• Tailgate transforms Taycan
• Four-seater GT with a boot at each end
• Surprisingly practical Porsche

How much space is there?

Beyond the SUV-esque details, the Taycan Cross Turismo is a more practical car than the regular Taycan saloon. With its extended roofline, it offers passengers more headroom and replaces the rather small rear boot of the four-door model with a larger hatchback space.

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While not quite as roomy as a Mercedes-Benz CLS or BMW 8 Series, it’s spacious for a Porsche. The frameless doors mean it’s surprisingly easy to get into the back, too. The increased ride height of the Cross Turismo helps with this, but all facelift versions are available with an Easy Access function that can instantly raise their suspension to maximum as soon as you open the door to bring the seats closer to your behind. An unusual trick, but a welcome one.

Boot space and storage

The Taycan Cross Turismo is a sporty estate (also known as a shooting brake) with a full-length tailgate. This means loading the boot is much easier, there’s more headroom for rear passengers, and you can fold the seats for a surprisingly long, useful load area. It’s still a low car, and restricted by the fastback shape, but compared with the Taycan saloon’s glorified glovebox of a boot it’s a revelation.

In addition to the 446-litre boot at the back – expandable to 1,212 litres with the 60:40 split rear seats down – there’s an 84-litre boot at the front. This is ideal for carrying charging cables and other ‘just for the car’ stuff, leaving the main luggage space uncluttered. Porsche provides various nets and hooks around the interior to hold smaller items securely as well, plus a selection of useful cubbies and cupholders.

A four-seater as standard, you can option a five-seater package, which includes a 40:20:40 split rear seat allowing long narrow loads and four adults, or space for a fifth someone who doesn’t mind a rather uncomfortable central perch for a bit.

Is it easy to park?

As a low, large car the Taycan Cross Turismo presents the usual challenges in tighter spaces – not least the length, which is just shy of 5.0 metres. Yet it’s sensibly designed and does come with park assist sensors and a reversing camera; there are options to upgrade this all the way up to smartphone-controlled Remote Park Assist than lets you park and retrieve the car after getting out.

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The mirrors are quite effective and the car’s length not too hard to judge, so even without assistance there are no extra challenges beyond it simply being quite a big car. The charging port is at the front and there’s one on each side, so supermarket charge points are particularly convenient when you want to put shopping in the back.

Safety

• Five-star performance
• But not class-leading
• Standard seats not great

Although the Taycan Cross Turismo has not been tested specifically, most of the car is similar to the regular Porsche Taycan tested by Euro NCAP in 2019. That achieved five stars, albeit with some lower scores than you might expect for a car of this price and quality.

Notably the autonomous emergency braking system result did not count towards the total – because the design of the standard front seats offers insufficient whiplash protection.

It includes a comprehensive cushioning of airbags (eight in total with knee protection for driver and passenger, though rear side airbags are optional) and Isofix points; unlike some German premium cars, you don’t get a front passenger Isofix point, only rear – and there are a great number of active safety systems available.

Porsche charges extra for much of this, however, with adaptive cruise control and other autonomous features you would expect as standard on rivals at this price only optional. The best spec for safety is a few thousand pounds above the entry-level price of the Taycan Cross Turismo.

Worth noting for the 2024 facelift are the new (optional) HD-Matrix headlights. These have 32,000 individual LED pixels, and can cast up to 600m ahead in some circumstances. Cleverer still, they can also paint a ‘light carpet’ onto the road ahead the exact width of the car, making it easier to wind your way through the narrower lanes of roadworks and width restrictors.