Just as Tesla continues to bask in the attention generated by the Model Y’s unveiling, Porsche is looking to steal the California-based automaker’s thunder by announcing a very important detail about its own all-electric crossover, the Taycan Cross Turismo. None other than Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume, disclosed in Porsche’s annual sustainability report that the Taycan Cross Turismo will launch at the end of 2020. The announcement refutes earlier rumors indicating that the Taycan Cross Turismo isn’t scheduled to arrive until late 2021. Could this accelerated timetable have anything to do with Tesla’s launch of the Model Y last week? Porsche won’t admit to it, but it does feel like where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
The 2021 Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo Launches in Late 2020
Porsche won’t admit it, but I do think there’s more this announcement than what the German automaker is letting on. I think there’s a race going on between a number of automakers on which one can launch its all-electric crossover first. Tesla and Porsche are in on this race, but they’re not the only ones. BMW has the iX3 that it’s working on. You can be sure that it wants to launch its model first. Jaguar’s I-Pace is already out in the market and Mercedes’ EQC, Audi’s e-Tron, and even the Polestar 2 are following suit. If you’re priced out of the I-Pace, but you want an electric crossover now, the Hyundai Kona Electric can fill that void.
At some point in the near future, there will be enough electric crossovers and electric SUVs in the market. But it’s slim pickings these days until a lot of these models hit production.
As it is, we have yet to see the full-blown production version of the Taycan Cross Turismo. We have seen a handful of spy photos of the test mule in action, and while these photos don’t reveal much, we do know that the production Taycan Cross Turismo will look like a toned down version of the E Cross Turismo Concept that we first saw at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show. At the very least, it will look a lot like the Model Y in so far as it will be a tad taller than a sedan and shorter than an SUV. It is, in every sense of the word, a crossover.
Even if we’re still short on a few important details about the Taycan Cross Turismo, that didn’t stop Porsche from dropping the hammer on when we can expect the model to become available. A late 2020 timetable seems rushed given that even the Taycan sedan isn’t out yet — that’s arriving later this year as a 2020 model. Once the Taycan arrives, the focus turns to the Taycan Cross Turismo, which could end up being the more important of the two electric vehicles considering how popular crossovers are these days. Be that as it may, we’re going to find out exactly what the Taycan Cross Turismo is all about once it arrives a year before we thought it would.
Further Reading
Read our full review on the 2020 Porsche Taycan CUV.
Read our full review on the 2020 Porsche Taycan.
Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo Concept.
Read our full review on the 2015 Porsche Mission E Concept.