Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo review

The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo will not be available in two-wheel drive configuration – the ‘base’ car is the all-wheel drive Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. Based on our experience with the rear-wheel drive Taycan coupé, that's no great loss, though (we concluded that "paying a bit more for the 4S takes the Taycan from deeply impressive to mind-blowing").

The Cross Turismo gets a number of features as standard, including air suspension with the Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) electronic damper control system and the higher performance 93.4kWh battery. As a result, a like-for-like Cross Turismo is only fractionally more expensive than a Taycan coupé. 

The entry-level 4 Cross Turismo also comes with dual-zone climate control, 19in wheels, LED headlights, cruise control, a powered tailgate as standard and a heat pump. If you want keyless entry, privacy glass, a heated steering wheel, heated seats or adaptive cruise control you'll have to pay extra. The 4S doesn’t net you a whole lot more kit (you get red brake calipers, brushed aluminium door sills and some silver exterior detailing) but what you’re really paying for is the jump up in performance from 375bhp to 483bhp.

The Turbo and Turbo S come with a longer list of standard kit but they push up the price by tens of thousands of pounds. That said, depreciation is likely to be very low, which should also help to keep PCP finance deals competitive, relatively speaking. If you're lucky enough to have a Cross Turismo on your company car list, you'll be spending barely anything in benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax. 

As for charging, because the Cross Turismo gets the 93.4kWh battery pack as standard, it can charge at rates of up to 270kW with the Taycan’s 800-volt electrical system (most EVs have a 400-volt system). In ideal conditions, that allows a 10-80% charge in around 20mins (quicker than a Model S hooked up to a Tesla Supercharger).

There are currently only a handful of locations capable of charging the Cross Turismo at up to 270kW but you can use regular public CCS charging points. A 0-100% charge from a 7kW home wallbox takes around 13hrs. Porsche charges extra for a Type 2 cable, which you’ll need. Don’t worry about all the other charging options, though – they're really not necessary.

There's a three-year warranty on the Cross Turismo itself, but the battery is covered separately for eight years, with a guarantee that it won't drop below 70% of its original capacity during that time. 

The list of standard safety kit includes automatic emergency braking (AEB), traffic-sign recognition and lane-keeping assistance. It’s a shame blind-spot monitoring, a standard feature on the Tesla Model S and Model 3, is reserved for the options list, as part of a Lane Change Assist pack.

In terms of crash protection, the standard Porsche Taycan achieved a five-star rating from Euro NCAP, the same as its closest rival, the Model S. However, whiplash protection for adults sitting in the front or back was found to be marginal, which is a little disappointing.

Reliability is much harder to predict – we’ve little to go on because this is Porsche’s first electric car in more than 100 years. However, the brand finished a relatively disappointing 22nd out of 31 manufacturers in the What Car? Reliability Survey – although that was still a better showing than Tesla down in 29th place.