Two months ago, Porsche walked back their official statements from earlier in the year, finally confirming that they will no longer sell any diesel-powered vehicles, as demand for Stuttgart-built oil burners has gone down.
This means that the Porsche of the future will focus entirely on petrol, hybrid and fully electric powertrains, which might just give some SUV buyers cause to pause, since diesel engines remain very popular when it came to people haulers.
Right now, Porsche’s solution to that is the Cayenne E-Hybrid, which for pretty much the same price as a Cayenne S, will offer you 88 mpg UK (73 US mpg / 3.2 l/100km) on a combined cycle, courtesy of a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6, an electric motor and a 14.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.
The total system output is 461 PS (455 HP) and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque, which on paper should get you from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 4.8 seconds – before maxing you out at 252 km/h (157 mph). Now, Porsche claims that the Cayenne E-Hybrid will cover 60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.7 seconds, yet Carwow’s own 0-60 test concluded with a time of just 4.4 seconds, which is close to Cayenne Turbo performance.
Yet, as much as he was blown away by this SUV’s straight line performance, the reviewer was even more impressed by the Cayenne’s overall build quality, going as far as to call it a “glorious machine”.
Should we be in any way surprised by such statements? Absolutely not. The Cayenne needs to walk the line between two somewhat different worlds. On one hand, it tries to stay competitive with the likes of the BMW X5, Mercedes GLE and Audi Q7 when it comes to pricing, whereas on the other hand, it can’t feel in any way cheap compared to something like a Bentley Bentayga.