Porsche Cayenne Electric review: The hugely capable SUV

By all accounts, the Cayenne offers an improvement over the smaller Macan – and so it should be, given the price difference and hierarchy of Porsche’s vehicles – but on paper, its range and charging speed are already behind what Chinese giant BYD has achieved. But cars from performance brands like Porsche, and even all-electric SUVs, are about more than just a spec sheet. An electric Cayenne needs to drive like a Porsche, feel like a Porsche, and remind its owner why they paid so handsomely for that badge on the steering wheel.

Curved screen

In this regard, the new Cayenne is up to the task. The design is sharper and cleaner than before, thanks in part to reduced cooling requirements and a focus instead on a sleeker, more aerodynamic body. The front end is distinctly Porsche, and the active aero blades that protrude from the rear corners of the flagship Turbo model are also characteristic of the brand, facilitating airflow and improving efficiency at speed.

The rear is otherwise bland, and since the only Porsche trademark is an illuminated portion of the light bar, when parked and off, the Cayenne is visually forgettable. However, buyers bored with Tesla’s trend of keeping paint options to a minimum will welcome the Cayenne’s 13 exterior color options and 11 wheel designs.

Inside, it’s recognizably a Porsche but with a new curved screen that cascades down the center of the dashboard. It’s a curved OLED panel that will remind you of the first time you saw a foldable smartphone, thankfully without the crease. Dismiss it as a gimmick if you want, but I like Porsche’s approach here, because it allows the UI to expand or split in two across the two planes of the curved screen. It also helps reduce glare, while the thoughtful panel at the bottom of the screen acts as a recess to steady your hand while tapping the screen. A physical switchgear controls the basics like temperature, fan speed and media volume, and thankfully there are proper buttons on the steering wheel too, rather than haptics.

Porsche’s infotainment system is one of the best I’ve used in recent years, and with the Cayenne, it’s been further improved to make menu navigation simpler and more intuitive. Navigation is also a pleasure compared to many other systems, but it’s only natural that you’ll have to connect Apple CarPlay or Android Auto instead. Porsche still hasn’t made the jump to CarPlay Ultra, though it has announced its intention to do so again in 2022 and again a year later. This means your phone apps don’t appear on the Cayenne’s driver display, and CarPlay can’t handle the temperature or radio.

Since this is a full-size SUV, there’s plenty of room for four tall adults, plus a fifth if necessary, and the trunk extends from 27.6 to 56 cubic feet depending on the position of the rear seats. The box under the hood adds 3.2 cubic feet, which is useful for storing the charging cable.

Speed ​​demon

At launch, there are three variants of the Cayenne Electric to choose from. The base model costs $109,000 and has 435 hp, the mid-range Cayenne S Electric starts at $126,300 and produces 657 hp, and the entry-level Cayenne Turbo Electric is $163,000 and has 1,139 hp with 1,106 lb-ft (1,500 Nm) of torque. Yes, that last statistic is absolutely formidable for any car, let alone a large SUV. It gives the Turbo more power than a Bugatti Veyron double Ferrari Borosangio V12 torque.

Zero to sixty times for the Cayenne family are 4.5, 3.6 and 2.4 seconds respectively. Once again, the Turbo is in a league of its own, and if anything, acceleration from zero to 124 mph (200 km/h) is even more ridiculous, at 7.4 seconds. This matches the Veyron and is on par with the Tesla Model S Plaid. But frankly, comparing tenths of a second here is meaningless. Switch the Cayenne Electric Turbo to Sport Plus mode, engage launch control, and the result is truly unpleasant. As always, my advice is to save tens of thousands of dollars and buy a product that goes above and beyond.