FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2022 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo
The Porsche Taycan is a fun and family friendly luxury EV
By Tace Clifford
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The 2022 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is a wagon version of the fully-electric Porsche Taycan sedan that has slightly more SUV-style looks and higher ride height, as well as the choice of four or five seats. This is a ridiculously luxurious, fun and fast car to drive with your family! If you are lucky enough to have this on your list for a family car then let me tell you all about it…
This car certainly turns a lot of heads at school drop off! Firstly because she is a stunning looking machine and secondly because she is actually very large! Although very low, it is the same length and width as the new Kia Carnival give or take a few millimetres! The space has also been used very differently, let's take a look at how…
The interior of the Taycan 4S is beautiful too, it's not over-fussy with textures and fabrics, just sleek classic and simple inside. You feel as though the Taycan is full of technology, with a large digital display screen in front of the driver, media screen and below that one for climate controls etc.
In the Turbo model which I also tested with my family for a week, there was an extra screen in front of the front passenger which showed the sat-nav Google Earth image. I found it took a bit of getting used to, having so many screens wrapping the whole front dash and the kids' eyes were popping out of their heads!! I liked that you could easily turn them off while driving, which left a plain glossy black dash.
What a fantastic car to drive! The Porsche Taycan hugs the road and is heaps of fun on the open roads. Being fully electric it has a lovely silent start and quiet, smooth drive. Even in this Cross Turismo version that sits slightly higher than a Taycan sedan you have to be VERY careful on the roads because it is so low, bumps and undulations in the road will easily ground the front! There are controls to alter the ride height though and it will even remember where you changed it and automatically do so next time… handy for those streets with lots of speed  bumps or that friend whose driveway is steep like a skateboard ramp!
I found visibility VERY limited out of the Taycan when child seats were installed because of the sloped roofline. Being 5m long and 2m wide it fills the road and the scale and visibility make it incredibly difficult to park and manoeuvre in school and supermarket car parks.
The reversing camera image is dreadful. It is like tunnel vision and I would expect for a car of this size and price to have a MUCH better reversing camera.
When it comes to putting little passengers in the back. There are ISOFix points in the two outer rear seats…
…and top tether anchorages on the back of all three, which are easily accessed through the boot.
In reality, only the outer rear seats really work for child seats. The central seat is an optional extra and too humped in shape for a child seat that requires a top tether strap.
I installed the Infasecure Achieve More and Attain More child seats, in the rear outer seats, they fit really well either forward or rear-facing. There wasn't really space for me to sit between the two child seats comfortably. You could probably squeeze an Infasecure Versatile Folding Booster seat in the central seat.
One of my favourite things about all the Infasecure child seats, unlike other brands, is it is very simple to switch which side of the seat the top tether adjuster is on. This means you can put your rear-facing child seat on either side of the car and easily adjust the top tether strap.
Legroom in the Porsche Taycan is good, you can fit a 184cm driver or passenger in front of a rear-facing child seat. It wasn't super spacious though, which you would expect in a car of this size. In the central seat's footwell space is a phone tray which also adds to the discomfort whilst travelling in the central seat.
Storage throughout the Porsche Taycan is practical with cup holders in the front and back that will hold reusable or disposable coffee cups and door bins that will hold large refillable water bottles.
The glove box will hold an iPad and there is a small storage shelf under the centre console too.
The Taycan has a phone tray in the rear central footwell…
…and two USB-C ports under the central seat base for charging.
There are air vents in the back of the centre console which are great for keeping rear passengers at the right temperature. The Turbo version also had rear temperature settings controlled by ANOTHER touchscreen!
There are two USB ports and a 12V socket in the back of the central console box for rear passengers too.
When it comes to storage in the boot the Porsche Taycan will hold thirteen shopping bags when empty.
This is comparable to the Audi S4 which will hold fourteen and the Tesla Model S and Audi e-Tron which both hold fifteen shopping bags.
A twin pram will fit in the boot with three shopping bags, making it pretty practical if you do want to transport your children around in it.
The Porsche Taycan also has a front boot that will hold two shopping bags!
The Porsche Taycan is fully electric so you have all the wonderful benefits of an EV, with a peaceful start and smooth drive, you can drive your baby to sleep without burning through fuel and you can sit quietly with the aircon running while they are asleep without wasting money on fuel or pumping exhaust fumes into the surrounding area.
The Porsche Taycan does around 400km to a full battery charge and it is SUPER fast at charging too. In our testing at a service station fast charger the battery went from almost empty to 80% in just 20mins! Which I think is really realistic amount of time you can stop with kids on road trips and charge it.
The Taycan 4S Cross Turismo I tested has two screens in the centre. The media system is very in-depth, I found it quite easy to navigate and use but you would need longer with it than a week to learn all its functions.
I found I could easily adjust the air conditioning from the central screen.
I particularly liked the top screen where you can drag and drop where you would like the airflow to go for the front and rear air-conditioning.
There is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in the Taycan, which makes it really nice and easy to access your phone while driving too.
The Google maps sat/nav image has a really good image quality and (shown here) in the Turbo model I also tested it can show this in a third screen.
However, the reversing camera image is poor quality for such and large and luxury vehicle. I would expect it to be better. You can turn the parking sensors off easily with a button on the screen.
The Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo is a great five-seater luxury car and surprisingly practical for families. It will fit two child seats nicely in the back with good legroom and the boot space is big enough to fit your single pram or a twin if needed and a softer or two fits well in there too! In terms of drive, it is a fantastic car to experience and I loved it more out on the open roads where there was space and bends to take advantage of compared with driving around town and suburbs where I found its size and lack of visibility a bit of a liability!  The Taycan is a great EV, the nice quiet start and drive and how fast it charges is fantastic.
The Porsche Taycan does not have an ANCAP score but has been through EURONCAP safety crash testing where it scored five stars. It has eight airbags as standard.
BabyDrive Indepth
BabyDrive Indepth - Storage
How big is the boot of the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo?
The Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo has a big boot that will hold thirteen shopping bags. That is one less than the Audi S4 and two less than the Audi e-Tron and Tesla Model S which both hold fifteen shopping bags.
The twin stroller fits in the boot of the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo with three shopping bags.
A tandem pram fits in the boot with five shopping bags beside it.
The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Bub’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.
Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey.
I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs. (Although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually mesurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.
The single pram fits in the boot of the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo with five shopping bags beside it.
The compact stroller fits with eight shopping bags beside it.
There is a good storage dip behind the wheel arches and some netted storage pockets and bands good for securing things like a soccer ball on the sides of the boot so they don't slide around the boot.
Underneath the boot floor is a storage area.
There is also a small front boot that will hold two shopping bags.
How good is storage inside the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo?
Storage throughout the interior of the Porsche Taycan is compact but practical. There are two cup holders in the central console that will hold a re-usable or disposable coffee cup.
Behind them is a small central console storage box that is felt-lined so nothing you put in there will rattle around.
The glove box is small but will hold an iPad, and underneath the central console is a small storage shelf good for your phone.
The front door bins of the Porsche Taycan are large enough to hold a refillable water bottle.
In the back, the doors of the Porsche Taycan will only hold a small water bottle.
There is a phone tray and shelf in the back of the central console…
…and USB-C sockets underneath the central seat base to allow rear passengers to charge devices while travelling along.
There is a fold-down armrest in the central seat back with two cup holders that will hold reusable coffee cups and water bottles.
BabyDrive Indepth - Noise
How noisy is the Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo?
The Porsche Taycan 4S is fully electric so it starts silently which is fantastic for a BabyDrive and it is also quiet and smooth to drive too.
The charging cables are stored in a bag in the boot.
The Porsche Taycan does around 400km to a full battery charge and is one of the faster charging electric cars on the Australian market.
The driver display also clearly tells you your distance to empty, which is another great BabyDrive feature.
We found on the latest type of fast charger the Porsche Taycan charged from almost empty to 80% battery in twenty minutes which is really manageable for service station stops on a road trip, with or without kids onboard!
The cruise controls are on a stalk behind the steering wheel. I found them quite easy to use once I was used to their position and the cruise control was incredibly accurate at high speeds on motorways as well as at slower speeds on undulating roads.
The media system in the Porsche Taycan is split across three screens in the 4S model I am testing.
In the Turbo model I also tested there was a fourth screen in front of the front passenger, which showed the map and allowed them to control what you're listening to etc. The image quality of this screen is very good but I found this was all just a little too much screen time for me and drove with it turned off!
The media system is in-depth and I only really touched the tip of the iceberg in a week of driving the Taycan. I found it quite easy to navigate them to find the everyday things I needed though. Both the two central screens contain the built-in sat-nav, vehicle and settings, phone and media.
Air-con controls for the front and rear are all touchscreen operated too, where you can drag and drop on the top screen to direct the airflow exactly where you like it. One of my favourite things about the Taycan is when you get in the air-conditioning automatically comes on while you are still getting everyone strapped in which is fabulous in the Australian climate.
The Taycan has CarPlay and Android Auto too, which is great for easily connecting my phone to access apps etc.
The reversing camera image quality is disappointing in the Porsche Taycan. The Porsche Taycan is a really large, low car with tricky visibility, so I found I really needed to rely on the camera and the image quality was not clear enough. (It actually looks much better in this image the in real life!) You can turn the parking sensors off easily on the top right of this screen.
The indicators are not too loud in the Porsche Taycan and didn’t disturb my sleeping children.
Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!!
That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example.
If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest?
It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps?
A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place.
Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam, parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!!
I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.
The windows of the Porsche Taycan are nice and quiet to open and close. I could sit with the aircon running and not worry about using fuel or pumping fumes into the surrounding area because it's an EV.
Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!!
So this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)
You can lock the windows and doors separately on the driver's door.
BabyDrive Indepth - Car Seats
How many child seats fit in the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo?
There are top tether anchorages in the back of all three of the Taycan's rear seats, only the outer two are labelled as top tether anchorages. They are within plastic guides which makes them nice and easy to connect to.
There are ISOFix points in both the outer rear seats, they are within plastic guides and easy to connect to.
Two Infasecure child seats fit really nicely in the back of the Porsche Taycan in each of the outer seats. I fitted the Infasecure Aspire More and Attain More child seats. To learn more about these seats follow the link here.
The rear seats of the Taycan are spacious and very sculpted too…
…so I found I couldn't really fit between two child seats.
Legroom is good in the Taycan and with the Infasecure Attain More child seat installed rear-facing, a 184cm driver could fit in front.
Surprisingly, I found posting Bub into their rear-facing child seat to be good from outside of the Porsche Taycan. The doorway is low so I thought there would be bumped heads and all kinds of sore backs but it was fine. The door openings are quite shaped so you can slot your child easily into their seat. The ceiling is high enough inside that posting Bub into their seat from inside is easy too. There are handles above both the rear doors to hang a child's toy from too.
Australia being a country of weather extremes; blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!
There is plenty of room to feed Bub in the back if you only have one child seat installed, the interior is very spacious.
BabyDrive Indepth - Drive & Comfort
How comfortable is the Porsche Taycan 4S? And How good is the Porsche Taycan 4S to drive?
The front seats of the Porsche Taycan are very simple and comfortable.
The headrests are adjustable which means you can wear a ponytail while driving! HOORAY!
I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!
The seats are electronically adjusted, with controls on the side of the seat base.
The black leather seats throughout the Taycan are very simple and comfortable and probably the least fussy and the easiest to keep clean of most cars I have tested!
For a mum travelling in the back with Bub, the seats are very comfortable if you are in an outer seat, the rear central seatback is a bit firm where you have the fold-down armrest and storage.
For the first year of my babies lives when we would go out as a family, if I wasn’t driving, I would travel in the back with them so it’s important to check the back seat comfort as you may be spending a lot of time in them! They were never something I gave any thought to before but I definitely notice a good or bad back seat now!
There is also storage in the central footwell you have to straddle.
The steering wheel is fully adjustable in/out and up/down as well in the Taycan.
There are four air vents in the front of the Porsche Taycan 4S, two in the centre of the dashboard under the media screen and one at either end.
There are vents in the back of the central console box for rear passengers.
You can control both the front and rear aircon through the media screens and can drag and drop the airflow on the top media screen.
Visibility in the Porsche Taycan 4S is really tricky. It is a very large vehicle with large ‘hips' that are hard to see past! The sloping shape of the back of the vehicle and the poor image quality on the reversing camera don't give the driver very good visibility at all. Also, when you have two child seats installed, visibility is further impaired out of the back.
One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Bub has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. Usually I dread parking new cars as they take longer in our tight apartment block carpark, the Porsche Taycan 4S was a tricky to park using the cameras.
In testing, it scored 83% for child occupancy protection and 85% for adult occupancy protection.
In the child occupancy crash testing, EURONCAP wrote:
In the frontal offset test, protection of all critical body areas was good for both dummies except the neck of the 6 year dummy, protection of which was rated as marginal on the basis of tensile forces measured in the dummy. In the side barrier test, protection of all critical body areas was good and the Taycan scored maximum points in this part of the assessment. The front passenger airbag can be disabled to allow a rearward-facing child restraint to be used in that seating position. Clear information is provided to the driver regarding the status of the airbag and the system was rewarded. One universal child restraint could not be positioned stably in the rear centre seat. Otherwise, all of the restraint types for which the Taycan is designed could be properly installed and accommodated in the car.
Eight airbags come as standard in the Porsche Taycan 4S; there are dual frontal and knee airbags for driver and front passenger and front side airbags and side head curtain airbags for the front and both rear rows side passengers.
Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Bub’s asleep!
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About Tace Clifford
Tace Clifford founded BabyDrive in 2017 after discovering a huge information gap in mainstream car reviews that left new parents and expanding families in the dark when it came to one of the biggest purchasing decisions of their lives.
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