The solution:
f[x_] = Normal[Series[Exp[x], {x, 0, 2}]]
appears elegant. However, an attempt to generalize it to a variable number of expansion terms:
f[x_,n_] = Normal[Series[Exp[x], {x, 0, n}]]
does not work. The generalization of my proposal:
F[x_,n_]:=Module[{y,c},c=Normal[Series[Exp[y],{y,0,n}]];y=x;c];
works. The only problem is that it works damned slow during plotting (not really for the Exp function but for a more complicated one that I have); I presume the expansion is performed every time a new point is to be plotted. Leslaw