Pooch-preferred Porsche revealed

Not quite the most practical choice for that Saturday morning run to Bunnings, but still the Taycan more suited to slightly adventurous lifestylers.

IN Porsche-speak, ‘it’s a cross utility vehicle’ – in the language of the street, it’s a four-wheel-drive soft-roading version of the make’s fully electric car with body cladding.

The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo finally fully revealed overnight (the video’s here to see) could also be called a schmantzy lifted station wagon, given it also delivered to same design definition that dictates the look of your everyday family hauler.

It’s not quite a full-blown alternate to the large Cayenne sports utility that saved the brand’s bacon back in the day, but will probably become attractive to those among that car’s supporter base who are savvy enough to recognise that this is an excellent time to abandon that hugely proliferate, big drinking dinosaur for something much more on trend. 

Basically, if you’re looking for a Porsche that offers some level of practicality, is better-shaped for carting pooches, has some degree of off-seal ability (that’s the ‘Cross’ part) but will also assuage environmental sensitivities, then here it is.

 Well, not quite ‘here’ as in ‘here in New Zealand.’ The make’s New Zealand distributor expects arrival in the fourth quarter, with three derivatives represented. Though full pricing detail has yet to be shared, the car will start at $194,900, marketing manager Stefanie McCallum said today.

The cheapest Taycan here at the moment is the entry rear-drive, which costs $173,900 but has no direct equivalent in the Cross Touring line (and those models are all AWD), and the most expensive, the Turbo S, is a $366,900 hit.

Porsche has developed the Cross Turismo in Taycan 4, 4S, Turbo and Turbo S variants. McCallum indicated today that the 4 Cross, 4S Cross and Turbo Cross are incoming.

All versions are fitted with the make’s 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus.

The car is based on the same J1 platform as the sedan, but bolstering its off-road credentials and all-round versatility, the Cross Turismo is only available with four-wheel drive.

They also achieve Porsche Active Suspension Management with three-chamber adaptive air suspension. With an optional Off-Road Package, the car’s ride height can be raised by a further 10mm for a total of 30mm of extra ground clearance compared with the Taycan sedan.

There’s also a Gravel driving mode for Porsche’s latest EV, which alters the chassis, stability control and throttle calibration for use on loose surfaces, boosting ability off-road.

Off-road design elements include new wheel arch trims, different lower aprons at the front and rear, and side sills.

The higher roofline delivers 47mm more headroom in the back than a regular Taycan offers. The big hatchback reveals up to 446 litres of boot space with the seats up, and a maximum of 1212 litres with them folded down.

The design draws heavily from the Mission E Cross Turismo Concept of 2018 with the design brief being to “offer a little bit more space, a little more flexibility and versatility” than a regular Taycan, according to model line chief Stefan Weckbach. He reckons it is a “a car that is perfect for both an urban environment and the countryside.”

Fair dues to Porsche. While a whole heap more time was spent at the Nurburgring and Hockenheim racetracks as well as the Nardo test track, it was also thrown into some seriously testing off-seal conditions.

Which means, in respect to off-road aptitude? “The Cross Turismo has to be capable of high performance on the race track and must also be able to handle scree, mud and gravel,” Weckbach said.

“The Cross Turismo is not a hardcore off-road vehicle, but specialises in unpaved and dirt roads. It’s like a type of Swiss army knife on up to 21-inch wheels.”

From the front it has the same quad light signature, thin wide lower grille and narrow front fascia as a road-bound Taycan but clearly stands taller. In silhouette, the design path heads in a different dsirection; theroofline and silhouette are more strongly reminiscent of the Panamera Sport Turismo, albeit with chunkier rear haunches.

The Taycan 4 Cross Turismo offers around 280kW, with overboost of 350kW during launch control starts for a 0-100kmh time of 5.1 seconds. Official range stands at 455km, according to Porsche.

Going to the Taycan 4S Cross Turismo sees power climb to 360kW, with up to 420kW available on overboost to shave one full second from the base model’s 0-100kmh time.

The Taycan Turbo Cross Turismo’s performance takes another significant leap on, with up to 500kW on overboost for a 0-100kmh time of 3.3 seconds and up to 482km of range possible. Most of the time Turbo produces 460kW.

The top-spec Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo boasts 560kW with overboost and launch control engaged. It means a 0-100kmh sprint time of just 2.9 seconds; it produces the same level of power as the standard Turbo otherwise, with an official range claim of up to 420km.

NZ quick to plug into rear-drive Taycan

New model will launch in March; $30k cheaper than current entry variant

ACCEPTING a Porsche Taycan in a rear-drive format has potential to bring a $30,000 saving on the previous entry edition.

The drivetrain layout, which debuted last June but was then restricted to cars sold in China, has been touted internationally as a pathway to presenting the car in a more cost-effective format.

That strategy expresses coherently here, where the drivetrain represents in a new entry configuration, simply called Taycan.

In kicking in at $173,900, this model presents a $30,000 saving over the least costly edition at the moment, the 4S that released last June.

Other versions of Taycan sold in NZ are the Turbo and Turbo S for $289,900 and $366,900. These remain purely with all-wheel-drive.

The new derivative is set to arrive in March, a timeframe that suggest NZ could stand as just the second right-hand-drive market after the United Kingdom.  

Delivery to Australia has yet to be confirmed, but media there are suggesting it might not occur until year-end, with Porsche there concentrating on settling in the all-wheel-drive variants that have just gone on sale there. 

The rear-drive configuration is as per the China market models. The car features a single electric motor on the rear axle, and offering a choice of two lithium-ion batteries: the 79.2kWh 'base' Performance Battery, and the 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus. 

Power is rated at 240kW with the smaller battery, with an onboard overboost mode activated through Launch Control upping the output to 300kW – on par with the quoted Chinese figure.

With the larger 93.4kWh pack, outputs increase to 280kW without overboost and to 350kW with it.

Porsche claims range figures on Europe's WLTP test cycle of 431km and 484km for the 79.2kWh and 93.4kWh packs respectively – the latter figure the highest range offered by any Taycan model to date.

The 800-volt electrical architecture offered by higher grade models carries over to the new entry model, with maximum DC fast-charging rates pegged at 225kW and 270kW for the small and large batteries respectively. 

Regardless of battery choice, the rear-drive knocks off 0-100kmh in in 5.4 seconds, towards a top speed of 230kmh. The two-speed rear-axle transmission fitted to all-paw Taycans is standard on the new model.

Core elements of the Taycan cockpit design remain unaltered in the not-so-pauper entry car, including a large curved digital instrument cluster and a central 10.9-inch infotainment touchscreen. Eight-way power-adjustable front 'comfort' seats trimmed in part-leather are standard.

The rear-wheel-drive variant, in pre-production guise, was the model selected to break the record for the world's longest continuous electric vehicle drift, with 210 laps around a 200-metre skidpad – so, 42.1km clocked - recorded in late November, 2020. It was only stopped by an exhausted battery.

Special K entering the EV-sphere?

Kia building a Porsche Taycan competitor? Imagine.

SHOCK news for anyone imagining Kia’s electric vehicle aspiration settles where it presently plugs, with the compact Niro.

 Latest from the Hyundai sub-brand is that while it still stick true to running the battery assault primarily with crossovers, the future fare will be much more adventurous – in shape and technology.

 Particularly exciting is talk about a product coming out next year; a high-riding luxury crossover with a sedan-esque shell that it is specifically targeting high-performance electric cars.

 While yet unseen in production form – indeed, it doesn’t even have a name at present (the in-house designation is simply ‘Kia CV’) – the shape of the newcomer model mightn’t seem wholly unknown, as the brand has let slip that it will draw strongly off the concept seen here.

This is the Imagine, a styling study that made quite an impression on its global unveiling at the 2019 Geneva motor show.

The car that will emerge is described as Kia’s first dedicated electric vehicle – to draw distinction from Niro and Hyundai’s Kona EV being very close in terms of engineering make-up, no matter that Kia uses a different battery to enable range superiority.

Even so, it’s not a 100 percent Kia in that it is going to base off Hyundai’s E-GMP platform which will underpin the parent’s own electric SUV, labelled the ‘45’. 

Indeed. being scalable, the new platform will be the launchpad for a whole host of electric Hyundai and Kia models. The latter said last week it is planning to have 11 EVs on sale in the next five years. Hyundai has indicated similar aspiration, though it has yet to cite an exact target number. 

What’s also hugely interesting about the Imagine’s showroom equivalent is that it will be set up to use an ultra-fast 800-volt battery system that could bring 15 minute EV pit stops to the masses.

To date, the only production EV with that capability is the Porsche Taycan, which with a peak charge of 270 kiloWatts can achieve a charge of five percent to 80 percent in about 20 minutes. That’s with the right kind of charging network in place, of course; you’re talking about 300kW charging stations.

Kia is talking about its car will have a range of just over 300kms, which is hardly going to impress Tesla-rati and in fact isn’t a lot more than a Niro. But, then, it could be sitting in the replenishment phase for much less time. And it will also be ludicrously quick, with 0-100kmh in under three seconds vowed for the hottest version. That’s comparable to the Taycan and the fastest Teslas and, obviously, a lot faster than any other car Kia has ever created.

There’s one small disappointment about the project in that the identity behind the concept is no longer with the company. Luc Donkerwolke has just resigned as chief design officer of Hyundai Group, citing personal reasons.

When Imagine was unveiled, the 54-year-old was then Kia’s head designer and, when questioned a year ago about the feasibility of Imagine hitting the street, he was quite confident it could do so with minimal change.

“I don’t see anything that’s really not feasible. There are some cost-related issues that have to be validated, but it hasn’t been done by designers who don’t understand how to build a car for production.”

Donkerwolke was lured to South Korea in 2016, having been with Volkswagen Group for 22 years. He was lured to Seoul with the promise of a free reign to set the design pathways for Hyundai and Genesis; he achieved this with radical effect, not least after achieving in 2018 the role he now leaves, a job that pulled Kia into his portfolio, succeeding Peter Schreyer.