Take one Taycan, with its sleek, low front end design that deliberately evokes the iconic 911. Give it an extended roofline that ends in a hatchback tailgate. Add a 20mm higher ground clearance (30mm if you go for the Off-road Design Package) and you have the Taycan Cross Turismo. It still looks like a sports car, albeit quite a large one, and the designers really nailed the look of that rear end – there isn’t a bad angle. It’s the same story inside with sports seats up front, a clean sweep of 16.8-inch curved display, a minimum of switches and a handy 60:40 split folding rear seat that can turn the 446-litre boot into a full 1,171-litre loadspace.
PERFORMANCE
As the ‘4S’ part of the name implies, the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo gets four-wheel drive courtesy of two electric motors, one at each end. The front motor is single speed, while the rear one has two speeds to deliver the kind of visceral thump-in-the-back acceleration that Porsches (and powerful electric cars) are known for. As this is both a Porsche and an EV, the result is 571 metric horsepower (PS) in overboost mode delivering 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds. OK, the Turbo is even faster but even so…that’s very quick. On the other side of the equation, the 93.4kWh battery will give you a combined range of around 280 miles. Porsche’s 800-Volt architecture means you can charge up fast if you find a rapid charger on your travels, accepting up to 270kW DC charging.
TECHNOLOGY
All Taycan models have the Porsche Advanced Cockpit, a 16.8-inch curved display that includes a fully configurable driver instrument panel. There’s a central touchscreen and optional touchscreens for the passengers too (10.9-inch for the front seat passenger, 5.9-inches for those sitting in the rear). You can access all functions either via the touchscreen or the ‘Hey Porsche’ voice control, which is intuitive and works with natural language commands. The standard specification includes Sound Package Plus with 10 Speakers and a total output of 150 watts, and you also get Porsche Connect for live traffic information and Apple CarPlay – this comes with a free subscription for an initial period.
SAFETY
There’s a full complement of front, knee and side airbags for driver and front seat passenger as well as a full length side curtain airbag to protect those in the rear too. Assistance systems include Collision and Brake Assist, which can intervene to prevent or mitigate a front-end collision, plus Lane Keeping Assist with Traffic Sign Recognition. Reversing manoeuvres are made easier by Parking Assist, which includes front and rear sensors with visual and audible warning and a rear-facing camera.
