An estate version of Porsche’s upcoming Taycan electric car has been spied testing at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany ahead of the standard model’s launch later this year.
Motoring magazine Evo has posted images showing the estate, called the Taycan Sport Turismo, in near-production form and with only a light covering of camouflage.
The EV will sit alongside the Taycan saloon - a key rival to the Tesla Model S - and the Cross Turismo SUV in Porsche’s all-electric range.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
With the covers due to come off the Taycan Sport Turismo within months, here’s everything you need to know about the electrified estate:
Release date
The Taycan Sport Turismo is slated to appear alongside to the regular car at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which runs from 12 to 22 September, before going on sale in 2020.
Pricing
According to Autocar, the standard Taycan will be priced somewhere between the £55,965 Cayenne SUV and the £67,898 Panamera.
Estate models tend to carry a small premium over saloon cars, so expect the Sport Turismo to cost about £5,000 more than the standard model.
Design
Although the design of the car in the spy shots is slightly obscured by its camouflaged bumpers, it’s clear that the Taycan Sport Turismo’s styling won’t stray far from the electric saloon on which it’s based.
The estate’s low nose and angular bumper design are identical to those on the standard Taycan, as are the vents behind the front wheels and large headlights.
However, Evo reports that everything from the B-pillar - the section of bodywork separating the front and rear doors - to the back of the new car has been “given a redesign for more interior space and practicality”.
Eagle-eyed fans may also notice that the test car has a set of four exhausts protruding from the rear bumper. But these are only there to fool onlookers, as exhausts are only needed on combustion-engined vehicles.
Battery and performance
The Taycan Sport Turismo is expected to carry over the electric motor and battery system from the standard model.
As such, the estate should be be powered by a pair of electric motors, one on each axle, along with a battery system capable of delivering around 300 miles of range on a single charge, notes PistonHeads.
The car’s zero-to-62mph time of 3.5 seconds isn’t as fast as the sub-2.5 second time of the Model S, but Porsche has developed the estate with “longevity” - as opposed to outright performance - as a priority, according to the motoring news site.
All the same, the Taycan Sport Turismo should be more than capable of rivalling most of today’s EVs and exotic supercars in the speed stakes.
