Electric Car Awards 2024: Best electric performance car
With electrified cars now coming in all shapes and sizes – and available to suit every budget – we’ve named the best models in every class. Here we look at the best electric performance car...
Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S
Training as a world-class sprinter is hard enough, but mastering the steeplechase adds a whole other dimension of difficulty. Rather than going hell for leather on a perfectly smooth track, the steeplechase runner’s path is strewn with obstacles they have to leap over.
Okay, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo can’t actually jump, but having a 20mm taller ride height than other Taycans means it feels even more at home on the UK’s lumpy, worn-out roads.
In Sport mode, with its adaptive suspension as taut as a sprinter’s hamstrings, the Cross Turismo tackles uneven Tarmac with incredible fluidity, without fear that its shapely chin will bottom out on undulations taken at speed. For agility and sheer driver appeal, the Cross Turismo outclasses rivals such as the Audi E-tron GT and Kia EV6 GT. The fact that you sit higher than in the regular Porsche Taycan helps at junctions and on B-roads with tall hedgerows, too.
Our favourite 4S version is far from being the most powerful in the range, but with 483bhp on tap (rising to 563bhp for short periods), it still sprints from 0-62mph in a fleeting 4.1sec.
More than that, its estate car shape makes it one of the most usable performance cars. Tall passengers will appreciate the extra rear head room over the regular Taycan, and while its boot can’t hold any more carry-on suitcases (both can take six), the Cross Turismo’s higher roofline and wider load aperture make it a more practical load lugger than its sibling when the rear seatbacks are folded down.
Elsewhere, the interior is as exquisite as in any other Taycan, with top-notch materials and a sense of vault-like construction. It’s a fantastic travelling environment, and the Cross Turismo’s impressive refinement makes journeys even more pleasurable. Being electric, there’s no mechanical vibration, and there’s also surprisingly little noise from the tyres. Wind noise is well suppressed, too.
With an official range of 304 miles, the Cross Turismo 4S is as much a cross-country runner as it is a sprinter, and when its huge battery (with a usable capacity of 83.7kWh) runs out of puff, an astonishing 270kW maximum charging rate means its full stamina can be quickly restored. A 10-80% boost takes just 17 minutes or so, and that rounds off a convincing gold-medal performance.
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