Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo review

Cars used to have very clear-cut roles – you'd have a performance car to go fast in and an estate to carry your family (and neither would be electric). The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo shows how dramatically all that has changed.

Porsche describes it as a five-door version of the regular Taycan all-electric four-door coupé, and says the taller, estate car-like body means it offers greater versatility. That's absolutely true: the raised roofline gives the Cross Turismo significantly more head room and boot space than the regular car. The changes don’t stop there, though.

The Cross Turismo sits 20mm higher than the standard Taycan, or 30mm in its Lift mode if you’ve specced the optional off-road pack. Yes, you read that correctly. The off-road pack. Unlike traditional fast estates such as the Audi RS6 and Mercedes-AMG E63, the Cross Turismo is less focused on lap times and more focused on helping you to navigate muddy countryside car parks.

To do that, it not only gets the aforementioned suspension tweaks, but also gets a dedicated Gravel drive mode for use on loose surfaces, and plastic body cladding to protect it against scratches and scrapes. But wait a second. This is a Porsche. So has performance really been compromised in the name of practicality?

Well, in short, no it hasn't – and certainly not when it comes to straight-line pace. The entry-level Taycan 4 Cross Turismo (unlike the regular Porsche Taycan there's no rear-wheel drive option) generates 375bhp and can hit 62mph in 5.1sec. The Turbo S drops that time to 2.9sec and increases the power available to 751bhp (with overboost).

So, with the promise of zero exhaust pipe emissions, supercar performance and some off-road-ability, is the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo the ultimate do-it-all family car, and how does it compare with its key rivals? Over the next few pages of this review, we’ll let you know.

You’re unlikely to find a discounted Taycan for quite some time, but if you are in the market for a new car, we could potentially save you a small fortune on almost any make and model of vehicle if you use the free What Car? New Car Buying pages, where you'll find some very tempting electric car deals.