Geneva Motor Show - Porsche unveiled an electric concept car called the Mission E Cross Turismo at this week's Geneva Motor Show, but we're unsure if the vehicle is foreshadowing the brand's nearly road-ready EV platform, a more rugged version of the recently-launched Panamera Sport Turismo, or perhaps a bit of both.
While the new concept looks nearly identical to the Sport Turismo but with a beefed-up suspension and 'crossified' look, its mechanicals are quite similar to the Mission E sedan first shown in Frankfurt three years ago. This means two electric motors driving all four wheels with a total output of 440kW, and a quoted 0-100km/h in less than 3.5 seconds.
As is the recent trend with makers of electric vehicles, Porsche has resisted claiming a maximum battery-powered range, but said that the Cross Turismo can be fast-charged for a range of around 400km in 15 minutes. Theoretically its max range on a fully topped up battery should be well in excess of this.
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Like the Porsche Sport Turismo for sale in dealerships now, the Cross Turismo is a four-door four-seater with a large wagon-like load bay. It also gets a similar rail system for securing items in the boot, and the second seating row flips down to expand cargo capacity, but the centre sections of the backrests in the rear seats also open up to allow through-loading of long objects.
Up front there's a super-wide digital instrument cluster that extends all the way to the passenger's side of the dashboard. For the driver there are three circular binnacles for Porsche Connect, performance, drive, energy and Sport Chrono functions, but an eye-tracking sensor in the rear view mirror will detect which of these a driver is looking at and call up extended menus for each automatically. The same happens on the passenger side, but for multimedia, navigation and climate control functionality.
Porsche has already confirmed that a road-going version of its Mission E electric sedan will be launched sometime next year, but we suspect a higher-riding crossover version of the petrol-powered Panamera Sport Turismo, likely to mimic this design, will be announced before that.