German luxury carmaker Porsche has unveiled a new body style for its Taycan electric sports car family – and it has a particularly Australian bent to it.
The Taycan Sport Cross Turismo, which the sports carmaker says takes the best of its Taycan sports car and its touring Cross Turismo variant, will feature an optional extra in the form of electric glare protection.
Because, if you are going to spend upwards of $150,000 on a car, you should at least get to choose how much sun you let in the panoramic glass roof (in this humble writer’s opinion.)
Pricing for the Sport Turismo has not yet been revealed by Porsche, but the company said in a release that the new body variant will be available (in overseas markets at least) by the European spring.
The carmaker hopes that it will offer cashed-up drivers a middle road between the sporty Taycan and its wagon-like stablemate Cross Turismo.
“The introduction of the Sport Turismo as the third body variant adds an athletic and practical all-rounder to our electric sports car model range,” said Kevin Giek, VP for the Taycan model line in a statement.
“The balance and variety among the five Sport Turismo models is something that I find particularly appealing: the range features everything from an incredibly agile rear-wheel-drive car to the extremely powerful Turbo S.”
The Sports Turismo will be available in all five Taycan drivetrain variants: the entry-level Sport, the 4S Sport, the GTS Sport, the Turbo Sport and the Turbo S Sport.
In its base format, the Sport Turismo offers 388-419km driving range (WLTP) and up to 300kW power from a single rear motor, or 350kW with the optional Performance Battery. The Performance Battery Plus (PBP) option boosts the driving range to 417-492km (keeping in mind this is also WLTP and actual added range will be less than that.)
The all-wheel-drive 4S Sport Turismo offers 424-490km driving range (WLTP) and 390kW power which can be boosted to 420kW with the Performance Battery option, and is also available with a PBP option that boosts range to between 417-491km WLTP.
All other variants come standard with a larger battery and more powerful all-wheel-drive options. The GTS Sport Turismo gets 424-490km driving range (WLTP) and offers 440kW max power, while the Turbo Sport Turismo will get you 424-491km driving range (WLTP) and offers 500kW power, and the Turbo S Sport Turismo offers a whacking 560kW power and up to 430-491km range (WLTP).
Top-of-the-line acceleration is achievable in the Turbo S Sport Turismo: from a standing start to 100km/hr in 2.8 seconds. Charging from 5% to 80% can be achieved in 22.5 minutes, and in just five minutes all variants can add 100km range, says Porsche.
One of the advantages of the Sport Turismo over the standard Taycan is of course head room. Porsche says it has added an additional 45mm extra height for passengers in the back, with an extra 9mm for the driver and front passenger.
A larger tailgate also means easier access for luggage, with 801mm length (compared to the standard Taycan’s 434mm) and 543mm height (up from 330mm).
How much room there actually is in the cargo space depends on optional extras: the Sound Package Plus will leave 446 litres of space, while the BOSE Surround System leaves 405 litres. With the back seats down there is 1,212 litres or 1,1171 litres respectively.
The Sport Turismo variants will naturally get Porsche’s latest comms system update, which in 2022 adds Android Auto to its Apple CarPlay which to suit a wider range of smartphone users.
But back to the Sunshine Control – how does it work? Porsche says there will be nine sections on the glass roof that can be changed to transparent or opaque. At the touch of a button (so to speak), separate sections can be changed from “Clear” to “Matt”, or somewhere in between (“Semi” or “Bold”, although to be honest we are not exactly sure what the latter means).
Porsche says the Charging Planner has also been improved, and with the optional Parking Assist drivers can manoeuvre into tighter spaces including parallel parking and garages with ease.
There are also some presets that change the sections in wide or narrow segments, as well as a dynamic roller feature that can be implemented by tracing a finger over an image of the roof sections in the car’s interface.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.