New 2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo is rugged EV estate

The Taycan Cross Turismo is an estate-shaped and off-road-ready take on Porsche’s first electric car, promising heightened versatility over the saloon.

Available to order now ahead of deliveries beginning this summer, the Cross Turismo is essentially a production-ready version of bold Mission E Cross Turismo concept, which was described at its unveiling in 2018 as a “cross utility vehicle”.

Most obvious among the raft of modifications for the new model, which Autocar has already driven in prototype form, is an extended roofline, which gives 47mm of extra head room in the rear seats and a maximum luggage capacity of more than 1200 litres – around the same as the Volkswagen Golf hatchback.

The upright tailgate design can optionally accommodate a bespoke bike rack, too, and Porsche has designed a new roofbox that’s rated for use at speeds of up to 124mph.

In line with its off-road aspirations, the Cross Turismo also wears a protective bodykit with debris-deflecting winglets at each corner and rides 20mm higher than the Taycan saloon, or 30mm in its Gravel Mode.

Designed for use on “gravel tracks of muddy road surfaces,” this bespoke function also alters the settings for the throttle, suspension management, traction control and torque-vectoring systems to provide maximum traction.

Air suspension is equipped as standard across the Cross Turismo range, and it can be configured to automatically raise and lower the car at certain points on repeated journeys to clear obstacles such as speed bumps or steep driveways. The system also automatically lowers the Cross Turismo in two stages at high speeds for optimal aerodynamic efficiency.

Broadly identical technically to its saloon sibling, the exclusively four-wheel-drive Cross Turismo is being offered from launch with a choice of four power outputs.

The top-rung 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus is standard on all Cross Turismo models, giving a WLTP official range of between 241 and 283 miles, depending on the car’s specification, as is Porsche’s pioneering 800V electrical architecture, which enables the battery to be rapid-charged at a rate of up to 350kW, taking it from 0-80% capacity in as little as 22 minutes.

The line-up opens at £79,340 for the Taycan 4 Cross Turismo, which packs the same 375bhp motor as the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Taycan saloon, albeit with a driven front axle. It matches its 5.1sec 0-62mph time but falls 6mph short at the top end with a maximum speed of 137mph.

The mid-rung 4S, priced from £87,820, ups power to 483bhp, shaves a second off the 0-62mph time and boosts the top speed to 149mph.

The 616bhp Turbo and Turbo S head up the range, with prices starting from £116,950 and £139,910 respectively.

The more potent of the two can deploy up to 751bhp in launch mode for a 0-62mph time of 2.9sec – 0.1sec behind the Turbo S saloon. Top speed for these cars is electronically restricted to 155mph.