2024 Volvo EX30 Twin Motor Performance Drags Porsche Taycan 4S, Someone Eats Dust at Dusk

Recently updated for the 2025 model year, the Porsche Taycan is an accomplished EV already. It has been on the market since 2020 as a follow-up to the Tesla Model S-rivaling Porsche Mission E concept. While it may not reach the sales level of the American competitor, Porsche made sure through the mid-cycle refresh to at least level the playing field in terms of performance with the new, up to 1,092-horsepower Taycan Turbo GT.

Of course, it will be a long time before the expensive $230k hyper-sedan hits the market for a skirmish with the Tesla Model S Plaid and Lucid Air Sapphire, and even the base models will have to wait their turn before meeting their foes. But that doesn't mean the pre-facelift Taycan can't enjoy a friendly brawl against an improbable contender on the quarter-mile, right?

Everyone loves the 'dragstrip' setting, and sometimes, even if there's no track at hand, an unprepped airfield's take-off and landing strip can still do the trick, especially if there's an illumination system to help with the race when it takes place at dusk. Such was the case with the good folks over at the 'E-Drive Sweden' channel on YouTube, who have set up a quick drag race (or two) between the fresh Volvo EX30 crossover and the established Porsche Taycan EV sedan.

It's understandable why they were in a hurry – the light was fading quickly. Anyway, there was still enough to see the protagonists – a black Porsche Taycan 4S and the all-new, first-ever Volvo EX30. The German premium EV sedan was of the 4S with the Performance Battery Plus (AWD, 93.4 kWh battery) and had 571 ps (563 hp) at its disposal. On the other hand, the new Volvo EX30 is even more uncommon compared to the big Porsche sedan – but that's not because of pricing.

Somehow, this channel still got its hands on one or two examples for a review and now also a classic drag race. Since they're doing it on unprepped tarmac, we didn't expect wonders as far as grip was concerned, but it turns out the launch control setups of both vehicles did a stellar job. As such, the smaller and lighter EX30 took full advantage of its 434 ps/428 hp offered by the Twin Motor Performance system, and during the first part of the drag races, it held up pretty well against the more powerful foe.

Alas, the little Volvo simply can't sustain the kind of acceleration offered by the much more expensive Taycan 4S, so it quickly lost touch with the leader of both races. In the end, Porsche's best quarter-mile time, as registered by the on-board systems, was 11.85s while the Volvo (also unofficially) did the pass in 12.85s. Cool or not?