Porsche Cayenne Electric Review: A Phenomenally Capable SUV
Courtesy of Porsche $109,000 at Porsche Save this story Save this story Rating: 8 /10 Porsche’s first all-electric Cayenne SUV lands in the face of significant headwinds for the German carmaker, which recently saw operating profit collapse by 92.7 percent owing partly to a rethink of its electrification strategy.
Instead of pursuing an all-electric future driven by its Taycan and Macan vehicles, then bolstered by battery-powered variants of the Cayman, Boxster, and Cayenne—plus, presumably, an eventual electric 911—Porsche is taking an eye-wateringly expensive detour.
As fellow embattled carmakers pressure the European Union into relaxing rules designed to end the production of new internal-combustion cars by 2035, Porsche is instead hedging its bets.
Whereas the new Macan launched in 2024 is offered only as a full-EV, Porsche will follow up the new electric Cayenne with plug-in hybrid and gasoline variants, too—a move it says will ensure engine production well into the next decade.
Those will be facelifts to the current Cayenne, but the electric model is all-new.
It sits atop an updated version of the 800-volt Premium Platform Electric (PPE) used by the Macan.
Charge speed is up, and so too is power, battery capacity, and range.
Wireless charging is also in the works, complete with a charge pad for your garage floor, though it's not available at launch.
By every metric, the Cayenne delivers improvement over the smaller Macan—and so it should, given the price difference and Porsche’s vehicle hierarchy—but on paper, its range and charge speed are already behind what Chinese giant BYD has coming down the tracks.
But cars from performance brands like Porsche, even fully electric SUVs, are about more than just the spec sheet.
An electric Cayenne needs to drive like a Porsche, feel like a Porsche, and remind its owner why they’ve paid handsomely for that badge on the steering wheel.
In that regard, the new Cayenne is up to the job.
The styling is sharper and cleaner than before, thanks in part to reduced cooling requirements and a focus instead on a slipperier, more aerodynamic body.
The front end is recognizably Porsche, and the active aero blades that protrude from the rear corners of the flagship Turbo variant are also on-brand, smoothing airflow and improving efficiency at speed.
The rear is otherwise bland, and since the only Porsche branding is an illuminated motif part of the light bar, when parked and turned off, the Cayenne is visually forgettable.
