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Road Test Review: Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo

Tuesday, 18 January 2022

The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo is here now. See how it was tested before it launched.
The Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo does the ‘pretend SUV’ thing, but only barely.
The Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo does the ‘pretend SUV’ thing, but only barely.
The Cross Turismo is a wagon version of one of the sexiest cars on the road today, which makes it even sexier.
The Cross Turismo is a wagon version of one of the sexiest cars on the road today, which makes it even sexier.

While the decline in popularity of the station wagon is a sad state of affairs for us unabashed estate car fans, there are still a few rays of light just visible – for example, Porsche is still partial to a bit of wagon action despite selling a lot of SUVs these days, and the Cross Turismo version of the all-electric Taycan is simply a wagon version of one of the sexiest production cars around today. Oh, yes…

OUTSIDE

Of course the interior is slick, minimalist and high quality – it’s a Porsche after all.
Of course the interior is slick, minimalist and high quality – it’s a Porsche after all.

While the Porsche Taycan is a fine looking machine, it is a simple fact of life that the wagon version of any car automatically looks better. And the Taycan Cross Turismo looks sensational.

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There’s nothing under the bonnet except a further 84 litres of space.
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The 4S is a notch down on the ballistic Turbo model, but still packs a serious punch.
The 4S is a notch down on the ballistic Turbo model, but still packs a serious punch.

* Five Things: our favourite jacked-up wagons pretending to be SUVs

**

The roof box on our test car was surprisingly silent, even at open road speeds.
The roof box on our test car was surprisingly silent, even at open road speeds.

Regular readers will no doubt know I am an absolute station wagon fanboy, so am entirely biased in this regard – but just look at the thing! That rear ¾ angle that shows off where the roofline meets those wide haunches just makes me go weak at the knees…

Of course, being a ‘Cross’ Turismo means that the Taycan does the whole ‘pretend SUV’ thing, with a jacked-up ride height and some black plastic cladding over the wheel arches.

Well, sort of – the cladding is so subtle you could be forgiven for not actually noticing it, while the ride height is only 10mm higher, and even then that is only when it’s in ‘gravel’ mode.

Okay, so the ‘wagon’ part actually doesn’t bring a whole lot of extra cargo space (the Cross Turismo packs just 39 litres more than the standard Taycan), but the roofline resolves in such a visually satisfying fashion over those big bulging rear haunches that you really don’t care about that. Well, I don’t anyway.

Besides, if you really want extra space, you could add the optional roof box that Porsche NZ chucked on our test car, which I have to add was remarkably aerodynamic, with virtually no wind noise.

INSIDE

Inside the Cross Turismo is Taycan business as usual, with no differences to the standard car (the extra Gravel mode is a setting accessed on the touchscreen), so that means a high quality, modern interior with oodles of tech, including the very cool (but very fingerprinty) central touchscreen down on the upper part of the centre console and the deeply impressive digital dash behind the steering wheel.

It also gets the one thing that feels tragically cheap in all modern Porsches – the awesome little mode selector dial on the steering wheel that is made from cheap, hard plastics… why no knurling Porsche? You wouldn’t see an un-knurled dial like that in a Bentley…

Silly little niggles like that aside (which may only annoy me), the Cross Tursimo’s interior is a thoroughly wonderful place.

UNDER THE BONNET

Much like the interior, the high voltage bits under the sexy new body is identical to the non-wagon Taycan. In this case, the 4S is only available with the ‘Performance Battery Plus’, which at 93.4kWh is the largest battery available in the Taycan (the standard car is available with a smaller one) and twin electric motors (you can’t get a rear-drive single motor Cross Turismo) that will smash the sexy wagon to the open road speed limit in 4.1 seconds.

There is a massively satisfying amount of punch from any speed, with the Porsche’s two-speed transmission also being oddly satisfying, particularly under full throttle where it gives a slick, yet purposely noticeable shift. And before you ask; it has a transmission to allow for more low down acceleration and more frugal high-speed touring on the autobahn.

ON THE ROAD

As we may have mentioned earlier, the Taycan is utterly sensational to throw around a few corners. Actually, preferably a lot of them.

The Cross Turismo is beautifully responsive and surprisingly agile, although you can feel the weight of the batteries when you are really trying, however it simply feels “heavier than a 911”, rather than unwieldy or leaden.

The steering is delightfully sharp, albeit a bit mute when it comes to feedback, but the superb accuracy makes up for it.

VERDICT

Like the lesser non-wagon Taycan (I believe that is the technical name for it) it is based on, the Cross Turismo is a thoroughly superb machine – endlessly entertaining, fantastically satisfying and surprisingly practical.

But because the Cross Turismo is a wagon it is simply infinitely better. That’s been scientifically proven. I know I read it somewhere. Or maybe I made it up. Either way, the Taycan Cross Turismo looks sensational, goes like hell and is a blast to drive.