Pros: ridiculous power, sharp handling, great refinement, smart interior
Cons: front-end styling, expensive, may be some slight quality issues
Porsche Cayenne Electric Design
The Porsche Cayenne Electric follows the form of the German firm’s previous two EVs, the Taycan and the smaller Macan SUV, so it has a smoothed-off look at the front with more rectangular, flattened headlights than the rounder units on its sports cars. Some don’t like the appearance this gives the zero-emission Porsches, but we don’t mind it. Around the sides and back, it’s more obviously a Cayenne, despite its electric power, and all models run on wheels from 20 to 22 inches in size. The benefit of the Cayenne’s shape, by the way, is that it’s aerodynamically slippery – thus maximising its range.
Porsche Cayenne Electric Interior
A new interior architecture for Porsche makes its debut in the Cayenne, with the star attraction being a curved OLED screen in the middle which is called the ‘Flow Display’. This looks really nice with its pronounced kink in the lower section, and it operates beautifully. It is accompanied by at least two more screens - the 14.25-inch Curved Display instrument cluster and 14.9-inch Passenger Display - while a massive, augmented reality head-up display is also on the options list for the technophiles out there. Passenger space throughout the car is generous, thanks to its long wheelbase, and the boot is massive too (providing at least 781 litres of luggage space), but there are one or two more discreet areas in the cabin where the finishing might not be up to Porsche’s own lofty standards. They’re often in hard-to-find places, though; mostly, the interior is remarkably high quality.
Porsche Cayenne Electric Performance & Drive
There are three models of the new zero-emission SUV from launch, with the entry-level car being the Cayenne Electric and the Cayenne S Electric sitting above that. Neither of these two are slow – the base variant capable of 0-100km/h in just 4.8 seconds – but they’re completely overshadowed by the flagship Turbo at the top of the Cayenne tree.
Even in its regular drive modes, this version makes a huge 857hp, but under Launch Control conditions the Cayenne Turbo delivers simply mind-boggling outputs of 1,156hp and 1,500Nm of torque. Despite weighing more than 2.7 tonnes in this specification, these are enough to propel the SUV from 0-100km/h in just 2.5 seconds.
Experiencing this car’s launch control is bordering on the breathtaking – literally. So startling and powerful is the Cayenne Turbo when it performs this trick that you have to remember to breathe properly, rather than just holding on for dear life as it hurtles forward. Understandably, with all that torque on offer from its dual electric motors, the Porsche SUV is just as impressive for roll-on acceleration.
Brilliantly, despite its weight, a morass of chassis technology fitted to the Turbo Electric makes it a delight in the corners, especially as it has really good steering – a Porsche hallmark. Yet it’s supremely comfortable and quiet when you’re driving it more sensibly, which – even for such a high-end, high-performance SUV as this – is really the main strength that it needs for day-to-day driving.
Finally, the Cayenne Turbo is fitted with a gigantic battery pack with 108kWh of usable capacity, so despite the fact it is so potent, it can in theory go up to 624km between charges. And when you do get to a charging point, the 800-volt architecture means 400kW DC top-ups are possible, making the battery almost as rapid to replenish itself as the vehicle is when accelerating full-tilt: a 10-80 per cent top-up should take less than 16 minutes.
Porsche Cayenne Electric Pricing
Although they are now all EVs, so they benefit from lower rates of VRT than the old petrol-powered models, the new Cayenne Electric is not a cheap machine. The entry point of €113,660 for the regular SUV is a considerable sum to begin with, but the S increases that to €136,730 – while the Turbo is €179,280. Mind, for this sort of combination of supercar performance along with long-range capabilities, high-quality construction and the desirability of a Porsche baked in, you won’t get anything remotely similar for much less.
Carzone Verdict
It was a significant risk for Porsche to make the Cayenne electric, even having paved the way previously with the smaller Macan EV. But, as ever, the German company has played a blinder here. Unless you’re vehemently against the way the new Cayenne Electric looks, everything else this SUV does, it does it to a very impressive standard indeed. And if you want something with which to scare all your friends and family witless, then the hyperspace-like acceleration of the Cayenne Turbo should happily suffice.