Everything you need to know about the new Porsche Cayenne – including its 986bhp punch!

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2 days ago

Top-spec version of new Porsche EV poised to be UK's most potent SUV
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Porsche is about to take the boldest step yet on its electrification journey by revealing a fourth-generation, battery-electric version of its most popular model, the Cayenne SUV.
To be unveiled in production form later this year, the new model will be on sale in the UK this time next year.
However, recognising the risk of launching a full EV version of its biggest-selling model into markets whose demand for such cars continues to waver, the firm will carry on selling and developing its existing ICE-powered Cayenne at least until 2035, said a Porsche spokesman, 'and maybe beyond that'.
A prototype version of the new electric Cayenne, still covered in camouflage, appeared in action at last week's Goodwood Festival of Speed, driven at full tilt on the hill by GT racer and Porsche development driver Gabriela Jilkova, who the previous weekend took the prototype up the historic Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in just 31.3sec – a full four seconds quicker than any SUV previously.
Porsche won't yet reveal full engineering details of its new Cayenne EV, but the model is taller and longer than the petrol car, sits on a longer wheelbase and is said to 'feel a bit bigger when you drive it'. It also has a generously sized frunk in the nose.
All versions of Weissach's new electric SUV – likely to be offered in a threemodel line-up of Cayenne, Cayenne S and Cayenne Turbo – will have two-motor, four-wheel-drive layouts, using Porsche's own design of motors front and rear. The rear motor is new and was developed after it was found that the Cayenne EV needed more power at the back axle.
The company isn't yet revealing power outputs for its three models, but they are likely to be around 395bhp for the entry model, 590bhp for the S and more than 986bhp (1000PS) for the Turbo version – which would make it the UK's most powerful SUV.
Details of the EV's official touring range are still being worked out, but Porsche's target is understood to be around 370 miles. That would put it on a par with the longest-legged Lotus Eletre, its closest rival.
Porsche hasn't yet revealed the Cayenne EVs' performance fi gures, but the Turbo should be 'at least as quick' as the lighter but less powerful top-spec combustion-powered model, posting a 0-62mph time of under three seconds and an eye-watering 0-124mph time of around 10 seconds. Top speeds of all three Cayennes are understood to be restricted to 155mph, as is the case with all Porsche SUVs.
All versions will use active dampers for their allindependent suspension systems, and top models at least are likely to have rearwheel steering to improve both low-speed agility (bearing in mind the longer wheelbase) and high-speed stability.
Porsche is still developing the final details of the new EVs' interiors, and it won't yet allow the cabins to be photographed. However, it is understood that, as with the Taycan and rival luxury EVs, the Cayenne driver will be able to switch on a synthesised engine sound – including one produced from recordings of 'a genuine Porsche V8 engine' – if desired.
Sascha Niesen, verification and validation manager for the Cayenne EV, said there are 'no surprises' in the new model's basic layout compared with that of the Macan EV, but the torque distribution system has been improved over the Macan system, to cope with the extra power, bulk and weight and because Porsche's policy is to carry out very detailed development programmes for every model.
'We require every one of our cars to be naturally well behaved, before the electronics come into play,' said Niesen. 'Our chassis systems are there to help, but not to hide chassis flaws.'
UK launch details for the car have yet to be released, but it is likely the company will start taking orders early next year for deliveries in the early summer. First ride: Porsche Cayenne Electric
It's fairly tall. And quite large. Not quite Range Rover large, maybe, but on the way. The new Porsche Cayenne EV – in which I'm about to take to the Goodwood Festival of Speed's hillclimb at full speed – is the biggest Porsche they make.
We're sitting high. You might imagine that cars with three-second 0-60mph potential ought to be squeezed right down onto the road, but not this one. From my vantage point I look forward along the track, down the tree-lined avenue to the first double-apex right-hander, wondering what this Cayenne's body roll will feel like when we get there at full noise.
Actually, I guess I've already got an idea. This is a Porsche, and a fat-tyred Porsche with latest-gen active dampers at that. I'll back it to stay planted in a 1g corner.
There are other good reasons for this Cayenne's height. For one, we're sitting on top of a 100kWh-plus traction battery. And despite what I understand to be an output of more than 1000 horses from its two-motor set-up, this machine is also claimed to be a competent off-roader, which means it needs ground clearance.
My driver is Gabriela Jilková, a successful GT racer from the Czech Republic who does a lot of development driving for Porsche, especially in fast stuff. She's keen to move up the ranks from GT4 racing if the chance comes. Which it's bound to do.
'Quick Gabi', as she's known, looks small yet very much at home in the Cayenne EV's big, bolstered seat, but as we ease quietly up to the line, she's already wearing that expression of calm concentration you see on the faces of serious racing drivers accustomed to the tension of a full-on start.
Suddenly we're at the head of the queue. The Taycan ahead disappears around the track's double right-hander and now it's our turn. This may be an EV but we're hearing the Cayenne's optional synthesised V8 burble at proper volume. And here, it seems entirely appropriate.
The Goodwood starter gives us the thumbs-up. I expect extremely hard acceleration but what I get is an explosion. My head hits the restraint behind, I'm depressed several inches into upholstery that previously felt firm and my innards are rapidly rearranged. The loads are all instant, yet it's surprisingly quiet in here.
Nobody will yet tell me how much torque this thing has, but it's got to be four figures of foot-pounds. Even though it's all deployed at once via four fat 22in Pirelli P Zeros, there's barely a squeak of wheelspin. That's what electronics can do.
The trees either side are a blur, and we've got to be doing 90mph when we turn in to that first double-apex. Gabi dabs the brakes – I think – though retardation probably comes as much from this EV's powerful regenerative braking. We clip the grass apexes twice and then the awesome acceleration begins again.
Out of the trees, the track straightens and widens. I glimpse thousands of blurred faces either side as our Cayenne bolts past the big house on the left and under the bridge at a speed that in other hands might seem deeply crazy.
There's time for a lightning glance at Gabi – still ice cool, making tiny, timed steering movements – and then we're approaching Molecomb, the reverse camber left-hander hidden beyond a little brow that has been the ruin of many a worthy Goodwood entrant over the years.
Not this time. We storm through it as if on rails, my body pinned into the seat. As we burst into sunlight, I'm aware again of crowds in stands on either side. Then we see the famed Flint Wall straight ahead.
It looks like a serious obstacle at first sight, but when you get there, it's a fast, precise, right-then-left jink, easy for Gabi and the Cayenne. Transitions like that can upset high-riding cars, but the Porsche is planted like a sports car. This is a sports car.
The rest of the run is easy, a big left and right, and then we're back under the shade of the trees. Up a shaded tunnel we go, flashing across the finish line. This may well be the quickest electric minute of my life.
I've made an agreement with myself to glance at the speedo as we finish, but of course I forget. It's hard to remember stuff in an environment like this but our speed has got to be 100mph-plus. Gabi says 115mph. I see the blurred face of the finish-line marshal and then it's over.
Speed bleeding away, we ease up to the marshalling loop at the top of the hillclimb, where you wait for other runners in your batch to congregate for the dog-slow return to the pits. 'Good,' says Gabi with a contented smile. 'Fantastic,' say I.
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