Styling
The big quandary specifically facing the Cross Turismo is 'wouldn't you rather just have a
Cayenne Electric instead?' And, y'know... it's a fair point. But the CT still looks so good, as lifestyle estates are thin on the ground these days. And electric lifestyle estates are even rarer, unless you fancy something from either
Subaru or
Toyota. Anyway, with its jacked-up stance, model-specific alloy wheels and the black-plastic cladding that marks out any self-respecting 'soft-roader', all plastered onto the elegant form of the
Sport Turismo wagon, the CT is a real show-stopper, without ever coming across as gaudy or in-yer-face.
Interior
Modern-day Porsche cabins are a masterclass in material finishing, ergonomic correctness and visual appeal, and six years on from its first appearance, the Taycan's interior has lost none of its star power. Revised graphics in the gigantic 16.8-inch Curved Display instrument cluster are about your only significant alteration in here, but when everything looks and feels magnificent, and can be operated by the driver as if it were second nature to be installed in a Porsche cockpit, then the Cross Turismo's cabin can only be deemed an unqualified success.
Practicality
Passenger room in the second row of any estate-shaped Porsche Taycan is better than in the regular four-door, so the Cross Turismo is also onto a winner here - except for the fact it's genuinely best to consider this 4,974mm-long car a four-seater, not a five. True, our tester had the £370 '4+1' seating configuration equipped, but this is a token gesture towards seating five onboard, while the rear footwell has a pronounced hump in its centre. Better is the boot space, although 446 litres with all seats in use tells you that this is no boxy load-lugger, while 1,212 litres with the rear bench folded down is not much greater than some superminis can proffer up these days. At least the CT has a helpful 81-litre 'froot' under the bonnet.
Performance
Take one look at the stats of the 2026MY Taycan 4S Cross Turismo and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was the range-topping derivative. With almost 600hp and a 3.6-second 0-62mph time, despite a kerb weight beyond 2.35 tonnes, this is one seriously quick car, while its 710Nm of midrange muscle (if you can even have a midrange on an EV which doesn't rev) is also truly delectable.
Yet the 4S is the
entry point to Cross Turismo ownership, despite the fact it's not far off the level of a pre-facelift Turbo (680hp). You see, both the Turbo and the Turbo S of the three-strong CT hierarchy have, to put it bluntly, gone demented, as they deliver 884- and 952hp respectively. And as if that wasn't enough, should a 2.5-second 0-62mph time not be enough for you, then there's a version of the four-door Taycan which has
1,034hp coursing through its veins.
Perhaps the bigger drawback is that the CT's enlarged 97kWh Performance Battery Plus is being sapped at a fair old rate, as we could rarely get the Porsche EV to better 3 miles/kWh. Across 488 miles on test, the CT eventually gave back an average 2.8 miles/kWh, indicating a real-world range in the vicinity of 270 miles. Absolutely not bad for a big, heavy, ultra-rapid EV, but some way shy of the claimed 359 miles WLTP. At least 320kW DC charging means you won't be long at a public top-up point.
Ride & Handling
Porsche GB threw a significant amount of technical gear at the 4S Cross Turismo's underpinnings, so beyond the standard-fit adaptive air suspension with Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) dampers, it also had rear-axle steering (£1,592), Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (£1,157, an electronically controlled 'slipper') and the fancy Porsche Active Ride (£6,476), which has been better blended-in to the overall dynamics of the car than it was when we first tried it on a
Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid.
Thus tooled-up, this 4S Cross Turismo was comprehensively imperious for rolling refinement and ride comfort, ten out of ten, no notes, but for handling it could feel its considerable weight, despite an at-times preternatural agility. Majestic steering is a Porsche hallmark across all its models, yet there were just occasions where all the rear-axle steering, the weight and height of the CT, and the actions of the PTV Plus combined to give the impression of unwanted yaw during corner turn-in. It's nothing drastic and, in the main, the 4S is a gem in the twisties, yet those few moments of doubt did just enough to erode outright driver confidence in the Porsche's handling.
Value
A car that's £99,200 basic and then £129,833 with a load of Porsche's chunky cost-options bolted onto it is not a vehicle that's astounding value. All we'll say in the 4S CT's defence here, then, are three things: one, it feels worth every penny of £130k; two, there's nothing else quite like it on the market; and three, if you can exercise box-ticking restraint, this remains (just) a five-figure new Porsche. Such things are becoming an endangered species in 2026.
Verdict
Accepting that a hefty lifestyle estate which serves as the gateway model to its own particular line-up is never going to be the most kinematically acute machine in a manufacturer's portfolio, even one with an ethos like Porsche's, the 4S Cross Turismo can therefore be judged as a spectacular all-rounder. Epic at cruising speeds, fabulous to sit in, and properly fast when you want it to be - yet long-enough legged that it can easily do long jaunts as an EV family-mover - the Cross Turismo still has an enormous amount of merit in a modern motoring landscape dominated by often-inferior electric SUVs.
