2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo First Test: Fast Everything

Motor Trend

03-07-2025

Pros True head-snapping acceleration
Incredibly quick charging times
Wagons, especially super sport wagons, rule Cons Almost overkill for the street
User interface will annoy some folks
If you must ask about the price ...
We've had a fair bit of 2025 Porsche Taycan EV seat time at the test track lately, including our First Test of the 2025 Taycan 4S seven months ago, which established that car as the quickest-charging EV we had ever tested (5–80 percent charge in 18 minutes on a DC fast charger). Granted, charge time—while important when we're talking about electric cars—isn't remotely exciting, but our even more recent combined test of the Taycan Turbo GT and Taycan Turbo GT Weissach took care of any 'boring' factor: The Weissach edition accelerated to 60 mph in a MotorTrend -record-setting 1.89 seconds and laughed its way to the quarter-mile mark in 9.2 seconds at 150.1 mph. So we wondered what the 2025 Taycan Turbo S—the model sitting just below the Turbo GT in Porsche's Taycan hierarchy—can do. To make it a bit more compelling for nerds like us, we got our hands on a 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo wagon version to run the numbers on.
The 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo impresses with a 0-60 mph time of 2.2 seconds and a quarter-mile in 9.8 seconds. It offers 938 hp, a rapid charge time of 17 minutes (5-80%), and costs $253,465 as tested. It's fast but not as quick as the pricier Taycan Turbo GT Weissach.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next And the Numbers Are?
Undoubtedly big, beginning with our test Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo's $213,695 base price, let alone its as-tested sticker of $253,465. We're not even going to pretend this makes much, if any, logical sense for a lot of people, even the super-performance station wagon fanatics who get off on smoking just about every other car they're likely to encounter on the street on a given day, and doing so while loaded up with people and cargo. The 2025 BMW M5 Touring, for example, isn't quite as thermonuclear in terms of speed, but it's mega-quick and mega-fast in its own right, with a starting price of a mere $125,275, which looks like nothing compared to this Porsche's Monroney label. And before you ask, the as-tested price of the M5 Touring we took to the test track two months ago is $140,775, still a world away from the Porsche's. No, Mr. Accountant, We Meant the Performance Numbers
Right, we just needed to get the price elephant out of the room first for the folks who need to ask. And if you need to ask or care what the answer is, well, we and our under-mattress savings account feel your pain. Regardless, this isn't a Buyer's Guide review, it's a First Test, so performance results are what we really care about in this context.
The 2025 Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo is undoubtedly one of the most impressive expressions of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster concept, with Porsche's front and rear motor setup and the larger battery pack that's optional on some lesser Taycan models. With 764 horsepower (938 hp when using launch control) and 818 lb-ft of torque, put to the ground via all four 21-inch Pirelli P Zero tires, we recorded a best 0–60-mph time of 2.2 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 9.8 seconds at 143.5 mph. That's 0.31 second slower to 60 and 0.6 second/6.6 mph slower than the untouchable Taycan Turbo GT Weissach, which carries a starting price that's $18,300 more expensive.
Compared to the Taycan 4S, which starts at $120,495, the Turbo S is a full second quicker to 60 and 1.6 seconds quicker in the quarter mile, with a speed advantage of 21.7 mph. If you know anything about drag racing, you know those deltas represent an eternity, and it all falls in line with Porsche's typical price/performance menu across its entire model range: spend tens of thousands more, get significantly better performance.
In our case here, we achieved the best accelerative performance by selecting the Sport+ drive mode and disabling traction and stability control, with the battery showing 99 percent state of charge. We warmed up the tires first through a gentle slalom then stood on the brake and accelerator pedals at the same time to unlock launch control and access the powertrain's full output capability. You hear the AWD scratching a bit for traction as the launch sensation truly snaps your head rearward, violently so if you are unprepared for what is about to occur, but the Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo remains ruler-straight throughout the run, never pulling the slightest way to one side or the other.
It's simultaneously drama-free yet utterly thrilling, and it will make unsuspecting passengers either laugh out loud, scream with fear, or shout toward you with genuine anger for subjecting them to it in the first place, or all three in quick succession, though not necessarily in that order (based on our experiences with some of our significant others, for starters). Braking and Handling
The Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo stopped from 60 mph in 105 feet, nothing exceptional at the sharp end of our testing archive but certainly quite good for a vehicle that weighs 5,282 pounds. For quick context, the M5 Touring stopped in the same distance despite weighing 174 pounds more. That says more about the BMW's braking prowess than it does the Porsche's.
On our figure-eight handling course, the brake pedal's relatively long travel and the brakes' overall performance didn't, in the words of one of our test drivers, 'have the stopping power you normally expect from a fast Porsche, and we had to brake way early.' At times, the same sensation took hold when driving with spirit on public roads, leading us to be a bit more cautious than we need to be in most Porsches in terms of our approach to aggressive cornering and how much faith we had in scrubbing off speed prior to turning into those corners.
As for the car's handling balance, there's loads of grip on the course's skidpad portion (0.98 g average), and the phenomenal power and torque warp the Taycan Turbo S down our short straights with phenomenal speed. It's easy to get into grinding understeer on corner entry but also easy to rotate the tail somewhat on the power for the exits.
This balance-changing tendency left us feeling like we could better our 23.2-second figure-eight time (at 0.93 g average) by at least a tenth or two, if only we could drive a perfect lap without leaving something to be desired from our braking points and ability to get the Taycan turned as quickly and efficiently as possible. As far as how this hyperwagon's overall grip performance compares to the Turbo GT Weissach, the latter's best figure-eight lap measured 21.9 seconds at an average g of 1.03 g, but it's also lighter by a big 371 pounds and rides on stickier Pirelli tires.
A non-Weissach Turbo GT posted a time of 22.0 seconds at 1.01 g (average), also while weighing less (172 pounds) and benefiting from grippier rubber. Of course, those two cars we tested previously are sedans and lack the Cross Turismo's extra daily practicality. Again, you get the performance you pay for in Porsche land. How much of that performance you can reasonably use in a car like this on public streets is always open to debate, but we aren't going to be the ones to encourage you to throw your driver's license away in pursuit of it.
No, we're not talking about the price again. Not to end on a boring (yet hugely relevant) note, but recall at the beginning of this report when we referenced the Taycan 4S as several months back having claimed the quickest-charging EV crown? This Turbo S is the new record coholder. It charged from 5 to 80 percent on a DC fast charger in 17 minutes, besting the Taycan 4S by one minute and tying the non-Weissach Taycan Turbo GT that had subsequently taken sole possession of our top spot. The upshot for drivers, if it wasn't clear, is that along with all its mostly overjuiced performance, the 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo S Cross Turismo keeps the time between those LOL speed blasts to a literal electric-car minimum.