Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo review

We simply cannot fault the driving position, seats, quality or layout up front. It's beautiful. Ideally you need an extra elbow joint to access things in the centre bin while driving, as that’s too far back, but aside from that bit of nit-picking (and the compact dimensions throughout the cabin) the Cross Turismo’s interior is attractive, well constructed and easy to use, and that seems to be an increasingly rare commodity these days.

That goes for the touchscreens too. The main one embedded in the dash is a joy because of its simplicity – Porsche hasn’t made the mistake of thinking it should have the functionality of a laptop without the keys. The driver’s display is also wide and crisp, but doesn’t overawe you with info.

The images here show a car with some extras. You might have spotted the screen in front of the passenger. That’s a £1,060 option (and you don’t need it).

How’s the driving environment?

The steering wheel is smaller and thinner rimmed than you might have expected, and although you sit low the view out is decent. Not as commanding as an SUV's obviously, because as mentioned the Cross Turismo is a low slung car, no taller than a conventional estate. The rear view is a bit more pinched, too. It helps that the Cross Turismo feels shorter and narrower than it actually is.

We need to talk about practicality.

If you want this car you’ll make it cope. The 446-litre boot is deep, but lipped and narrow when you look at the width of the arches that border it either side, and the tailgate’s slope and load height means it’s not actually that dog friendly. Don’t forget there’s another 81 litres of storage space under the nose that can handle much more than just your charge cables, but if you do trek off with kids, pets and many bags you’re going to need a roof box. And that’s not good for range. Max volume with the seats folded is 1,212 litres.

Here's another tip. You can’t have the Taycan with a towbar: it wasn’t possible with the design and packaging at the back of the car. Tough luck if you want to tow a trailer, but if you’re more concerned about lifestyle, Porsche has a solution. For £380 you can spec special mounting points in the rear chassis rails that allows a bespoke bike carrier (you’ll have to fork out for that too) to be carried behind the car, just like a towbar mounted rack.

There’s 36mm of extra headroom over the Taycan for passengers and that makes a world of difference, doubling the sense of space even though there’s no more legroom. You can choose between 4+1 and five-seat layouts. The former has more shapely outer chairs for £380. Give that option a miss on the ticksheet if you’ve got three kids.