Guide

Porsche Taycan or Audi RS e-tron GT — which to lease?

Updated September 2026 6 min read Performance & Prestige

They are close relatives, so pick on access rather than engineering. The Porsche Taycan is leasable from 25 with three years of licence held and a £3,500 deposit; the Audi RS e-tron GT asks 30, five years and £5,000, at £2.00 a mile beyond the allowance against £1.50. The Taycan also comes as an estate.

Are they the same car underneath?

They are closely related, and neither make pretends otherwise. Both are electric four-doors from the same corner of the Volkswagen Group, sharing a great deal of their architecture, and they drive more like siblings than rivals.

That has a useful consequence: almost every comparison written about them is about tuning and trim, and almost none of it will change how your term goes.

What does change your term is who is allowed to lease which, what you put down, and what a mile costs beyond the allowance. Those differ meaningfully between the two, and they are published on each car's page.

So this comparison is written around those, rather than around which one has the sharper steering.

What the shared engineering does buy you is confidence about the basics. Both are four-door, four-seat electric cars with the battery low in the floor, both drive all four wheels in the versions we list, and both are quiet in the way only an electric car is. Whichever you take, the fundamental experience is the same.

Which is easier to get on the road?

The Taycan, clearly, and this is the most useful thing on this page.

Both the Taycan Turbo S and the Taycan Cross Turismo 4S are leasable from 25 with three years of full licence held, on a £3,500 deposit and a matching excess.

The Audi RS e-tron GT asks 30, with five years of full licence held, on a £5,000 deposit.

For a driver in their late twenties, or anyone who has held a licence for under five years, that is not a nuance — it is the difference between a car you can have and one you cannot. Six penalty points are tolerated on all three. Every figure here is provisional pending confirmation and confirmed with you before anything is agreed.

What body shapes can you have?

Porsche gives you a choice; Audi, in our catalogue, does not.

The Taycan Turbo S is the low four-door saloon. The Taycan Cross Turismo 4S is the same idea with an estate roofline, more room over the rear seats and a proper load area — a genuinely different car to live with month after month, particularly with a dog or a bike or a set of golf clubs involved.

The RS e-tron GT is the saloon shape only.

Both Porsches seat four. So does the Audi. None of the three is a five-seater, which surprises people who assume a four-door carries five — worth checking against what you actually need before you commit.

What changes on a long run?

Less than the specification sheets suggest, and the same things matter on all three.

Electric range falls in cold weather and falls again at motorway speed, on every electric car ever built. The stop you take is longer than a fuel stop and shorter than lunch. None of that separates these two cars from each other.

What does separate them on a long trip is the Cross Turismo's shape. More space above the rear seats and a usable boot makes it the one to take if the distance involves luggage or passengers rather than just you.

We will not print a range figure for any of them here. Ask us about the specific car and you will get one number that is true rather than three that flatter.

The other thing worth planning is where the car sits overnight. An electric car delivered to a house with a charge point is a car you never think about; one delivered to a street with no supply is a planning exercise for the whole term. Tell us which of those you have when you enquire, because it occasionally changes the recommendation entirely.

What do they cost beyond the allowance?

Every agreement includes 1,000 miles a month, and beyond that the rate is set per car.

Both Taycans sit at £1.50 a mile. The RS e-tron GT sits at £2.00.

On a car that stays inside the allowance that is irrelevant. On one doing real distance it compounds every week, and it points the same way as the deposit and the criteria do.

Nothing about that says the Audi is worse. It says that on our catalogue the Audi is priced as the more demanding car in every respect that we publish, and that is a reasonable thing to know before choosing between two cars this closely related.

Do we hold any of these?

No. All three cars here are arranged through vetted partners rather than owned by us, so each is confirmed with its holder before we commit to a date, and each is quoted on request against the specific vehicle, term and start date — as every car on the site is.

Our own fleet is petrol, with one diesel and one plug-in hybrid, and it is the only part of the catalogue we hold ourselves.

That matters for timing rather than for money. A sourced car takes a step we do not control, so if your start date is fixed, enquire earlier than you think you need to. Our own fleet against a sourced car explains what that step actually is.

So which should you ask for?

Ask for the Taycan Cross Turismo 4S if you want the usable one, and the Taycan Turbo S if you want the low saloon and the badge on the back.

Ask for the RS e-tron GT if you prefer how it looks and you comfortably meet 30 and five years — it is a beautiful thing and the case for it is aesthetic rather than practical.

And before any of that, answer the charging question. If the car cannot be plugged in where it sleeps, none of these three is the right lease and electric against petrol is the page to read instead.

Common questions

Can I lease a Taycan at 25?

Yes, with three years of full licence held, on both the Taycan Turbo S and the Taycan Cross Turismo 4S. The Audi RS e-tron GT asks 30 and five years, which is the single sharpest difference between these cars on our catalogue.

Is the Cross Turismo an estate?

In effect, yes — same underpinnings as the saloon with a raised roofline, more headroom over the rear seats and a usable load area. If luggage, a dog or bulky kit is part of the term, it is the more practical of the two by a clear margin.

How many seats do they have?

Four, on all three cars. That catches people out, because a four-door saloon is usually assumed to seat five. If a fifth seat is needed, these are the wrong cars and there are electric SUVs in the catalogue that will do it.

Do you have any of these in your own fleet?

No. All three are arranged through vetted partners, so they are priced on request and their criteria are confirmed with you in writing before anything is agreed. Our own fleet is petrol, with one diesel and one plug-in hybrid.

What is the mileage allowance on an electric lease?

The same as every other agreement: 1,000 miles a month. Beyond that both Taycans are charged at £1.50 a mile and the RS e-tron GT at £2.00, which is the kind of detail worth checking if the car is going to cover real distance.

See the two agreements next to each other

What you put down, what you carry as insurance excess, what you pay over the allowance and the minimum driver age are set per car. This puts both sets in one table so you can see where they part company.

Compare the Porsche Taycan Turbo S and the Audi RS e-tron GT