Sport utility vehicles are supposed to be mainstream offerings for mainstream buyers. They’re go-anywhere and do-anything machines that can haul your kids and cargo to all manner of destinations, both epic and mundane, with a good degree of comfort and compliance along the way.
Some SUVs lean harder into the sport part of the acronym than others, but Porsche has pushed its latest to the extreme. It’s the new Cayenne Electric, and in Turbo form, it’s the most powerful production Porsche ever. That’s right, all those wild, bewinged widowmakers over the years have less performance than this relatively humble-looking four-door, two-row electric SUV.
It is, of course, remarkably quick, and the Cayenne’s new interior is plenty charming as well, but the experience isn’t entirely perfect across the board.
Trims and Options
As is typical for all things Porsche these days, you can get yourself a Cayenne in a variety of configurations to suit your needs for power. It starts on the low end with the base Cayenne Electric, which makes 435 horsepower and 615 pound-feet of torque from a pair of electric motors, one at the front and another at the back, to give it all-wheel drive.
Step up to the Cayenne S and the power jumps substantially, delivering 657 hp again to all four wheels. Finally, there’s the maximum-performance, headline-grabbing Cayenne Turbo, which produces an astonishing 1,139 hp.
To deliver that kind of power, the Turbo relies on a rear motor with an advanced design borrowed from motorsport. It has an internally cooled stator, keeping the coil-wrapped part that creates the magnetic field from overheating. This configuration was developed for Porsche’s racing efforts in Formula E, making it perhaps the most significant example of technology developed in that fledgling all-electric series that made it to the road.
All Cayenne electrics are powered by the same 113-kilowatt-hour battery pack, situated down in the floor of the SUV, as is de rigueur in modern EVs. Porsche still hasn’t quoted official EPA range estimates for any of these SUVs, but you can expect somewhere between 300 and 350 miles, depending on which configuration you go with.
Aero-Minded Design
Beyond the power output and range, you have another big decision to make in pondering a Cayenne Electric: What shape do you want? Porsche will sell you either the typical SUV style with a longer roof and more upright rear end, or what it calls the Cayenne Coupe, which lops a little off the back to give it a sportier look and a slightly more aerodynamic shape.
Having driven both, I can tell you there’s nothing between them from an outright feel and performance standpoint. Even the rear headroom in the Coupe is quite acceptable. It’s just a necessary reduction in cargo capacity for the shorter-roofed version: 18.9 cubic feet behind the rear seats in the Coupe, down from 27.6 in the SUV. Still plenty for a weekend getaway with the fam.
In either profile, the Cayenne isn’t exactly eye-catching from afar, but it is littered with sharp design elements and details that make it a good-looking SUV up close. All models get a pop-up spoiler or wing at the back that deploys at highway speeds, but only the Turbo gets some additional appendages situated vertically in the rear bumper.
These deploy outward and to the rear, subtly lengthening the Cayenne’s aerodynamic profile to reduce drag and, therefore, increase range. I’m inclined to think they’re a better conversation piece than a functional piece of equipment, but they certainly do look cool.
Tech Boost Inside
Porsche hasn’t just grafted the new Cayenne Electric with more power than any other machine in its history. It’s also seen a strong infusion of tech throughout, most notably in the new dashboard design, which features a weirdly kinky center touchscreen.
That display looks like it was left in the sun a little too long and has slid down the dashboard, but it was a conscious design decision to create a touchable surface that’s both easy to read and easy to tap while driving. You can set your hand on a palm rest just below the display and manage the most frequently used controls on the bottom. Key information like maps or media displays higher up on the display.
At first glance, I thought this would be a horrible user experience, as it just looked a little too odd to me. But, after spending a day behind the wheel, I decided I quite liked it. It’s much more ergonomic than your average automotive touchscreen, yet still easy to use, and Porsche’s latest software ensures the interface keeps up with your intents.
You can use both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay wirelessly with the Cayenne, and there’s wireless smartphone charging too, but there’s some rather more significant wireless charging happening underneath the car.
Buyers can opt for Porsche’s wireless charging pad for their garage, which can juice up the SUV at 11 kW. That’s only about 10% slower than regular, wired at-home charging. When equipped, the Cayenne automatically detects when you’re near the pad and displays a sort of targeting reticule on the center display to help you park in the perfect spot. It’s not quite as cool as nailing an ok three wire on a carrier landing as a naval aviator, but I wouldn’t blame you if you fired up the Top Gun soundtrack just the same.
For charging when you’re not at home, the Cayenne features an 800-volt architecture capable of charging at 400 kilowatts. That means an 80% charge in just 16 minutes.
Drive Time
It probably goes without saying that the Cayenne Turbo is quick. Launch the thing from a standstill, and it can get to 60 mph in just 2.4 seconds, which is the kind of performance figure that is more uncomfortable than thrilling. More impressive is that it’ll absolutely leap forward at just about any speed, the kind of urgency that makes even the quickest of cars with internal combustion feel tame by comparison.
The lower-spec Cayenne S feels very nearly as quick in everyday driving, and even the base Cayenne Electric has plenty of performance. I was expecting all that. What I wasn’t expecting was how harsh the base car feels compared to the higher trims. While all Cayenne Electric models have adaptive air suspension as standard, only the S and Turbo offer Porsche’s optional Active Ride suspension.
This takes adaptive damping to a new level, not only dynamically adjusting the feel of the suspension to suit conditions and drive modes, but also dynamically leaning the car into corners and even raising the nose under braking to give a less disruptive and more stomach-friendly ride to your passengers.
Porsche’s Active Ride delivered a wonderfully smooth ride over the worst asphalt imperfections I could find, even though the Turbo I drove was wearing 22-inch wheels and aggressive summer performance tires.
That all-round, mega-SUV dominance comes at a cost, of course. The electric Cayenne Turbo I drove cost a whopping $220,330, nearly doubling the base model’s $113,800 entry price. But with its combination of neck-snapping power and road-smoothing suspension, this might just be the pinnacle of sporty SUVs.
