The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S promises to be an electric car that’s all things on most terrain for the discerning Singaporean driver – but is it?

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Photos: Luke ‘Perry’ Pereira, Leow Ju-Lense, Derryn Wong

SINGAPORE – The Porsche Taycan is one of the best electric cars for drivers, but can it successfully span the ‘crossover breach’ to become an all-rounder without compromising its roots?

That’s the question with the soft-roady version of the Taycan, the Cross Turismo. To spare you the suspense the answer is a definite ‘yes’ – if we weren’t hard up for the cash and wanted an electric vehicle that looks cross-cool, is exciting to drive, and more than a dash of practicality, the Taycan Cross Turismo is what we would choose. 

Cross purpose : Truly more practical?

We came to grips with Porsche’s large four-door electric sedan in 2020. Back then it was the first performance EV sedan here, and it thoroughly impressed us during our Singapore test drive.

The Taycan Cross Turismo is the shooting brake version and it first popped up for sale in August 2021 in Singapore. We’re fans of the shooting brake / cool wagon aesthetic, so just like the Panamera Sport Turismo and Audi RS 6 Avant, it’ll mark you out as a Person of Culture. 

In other words, it’s what the Panamera Sport Turismo is to the regular Panamera sedan. But the twist is the ‘cross’ bit, i.e. a dash of off-road capability/style. You can see that in the car’s contrast-colour wheel arches. This particular test car has the added Off-road Design Package (S$8,088) which adds the cool-looking bits in the same dark plastic for gravel-chip protection and aero benefits.

All this actually makes the Taycan CT extra special, since even conventional ‘all-road’ cars like the Audi A6 Allroad and Mercedes-Benz E-Class All Terrain never made it here officially. 

The wagon styling adds roughly 10 percent more boot space over the sedan version – you can watch our video to see Ju-Len fit a golf bag transversely into the boot. Said boot is now 446-litres up from 407-litres, which is decent though not huge for a car of this class and the loading aperture definitely isn’t as wide as an SUVs or less styled-wagon. But folding the seats down gets you 1,212-litres, and there is also the 84-litre frunk.

There’s a three seat bench as standard, though like the Panamera Sport Turismo the car’s best off as a 4+1. Again, the CarBuyer team puts the space to the test in our video review – watch us cram three adults in the rear seat Battle Royale (ok maybe not). There’s an air-con vent and dual USB-C ports and a tad more headroom than the sedan thanks to the wagon bodystyle. 

Up front, the driver has the same curved instrument panel with nifty shortcut buttons – you can raise or stiffen the Taycan CT’s suspension instantly, which is very useful for car parks and humpy-sections. On that note, the Taycan CT’s maximum height is 146mm in lift mode, compared to 127mm for the sedan – it’s tall enough that you need Fear No Humps.

The infotainment/control section is the same as the Taycan, with the upper screen handling the former, and a lower screen for the latter including aircon controls. The infotainment has all the features you’d expect, but the lower control screen is fingerprint prone, and fiddly: It’s the sole means of adjusting the cockpit’s AC vents.

Page 2: Does the Taycan Cross Turismo cross the box for good driving, or it is crossed-up?

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