getting everything they want and more there are a finite number of people that are able and willing to drop deep into six figures on cars, and many of them already have a Porsche.
Anyway, as if 2026 couldn’t be any more of a nightmarish fever dream, Porsche is copying Hyundai to try to sell more EVs. Holy shit. Imagine telling that to someone in 2022. They’d have laughed their ass off…
Porsche is copying Hyundai to try to sell more EVs. Holy shit.
Yikes. This might be the best, most succinct summary of the situation at hand. Definitely not a good thing for Porsche.
Imagine saying that to someone in 1992…
In 1992 it would seem crazy. By 2004, not so much. Around that time I was routinely traveling to Korea for work. When the Optimus transitioned to the Azera, I said to my colleagues Japan should be worried. They asked about the US. I said it was already too late.
I think I agree with most here that the fake shifts are pretty silly at face value. Mostly a “this is kinda fun” feature that people may try a couple times or show off once to their friends.
I do think the ability to hold a “gear” at a track is cool, and tracking a Taycan in “manual” mode would actually be fun.
But I think paying extra for the feature is silly.
IF you can find a local track that lets you on track with an electric car. Ours doesn’t because the firefighting requirements are beyond what they can afford.
Interesting – I didn’t know that was an issue. It’s been a few years since I’ve done a track day so I haven’t seen recent rules/regs
I’m surprised Porsche doesn’t make you pay extra for a steering wheel.
Don’t go giving them ideas now…
I’m sure they have had the idea, but like Ryanair charging to use the lav, it’s just a bridge too far.
Yo dawg, I put a car simulator in your car so you can pretend to drive a car while you drive a car.
Hot take: This is dumb and I hate it. Let an EV be an EV, and make it the best EV it can be. Don’t try and make it pretend to be something it isn’t. This “driving engagement” by making a car worse nonsense has got to stop.
I totally agree.
Or I did until I drove the Hyundai on track, where this stupid bit of silly software made the experience more fun, and made the track easier to learn.
I’m not sure it translates to road driving very well though, and I’m definitely not paying extra for it in a road car.
A Taycan is not a track car. Sure, you can take it on the track, but let’s face it, it’s a passenger car. Like my Panamera, which, frankly, I wish had fewer gears so that when I floor it to pass someone it doesn’t have to drop three gears to get the engine into its powerband. That’s the joy of an EV – you punch it and it GOES.
That’s not a hot take. It’s the correct take.
The whole EV with fake shifting argument reminds me of why many manufacturers added fake shifts to CVT vehicles. At least the EV fake shifts are optional.
Fake shifting makes me want a Taycan less. If you have to resort to silly video game gimmicks to make your car engaging, you are waving the white flag and surrendering to a future where your cars are appliances.
If Porsche can make family-friendly SUVs entertaining, I am having a hard time understanding why they can’t do the same with a vehicle powered by electricity. I am not upset Porsche is adding this “feature,” but I am disappointed they think this is the best they can do.
Seems like something the typical owner will try out a couple times when they first get the car, then never use again.
So….exactly like regular shift paddles?
Never owned a car with them, so I can’t say for sure, but it seems accurate.
I’ll use my shift paddles somewhat frequently for engine braking and keeping it in a lower gear in traffic during moments when I know I’m going to go for a gap to get around slow cars and want the instant power.
Yes.
I have actually used them fairly often in the cars where I have had them for a variety of reasons…
I use them occasionally on my Mercedes. Useful descending long hills certainly. There are times when you want control of the autotragic, and paddles does put that literally at your fingertips (sort of – they are more a whispered suggestion than a command) rather than reaching for a lever somewhere. But using them to pretend it’s a manual or “manumatic”, yeah, no.
I refuse to own anything sporting without a clutch pedal, so there is that…