Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S review

October 23, 2021March 29, 2022 Iain Curry 4192 Views porsche

Porsche’s all-electric Taycan has outsold the iconic 911 in Australia so far this year. While purists look away, Porsche has strengthened the line-up by sneaking in a more versatile Taycan Cross Turismo version.

With in-vogue SUV-like plastic body add-ons, wagon-esque rear, more cabin space and higher ground clearance, Porsche has dubbed this niche-creating EV its Cross Utility Vehicle (CUV).

Compared to the Taycan sedan, its longer roof gives an extra 30mm rear headroom and boot space jumps from 366L to 405L. There’s an extra 20mm ground clearance, while an optional Off-Road package ($3450) brings more plastic protection against stone chips and another 10mm of clearance.

In other words, it’s pitched at those who may sling their Taycan along a dirt road or a few snowy tracks to reach the chalet.

It combines the Taycan’s sleek good looks with a more rugged, purposeful style. This, as we know, holds great sway for many buyers. Even if you never leave the black stuff, owning an all-terrain lifestyle-ready vehicle presents you as the adventurous type.

Priced a few grand over equivalent grade Taycan sedans, the Cross Turismo has launched in 4 ($176,600), 4S ($205,300) and Turbo ($279,000) models.

Each comes with Porsche’s 93.4 kWh Performance Battery Plus as standard. For now, there’s no entry-level RWD or bonkers Turbo S grades as found in the Taycan sedan.

We tested the mid-spec Cross Turismo 4S – complete with over $40,000-worth of optional equipment – for a total of $247,970 before on-roads.

2021 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo at highest ride height

Value

North of $200k is no small matter, but for context, the cheapest petrol four-door Porsche Panamera sedan is $203,500 ($221,000 for an all-wheel-drive wagon), and entry to Porsche’s 911 club now begins at $241,200.

As alternatives to these – or mid-spec Cayenne large SUVs – the Taycan Cross Turismo 4S’s price is reasonable to join the Porsche party.

For your dollars Porsche provides the likes of 4D Chassis Control, adaptive air suspension including PASM (Porsche Active Suspension Management) and three driving modes: Sport, Range and Gravel.

Not enough? Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus is another $3120 and Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control Sport is $6870. If you’re not planning a Targa, it’s probably worth saving your money as these things handle beautifully enough out of the box.

There are 20-inch aero wheels, metallic paint, LED headlights, climate control, heated and ventilated front seats, heated steering wheel, 14-way adjustable partial leather seats, Bose audio, a decent active safety suite and a three-year free charging subscription on the Chargefox network.

You need to pay an extra for a 22kW on-board AC charger ($3500), fixed panoramic roof ($3370), a Porsche Electric Sport Sound ($1050) if you want to sound like a spaceship, ambient lighting ($890) and rear seat heating ($910).

Inside

You’re greeted with a festival of screens. The highlight is a 16.8-inch curved driver display with brilliant configurability, while a 10.9-inch infotainment touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay (and wired Android Auto) sits centrally.

Wireless charging is frustratingly absent, lessening the usefulness of wireless CarPlay. Positively, Porsche has crafted a little shelf on which to rest your hand or fingers, making life easier to prod exactly what you want on the touchscreen.

The raked centre console has another screen for battery information and climate control. It all looks fabulously clean and tidy, but two knobs to quickly adjust temperature and fan speed would mean less time with eyes off the road tapping away at a screen.

Air vent direction can also only be done through a screen. It’s all very clever and adjustable numerous ways, but again, sometimes you just want to slide a bit of plastic rather than go through a digital menu.

The partial leather seats are firm, low and supportive. Very Porsche. They’re highly adjustable to accomodate most physiques, but the Cross Turismo still needs decent knees to climb in and out. Don’t confuse it with a Porsche SUV’s ride height – this thing sits low in standard setting.

By the way, if you want a full leather interior as seen in the Turbo grade, Porsche asks for an extra $7540. Ouch.

Despite this, the cabin has an air of quality, fine engineering and sporty purposefulness. Driving position is excellent, even if there’s nothing properly involving to grab like a gear shifter, a third pedal or even a steering wheel paddle. For traditional Porsche owners, these and the lack of a decent exhaust note take the most getting used to.

The car’s ‘on’ and ready to go as soon as you climb in, and a little toggle on the dash puts you into Drive, Neutral or Reverse.

These Cross Turismos come with two seats across the back, although ours was optioned (another $1000, thank you) to allow three in the rear. The middle chair is fine for kids – although the seat base is very firm and you have a big leg straddle – but as a six-foot adult my head practically merged with the glass roof.

The two outboard rear seats are bucket-like and roomy enough – leg rooms’s good as long as those in the front aren’t giants, but those moving out of a Panamera will miss its proper limo-like stretch-out space.

The 30mm extra headroom over a Taycan sedan is welcome, and the optional glass roof gives a superb amount of light back here, or the opportunity for all to do a bit of star gazing.

Despite its wagon designs, don’t expect old Falcon wagon-type practicality. The curvy roofline, encroaching wheel arches and small load bay made fitting in my road bike with its front wheel removed a real challenge. It barely squeezed in (it’s an easy fit in my VW Golf hatchback), but if golf’s more your thing you’ll be better accommodated.

Performance and efficiency

I love performance and acceleration as much as the next person, but I genuinely don’t know why you’d need a road car to go quicker than the 4S’s 4.1 seconds to 100km/h.

I’ve tested the Taycan Turbo S sedan which does the job in 2.8 seconds (using Launch Control) and it’s a bit frightening, a bit mind-blowing and even a bit unpleasant. On a track it might be different, but on the road, it feels a bit pointless. Great for showing off to your mates once or twice, but for me at least, the novelty wears off.

This 4S still provides stunning thrust from its two electric motors; more pleasingly when rolling rather than from a standing start. It has assured and lusty power to dart through corners with just a gentle squeeze of the throttle.

There’s 360kW and 640Nm to play with, or that climbs to 420kW with overboost using launch control. Really, it’s all you need.

It comes as standard with Porsche’s 93.4 kWh Performance Battery Plus, and uses a quoted 28.1kWh/100km.

As we’re finding with many of our tests (and the polar opposite of when we road test combustion engine cars) our real world consumption is less. Plenty less in the Cross Turismo’s case.

We used an indicated 21.6kWh over 800km of testing, and that included a good dose of performance driving.

Range is an indicated 436 kilometres, and our testing showed Porsche’s readout to be impressively accurate. Flick between drive modes such as Range, Normal, Sport or Sport Plus and your range drops accordingly, but not a great deal.

Charging

2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S at a flooded 50kW charge point at Forest Glen, QLD

As standard, Porsche provides a Mode 3 charging cable for AC public charging stations, and a 150kW on-board DC charger for use at 400 volt charging points.

There are charge ports either side of the Cross Turismo for AC or DC charging.

Press a button on the centre console screen and these ports open electrically. Such convenience is a $1310 option – it’s your call if you deem this sliding door decent value.

Like other Taycans it has 800-volt architecture, and with such a massive battery it needs it.

As you score three years of free charging on the Chargefox network, owners will no doubt prioritise those. 50kW DC chargers are by far the most common in the wild, but find a 350kW ultra rapid charger and you can go, in ideal conditions, from five to 80 percent charge in 23 minutes with a maximum charging capacity of 270kW.

We saw a peak charge rate of 260kW using a 350kW charger, and our test saw us add 74.2kWh going from 8-90%, taking a total of 33 minutes. The charge rate dropped dramatically past 80%. For reference, this was at an Evie Networks charger (no Chargefox ultra rapid charger close to me sadly) and cost $44.50.

I found using a 50kW fast charger too slow in the Taycan. It took about 30 minutes to add 100km to a 19% charged battery. Fine if you’re off shopping for a few hours, not so great if you just wanted a coffee break.

Porsche’s official numbers are 93 minutes from 5-80% using a 50kW DC charger, and nine hours to go from 0-100% using an 11kW AC charger.

Ride and handling

Weighing a mighty 2245kg unladen, I’m yet to get my head around anything Porsche-badged being this heavy.

That said, Porsche’s SUVs seemingly manage to defy physics despite their mass, and it’s no surprise to see the Cross Turismo does likewise in the twisties.

Balance and grip are standouts, and the way it changes direction for such a tubby unit is wizardry. Its not fun and involving like Porsche’s two-seaters, but it is a sublime, powerful and muscular (in an electric way) big tourer.

Steering has a lovely weight to it, response is superb and the big Turismo smartly absorbs most road bumps in quiet confidence, especially in Normal drive mode.

The tyres on our optional 21-inch wheels couldn’t hide their skinny nature on bigger hits, but proved remarkably good at not being an annoyance in the noise department, helped no doubt by how well insulated the car is.

Big question is how it goes off-road. You’d have to hope some owners will do so, and Porsche’s advertising sees the Cross Turismo on sand, sliding in wet mud, splashing river crossings and getting all dusty on unsealed roads.

It doesn’t say it’ll climb mountains, so don’t sell the LandCruiser just yet.

The air suspension is fully raised in about 30 seconds, and while it looks a bit gawky up on stilts, you feel less anxious about damaging the underside, those $6770 optional rims and the $5000 paint job. The fitted Off-Road Package adds a few more bits of plastic protection to ward off stone chips.

I found a dusty, unsealed track and put it into Gravel mode. Like this it optimises throttle and torque distribution for such slidier surfaces, and made sure there was no sideways shenanigans on the loose stuff.

There feels like a bit more movement in the body in corners when it’s raised higher, but not disturbingly so. Key thing is it feels safe and balanced, and surprisingly comfortable. As an all-rounder, it truly does shine.

Despite the tyres being very much on-road specific (Good Year Eagle F1 265/32×21) they remained trustworthy, but to be fair, I didn’t start playing Sebastien Loeb in the Cross Turismo. As an aside, how good would one of these look with a set of all-terrains under those plastic wheel arch moulds?

Party tricks

The raised ride height. Once you dial it up to maximum clearance the car asks would you like to save this location by GPS.

Say yes and every time you get to that point the car has remembered the location and automatically rises up.

Ideal if you have a steep driveway, a shopping centre car park or any nasty high kerbs – the car’s already sorted you for extra clearance.

2021 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo at lowest ride height

Safety

There’s radar cruise control as standard while Traffic Jam Assist steers, accelerates and brakes for you up to 60km/h.

Also included are Lane Change Assist, Lane Keeping Assist, auto emergency braking, front and rear parking sensors, cross road assist and ten airbags.

There’s a surround view camera showing two different angles as you park. It deliberately distorts the image, presumably to make parking more accurate, but it perplexed me and even after a week I couldn’t get to grips with it. Normal picture preferred please, Porsche.

Verdict

Versatility – perceived or otherwise – has worked wonders for soft-road SUV sales, and the Taycan Cross Turismo looks to do likewise.

In doing so it really has no competitor. It’s an electric almost-wagon, more practical than its sedan stablemate and with the ability to do a bit of mild off-roading – pretty appealing stuff to the Australian buyer.

All the while it goes like stink and rides superbly, just as a Porsche should.

The Porsche Taycan is the best EV I’ve driven so far, and this Cross Turismo version is my preferred variant.

Being a family of four, its slightly bigger rear passenger space and boot count for plenty, and, to my eyes anyway, style-wise it gains rather than loses in being a quasi-rugged wagon.

Look past the price and it’s probably the finest EV you can buy right now.