Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo review: the practical Porsche EV

Before the EV era truly dawned, the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo was the ultimate dad wagon – but now the car world is all about electrons, it made perfect sense for Porsche to follow up that car with an equally lifestyle-friendly EV estate. The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo takes everything we loved about the Taycan saloon – epic performance, sports car handling and a terrifying amount of tech – then adds a whole heap of extra luggage space, while also upping the rugged element for more cross country ability. Bolt on a roof box or add a bike rack to the back and there’s little else like it for tackling zero emissions road trips.

That’s because it’s still one of very few EV estates on sale, and the only one with any sporting pedigree. The 4S Cross Turismo driven here might just be the pick of the litter. While it commands a considerable premium over the base Taycan 4 Cross Turismo, it gains almost 100 extra horsepower and slashes the 0-60mph sprint time by a full second, to just 4.1sec – yet can still deliver a touring range of almost 300 miles between charges fully laden, as we discovered on a camping weekend.

The styling

To our eyes, the Turismo bodystyle looks even sharper than the Taycan saloon, which was already something of a looker. That car had a stronger family resemblance with the 911 at the rear, but the hatch-style tailgate seen here is a bit more unique. It doesn’t compromise the sporty stance one jot, instead making the whole thing look a bit more purposeful. Rear visibility is still very good from the front seats, too.

It’s a similar story up front with the enlarged front wings (visible from the driver’s seat, which helps you place the car’s nose with precision), swooping bonnet and expansive front bumper. The Cross Turismo’s extra cladding, around the front and rear bumpers and along the side skirts, give an added sense of purpose – without implying unrealistic amounts of off-road ability. They’re part of the Offroad Design Package; if you’ll be driving on gravel or dirt roads, it seems like a worthwhile inclusion to prevent paint chips. The hard turf of our campsite was hardly a challenge for it.

We reckon the car suits subtle colours, like the Ice Grey paint of our loaner, but naturally Porsche’s expansive paint to sample range is available to those with deep pockets. It rides on 19in alloys as standard, and you can option 21s if you like, but we thought the 20in Aero Design wheels fitted to our car struck a fine balance between looks and ride comfort.

Our car had the fixed panoramic roof, which is tinted to keep the cabin temperature in check on sunny days. There’s a version with variable light control, which can immediately switch between totally clear and opaque with a prod of the centre console, though we’ve yet to see it in action. Whichever you go for, there’s some welcome extra headroom for rear passengers compared to the Taycan saloon.

Boot space is a generous 446-litres with the rear seats up, and with no engine under the bonnet there’s room for an additional 84-litres of luggage instead. It’s not as capable a load-lugger as many petrol-powered luxury estate cars, and the hatch opening is fairly narrow, but we still managed to fit a weekend’s worth of camping gear without needing to lower the back seats.

The rest of the cabin is up to Porsche’s lofty standards, with premium materials throughout and a driver-focused cockpit that finely threads the needle between ultra-modern tech and nods to the firm’s heritage.

The technology

A curved digital instrument cluster defaults to a set of circular gauges, a bit like a classic 911. The optional Sport Chrono package adds the iconic dash-mounted stopwatch (as well as extra driving modes and a few other niceties), and the steering wheel is as slim and grippable as any of the firm’s sportier models. Slink into the Taycan’s driver seat and you’re instantly aware you’re in a Porsche.

It’s still more high-tech paradise than retro throwback, though, with an expansive central infotainment screen and separate touch display for climate controls and the like. Porsche’s system is particularly easy to navigate, even if it does hand a whole lot of functionality over to the central touchscreen, so while Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are both included, we rarely felt the need to use ’em.

The car is always connected to the cloud, so you can track its location, check charging status or precondition the cabin using Porsche’s companion app. We found it great for route planning, picking a destination on our phone and sending it to the car, so we didn’t need to tap it in a second time using the touchscreen. Even in areas with low signal strength we were able to check in on our remaining battery life after a few seconds.

The optional Bose surround sound system supplies 14 separate speakers with 710W of sound power, and is an absolute treat for the ears, although discerning audiophiles will probably want to consider the even more extreme Burmester system (if they don’t mind the £4620 it’ll add to their bill, anyway). The other audio extra of note is the Porsche Electric Sport Sound, which puts more emphasis on the powertrain’s EV humming. It’s not as evocative as a flat six or V8 motor, but definitely gives a better sensation of acceleration – something few EVs have nailed to date. We loved it, but it’ll be personal peference as to whether you feel similar.

Even the charging port covers (one on each side of the car, above the front wheel arches) are electric, sliding gracefully upwards and downwards with a swipe across a touch-sensitive panel.

The drive

The 4S is only the second rung up the latter, besting the regular Cross Turismo on power but falling in line behind the Turbo and Turbo S. And yet a few foot-to-floor launches in it and you’ll quickly wonder why you’d need the extra shove of the top-end model. This is still an eye-openingly rapid car, one that’ll quickly slingshot you into license-losing territory if you don’t pay close attention to the speedometer.

Other EVs do even quicker straight line acceleration, but there’s a level of dynamism here you just won’t find in a similarly-priced Tesla. It’s eager to turn in to corners and catapults you out of them with precision. There’s perhaps a smidge less body control than the saloon version, which sits slightly closer to the road, but we’re mostly splitting hairs. Not having to worry about bottoming out over particularly rutted roads more than makes up for it.

We largely stuck to the Normal driving mode, which was best suited to the UK’s often pockmarked road surfaces. Sport stiffens things up a fair bit, and Sport+ goes even further, but the steering is already wonderfully direct and well-weighted. There’s immense amounts of grip on tap, and the regenerative braking option is subtle enough that we never felt the need to disable it, even on the funnest of British B-roads.

Range mode doesn’t dull the experience, but is still the perfect choice for motorway driving. Here the Taycan Cross Turismo is as relaxed and refined as a grand tourer should be. We found the range estimate was astonishingly accurate, too, giving us more confidence to use more battery power before searching for a charging point. Porsche customers get preferential rates at Ionity chargers, which can comfortably hit the Cross Turismo’s 270W maximum rate.

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo verdict

Equal parts sensible and scintillating, the Cross Turismo is our pick for the best Taycan model on sale, and therefore one of the best electric cars full stop. Seats-up boot space might not be a huge amount more than what you’ll get from the saloon, but it’s welcome all the same, and your rear passengers will thank you for the extra headroom. Plus we think it’s quite simply the better looking car.

The Porsche badge comes at a premium, naturally; options fitted to our test car nudged the price north of £110,000, and we’d consider many of them must-haves. The luxury EV market is for high rollers, though, and your choices are almost exclusively limited to saloons or SUVs. Other manufacturers have electric estate cars in the works, but Porsche has pulled out such a lead already it’s hard to see how they’re going to catch up.

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo technical specifications

Powertrain	Dual permanent magnet electric motors, all-wheel drive
Battery	93.4kWh (gross) 83.7kWh (usable)
Power	571bhp (with launch control)
Torque	476lb-ft
0-62mph	4.1sec
Top speed	149mph
Range	297 miles
Charge rate	270kW
Cargo volume	446L (rear, seats up) 84L (front)