When the Taycan debuted as the Mission E concept in 2015, it was followed up by the lifted-up Mission E Sport Turismo concept 3 years later. In 2019, Porsche brought the Mission E to life with their first all-electric vehicle, the Taycan. Now, just over a year later, the Taycan Sport Turismo is set to land here at Porsche Centre Langley late this Summer. Building off the success of the Taycan, the Sport Turismo adds a versatility to Porsche’s EV lineup that can be best described by its name.

Taycan meaning it is a new variant of the same model, sharing a drive train, a chassis, and nomenclature for trim levels.

Cross meaning it incorporates crossover features. The CT gains 20mm in ground clearance, different driving modes for various surfaces, and an optional off-road design package. This package gets you some more forgiving plastic cladding around the wheel arches, side skirts, and an off-road wheel package.

Turismo being Porsche’s name for an estate. The CT has a longer horizontal roofline, with a larger hatch area and some increased rear passenger headroom.

While we haven’t had a chance to drive the new model, you can expect an experience very similar to the regular Taycan. You do sacrifice a small amount of handling performance for a large amount of increased cargo space and multi-terrain usability. This tradeoff has been a contributor to the rise in popularity of “safari” style vehicles. These are regular cars which are lifted and modified in a way that makes them more usable on a variety of road surfaces. Vehicles like the Audi Allroad and Mercedes E-Class All-Terrain Wagon exist under this category, and serve to satisfy market demands from Asia and Europe where road conditions can be rough and parking is often done with two wheels up on the curb.

Taycan CT’s and vehicles like it represent an opposite reaction to the sportification of the SUV. Rather than taking an SUV and compromising it greatly for the sake of tarmac performance, safari style vehicles take an already sporty car and compromise it only slightly to gain the kind of capability most drivers require. We see it as a way to have your cake and eat it too if you require sport and utility. The fact that the Taycan CT is also a high-performing EV is just icing on that proverbial cake.

Written June 2021