- It’s a (silent) rocket ship
- It’s more efficient
- There’s more standard stuff
- More room front and rear
- Jacked up
- Off-road design package
- Gravel mode
- Adventure ready
- It has 959 Paris-Dakar vibes
- Odd but brilliant
It’s a rocket ship on any surface.
For Porsche, the Taycan is the beginning of a new chapter. Their first electric car didn’t just have to be good at being an electric car, it also had to be a proper sports sedan, one that would leave no doubt that it was deserving of the badge on its hood.
With an 800V electrical system, a Taycan can do repeated acceleration runs without needing to pause in between, warm up its batteries, or go through a lengthy pre-flight checklist.
The sedan was just the start. There’s also the newly revealed Taycan Sport Turismo, but the coolest one has to be the Cross Turismo that went on sale earlier this year. Both are wagons, but the Cross Turismo sports a lift and isn’t afraid of a little dirt.
The following are 10 things that you should know about the Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo, a lifted, ruggedized, electric wagon, and probably the weirdest but also coolest Porsche you can buy today.
It’s a (silent) rocket ship
With dual permanent synchronous electric motors, the Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo makes up to 750 hp when you use launch control. Come to a complete stop, hold the brakes, and floor the e-pedal. Wait a second for launch control to activate, let go of the brake pedal, and brace yourself. You’ll shred every molecule of air in front of you. A hundred kilometres per hour will come up in a conservatively rated 2.9 seconds and you’ll see 200 whiz by in under 10. If you have the artificial noisemaker on, it sounds like travelling in a warp bubble. From outside, you hear nothing but tires. Yes, the future is here.
It’s more efficient
The wagon doesn’t just look better to my eyes, its shape is also better at cheating the wind. Natural resources Canada rates the Turbo S Cross Turismo at 3.2 Le combined versus 3.4 for the Turbo S sedan.
There’s more standard stuff
Every Taycan Cross Turismo gets the 93.4 kWh (83.7 kWh usable) Performance Battery Plus.
All Cross Turismos are also dual motor (one on each axle), which means they are all-wheel drive. Air suspension is also included along with Porsche active suspension management (PASM), PCM infotainment, and a gorgeous panoramic glass roof.
More room front and rear
Thanks to the higher roofline of the Cross Turismo there’s more headroom in the front and up to 92 mm more for rear-seat passengers.
Under the hatch, you can shove up to 1171 litres of helmets or tires or whatever else people think Porsche drivers carry around. And like other Taycans, the front trunk holds 84 litres, enough for a carry-on or overnight bag.
Jacked up
The “Cross” in Cross Turismo might confuse some into thinking that this is some sort of crossover Taycan. It isn’t. It’s a wagon with extra ground clearance not unlike an Audi Allroad, Volvo Cross Country, or Subaru Outback.
The Cross Turismo rides 20mm higher than a Taycan sedan and gets an additional 10mm of ground clearance with the optional off-road package.
Off-road design package
Note the word “design” in the off-road package, which gives the impression that this car was never designed to venture too far off the beaten path. Nevertheless, with 10mm of additional ground clearance, it makes short work of Toronto’s war-torn roads. Carlaw Avenue, King Street West, or any side street can bring it. None are a match for this lifted Taycan’s suspension.
The package also includes glossy black cladding around the wheel wells, and aero pieces on the front and rear bumpers, and rocker panels. They look cool and Porsche says they help deflect rocks away from the body. Bonus.
Gravel mode
Yes, you read that correctly. Gravel mode. And it’s for exactly what you think it’s for. Porsche is practically encouraging you take this very expensive automobile and let loose on gravel, or dirt, or mud, or whatever. As long as you don’t expect to climb boulders you should be fine. Since it’s fully electric, it will also do all of this completely silently.
When you activate Gravel mode the car rises by 10 mm, and remaps the suspension firmness, traction control, stability control, and torque management to suit rough terrain.
On regular tarmac, it will still corner like a Porsche, with laser-precise steering, negligible body roll, and all the point and squirt goodness of the 911.
Adventure ready
After you’ve ventured far down that gravel road and can’t continue any further by car, you’ll be happy to know that Porsche can equip your Cross Turismo with a cool bike carrier good for three bikes, so you can keep going. There’s even a custom roof transport system if the space under the hatch and frunk isn’t enough.
It has 959 Paris-Dakar vibes
Off-roaders are trending in recent times, much more so after the pandemic hit, so this ruggedized Taycan shouldn’t surprise anyone. Porsche also knows a thing or two about going very fast when the pavement ends.
Look no further than the 959 Paris-Dakar super car turned rally car turned desert racer. You’d never think a 959 would work under the extreme conditions of the Sahara desert but it did. In 1986 three 959s entered and they finished first, second, and sixth.
Odd but brilliant
While a Taycan Cross Turismo isn’t designed to challenge a Merecedes G-Wagon it can move just as quickly on the highway as it can on a dirt road. This odd-ball lifted electric station wagon is also impossibly cool and five years ago I wouldn’t have ever imagined something like this existing. Some might think the automobile died with the ICE engine, but with cars like this already here, the future appears pretty bright to me.
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Keyword: 10 things you should know about the 2021 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo