TAYCAN CROSS TURISMO · VOLVO C40 · V8 DEFENDER
The Porsche Taycan has morphed into an obscenely rapid, family friendly estate that’ll do a bit of off-road, too. Hold on kids...
Porsche unveils its Taycan estate, a first look at the new Volvo C40 electric coupe. Plus: are an EV’s emissions worse than an ICE car’s over a lifetime?
In 2020, a third of all Porsches sold in Europe had an electric or hybrid drivetrain. By 2025, it’ll be more like half. The fully electric Taycan is already a big catalyst of change, and now there’s a new one – the Taycan Cross Turismo – an off-road ready estate version of Porsche’s Tesla Model S rival.
In summary, it’s a Taycan that’s a little taller and much roomier. The Cross Turismo sits 20mm higher than the (admittedly really quite low) standard saloon, or 30mm if you’ve specced the optional off-road pack. There’s an additional 36mm of headroom in the rear, which is a welcome boost to a car that was hardly going to oust Porsche’s own Panamera from limo duties. There’s also more space for feet beneath the front seats and a trebling of maximum luggage volume, up past 1,200 litres with the seats flipped.
It’ll have four powertrains at launch in the UK: the Taycan 4 kicks things off at £79,340 with 375bhp, 0–62mph in 5.1 seconds and a 283-mile range. The Taycan 4S costs £87,820 and offers 483bhp, 4.1secs and 281 miles.
Then there are the Turbos, both with 616bhp but differing launch control systems: the stock Taycan Turbo starts at £116,950 and ups peak power to 670bhp (on overboost) from a standstill, for 0–62mph in 3.3secs. Range sticks at 281 miles. The Turbo S is £139,910 and cranks things up to 750bhp on overboost for a 2.9secs sprint, dipping max range to 260 miles in the process.
The Cross Turismo gets a number of things as standard, including air suspension with PASM electronic damper control and the higher performance 93.4kWh battery which is a £4k option on lower-rung Taycan saloons.
As a result, the premium you’ll pay for the Cross Turismo varies depending on spec, but it works out just shy of £1,100 over a like-for-like Taycan four-door. Which strikes us as very good value indeed. All the more reason to indulge in some very frivolous extras, such as Porsche’s eBike cross (£7,500) and eBike Sport (£9,500) in order to fully take advantage of the soft-roading Taycan’s fancy new bicycle carrier, whose design allows the rear tailgate to fully function behind it. The fact you could tow a secondhand Boxster along on a trailer for similar cash is neither here nor there...