Porsche Taycan Cargo Test: How Big Is the Trunk (and Frunk)?

• The Porsche Taycan has a 14.3-cubic-foot trunk and a 3.0-cubic-foot frunk.
• The Taycan Cross Turismo wagon has a 15.8-cubic-foot trunk.
• Our real-world test of the standard Taycan puts those numbers into perspective.

Here is the Taycan's trunk. It seems fairly large, and you'll note the cutout areas at the rearmost corners that allow for a golf bag to be stored. It's like Porsche knows its customers or something.

Anyway, also note the angle of the trunk opening, below.

Here is the perfect illustration of the 911 Problem. Note the rectangular piece of luggage. Now note the triangular shape of the last third of the trunk.

You will face this same 911 Problem in the Porsche Panamera, Porsche Cayenne Coupe and Porsche 718 Cayman. Of course, you won't face the 911 Problem in an actual 911 because the engine is back there. I would imagine that packaging job is harder than what I'm about to do.

Here's some nice boilerplate information about the bags I use and their dimensions. There are two bags you'd definitely have to check at the airport: Big Gray (26 inches long x 16.5 inches wide x 12 inches deep) and Big Blue (26 x 16.5 x 10). There are three roll-aboards that usually fit as carry-on: Medium Tall (24 x 14 x 9), Medium Wide (23 x 15 x 9) and the smaller Green Bag (21 x 14 x 9.5). Finally, there's everyone's favorite Fancy Bag (21 x 12 x 11), a medium-size duffle.

First up, let's take a look at trunk width. This photo shows the two biggest bags and the Medium Wide. There was not room left over. I could go four-wide in the Honda Civic sedan (where else are you going to get a Taycan-Civic comparison?) as well as in the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

But this test showed me the Taycan's trunk is taller than that of the mechanically related Audi E-tron GT and the also-electric BMW i5. Their trunks aren't tall enough to fit my biggest bags on their side. So, hey, there's something.

OK, let's try filling it up.

This result is the Medium Wide, Big Gray on its side, Big Blue on its belly behind it (the trunk's height is lower close to the seats preventing me from putting it on its side) and the Green Bag. Medium Tall and Fancy Bag got left behind despite all that space left over above the Green Bag. Like I said, rectangles in a triangle.

Wait, what's that black bag?

This would be a small triangular-shaped roller bag my mother used when she was a flight attendant. I have never found it useful as a functional piece of luggage, but as an analog to fill triangular-shaped gaps in Porsche trunks, it's just terrific. And indeed, if you own a Taycan, Panamera or Cayenne Coupe, I highly recommend getting yourself some triangular luggage like this.

Now, let's get back to the Taycan-Civic comparison. The Civic's 14.8-cubic-foot trunk could not only swallow all six of my bags, but it was easy to do it and there was room left over. I didn't need mom's weird triangle bag. So yeah, not all 14.8-cubic-foot trunks are created equal.

But I'm not done.

This is the Taycan's frunk, which, again, has a volume of 3 cubic feet. That's not a lot, but it's also the shape of a suitcase.

In fact, it's a perfect fit for my Green Bag. So, the grand total is still far worse than 17.8 cubic feet would imply, but unlike most EV frunks, this one is useful. (OK, so it's less useful than the 911's and 718's.)

So what does this tell us? Buy the Taycan Cross Turismo instead. That would be the wagon-esque Taycan that's not shaped like a 911 at the rear. It has the same frunk as the sedan and a cargo area that measures 15.8 cubic feet. That may not seem like a big difference, but my experience testing the Panamera's comparable body styles suggests that the Turismo's boxier rear end should result in a far more useful cargo area for carrying luggage. (The standard Panamera could not fit all my bags; the now-discontinued Panamera Sport Turismo could.) I would also anticipate the result being more akin to other 15.8 cubic-foot trunks. Simply put, a box-shaped cargo area is better than a triangle-shaped one.