Again in 2002, Porsche followers sputtered with rage because the Cayenne made its debut on the Paris Motor. Greater than 20 years later, Porsche now sells extra SUVs than anything in its lineup. Final 12 months, the Macan and Cayenne accounted for 62 p.c of all Porsche gross sales. Now, these SUVs are trolling traditionalists in an entire new method: They’ve gone electrical, with a Cayenne Electric becoming a member of a smaller plug-in Macan. And the Cayenne Coupe Turbo is quick sufficient to have 911 house owners trying over their shoulders.
Even Porsche’s hardcore followers, the type who attend Lollapalooza-type festivals to worship a bygone age of air-cooled engines, have to provide the Turbo Coupe Electrical some credit score. The brand new Cayenne has a respectable declare as essentially the most highly effective Porsche of all time, boasting a crazy 1,139 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque. Not a 911, or a seven-figure supercar like a 918 Spyder: as an alternative, a suburb-loving, lacrosse-gear-hauling SUV.
This electrical Cayenne treats the bodily universe like a cosmic joke, accelerating quicker than many supercars, and dispatching curves like, effectively, a Porsche. That features a few easy runs to its 261-kph peak — 162 mph for us Yanks — on unrestricted parts of the German Autobahn.
The Cayenne Turbo is quick sufficient to have 911 house owners trying over their shoulders
The Turbo Coupe settles into a simple 110-mph tempo, gliding on commonplace air springs, non-compulsory rear-axle steering, and the Lively Experience suspension. That wizardly system pairs sensors, electrical motors, and hydraulic dampers to counteract physique motions. Every damper can generate as much as 2,250 kilos of proactive power at particular person wheels, independently of inputs from pavement bumps. In its Consolation mode, the lively system permits the Cayenne to “helicopter,” seemingly hovering (a bit surprisingly) over the highway floor with just about no physique tilt.
A stupid-fast description extends to charging. Electrical Cayennes can peak cost at a scorching 400 kilowatts, matching a Lucid Gravity SUV. They will preserve a broad sufficient charging curve to refill a 108 kilowatt-hour battery from 10-to-80 p.c in lower than 16 minutes.
This Cayenne wears a Cape
Porsche says the Coupe Turbo can blitz 60 mph in 2.4 seconds. I’d say it’s nearer to 2.2 seconds, based mostly on my cerebellum-squeezing begins within the Bavarian countryside, a time that shames a number of big-name supercars previous and current. Defying a virtually 5,900-pound curb weight, the Coupe Turbo dashes from 0–124 mph (200 kph) in a ridiculous 7.4 seconds. It covers a quarter-mile in 9.9 seconds, almost a full second faster than a Ferrari 12Cilindri. That’s accompanied by a surprisingly charming synthesized sound that remembers a German V-8 by the use of Trent Reznor. Drivers can dial down or shut off the ersatz engine roar once they choose an EV whisper.
Turbo variations make 845 horsepower in regular operation, reserving the complete 1,139 horses for automated launches. However an F1-style “push-to-pass” characteristic summons 173-horsepower photographs of electrical overboost everytime you press a steering-wheel button. These nitrous-like bumps are restricted to 10-second intervals, versus 20 seconds in a 911 GTS hybrid, to maintain temperatures in verify.
One squeeze of the slim, ergonomically excellent GT steering wheel is a reminder that that is nonetheless a Porsche. As with Porsche’s Taycan sedan, that steering feels brilliantly agile and pure, with a tactile connection to the highway that goes lacking in too many EVs.
Automakers usually spin doubtful connections between their racecars and road vehicles. Right here, a muscular rear electrical motor claims a direct, respectable tech switch from Porsche’s championship-winning System E crew. The motor’s inside stator and live-electricity copper windings are bathed in a Mobil-designed oil that doesn’t conduct electrical energy, an enormous cooling benefit versus exterior water jackets that sometimes encompass a motor’s case. The ingenious design lets the Porsche regenerate braking electrical energy at a torrential 600-kilowatt tempo, matching its System E vehicles, with out overcooking inside elements.
Porsche stubbornly refuses to incorporate a one-pedal EV driving mode, preferring to coast like acquainted ICE machines while you carry off throttle. But give the brake pedal a squeeze, and Porsche claims 97-percent of real-world stops can be dealt with totally by the electrical motors. Press the pedal deeper, and the Cayenne will lastly interact its mega-powered bodily brakes, together with non-compulsory ceramic-composite models — and so seamlessly that I couldn’t spot the transition to friction braking on a wager.
Streamlined Type, Stamina
Versus a normal, square-backed Cayenne, these Coupes are identified by their sloping rooflines, a “flyline” silhouette impressed by the 911. It’s a friskier, much less family-oriented physique fashion that 40 p.c of American consumers selected in 2025, regardless of a modest penalty in cargo house.
Provided in both physique fashion, these first-ever electrical Cayennes leap forward of Porsche’s internal-combustion variations, whose growing older present technology traces to 2019. They’re constructed on a devoted electrical platform, sharing near-zero elements with gasoline fashions. A virtually five-inch wheelbase stretch delivers welcome beneficial properties in rear legroom. A 3.2 cubic-foot frunk will match a pair of backpacks, however no extra.
One squeeze of the slim, ergonomically excellent GT steering wheel is a reminder that that is nonetheless a Porsche
A shapely snout integrates lively entrance cooling flaps, with signature gym-pumped rear shoulders and an lively rear spoiler. On the Turbo, a pair of motorized “aeroblades” emerge close to the rear bumper. The Coupe’s fastback form delivers a slippery 0.23 coefficient of drag, versus 0.25 for the standard mannequin. So Coupes ought to squeeze out 10 or 11 miles extra driving vary.
Porsche says the Coupes, provided in three strengths, ought to vary between 356 and 416 miles. These estimates are based mostly on beneficiant world WLPT check procedures. Our EPA has but to weigh in. However based mostly on my drives and math, these Coupes ought to all prime 340 miles of their sleep. Porsche’s superlative Taycan is already identified to simply exceed EPA vary figures.
New Porsche, New Prospects
It’s ironic that essentially the most highly effective Porsche ever is designed to tempt newbies who might care extra in regards to the bells and whistles of a luxurious EV than German efficiency. Porsche’s nice leap ahead in tech and infotainment might rank amongst its greatest promoting factors because it tries to draw first-time consumers.
The lavish cockpit facilities on a vertical, 14.25-inch OLED “move display screen” that bends towards the console like a large flip telephone. (Drivers are welcomed with a big greeting animation that exhibits a Cayenne within the actual physique coloration of their automotive that they’ll twirl round with their fingers. Cute.) A leather-based hand relaxation is a keystroke of genius, making it straightforward to manage the display screen whereas in movement. Blessedly, old-school analog switches handle recurrently sought controls, resembling a quantity knob and temperature toggles.
An non-compulsory passenger display screen blows away earlier shotgun screens from Ferrari and others, with complete features and video streaming that’s digitally shielded from a driver’s view. There’s rather a lot happening right here. However someway all of it works, from a Porsche that, many years in the past, used to slap in an AM/FM Blaupunkt radio and name it a day. And in contrast to, say, Mercedes’ stadium-sized “Hyperscreen,” the system doesn’t suck up all of the cabin’s design oxygen, or overwhelm its occupants.
One misstep is an AR heads-up show that takes up an excessive amount of actual property in a driver’s view; floating navigation arrows turn out to be intrusive motes in your eye. Display-based vent controls are one other pattern Porsche may need skipped, although they’re simpler to function than Rivian’s or Lucid’s vents.
Electrical Energy, at a Worth
The Turbo Coupe begins from $170,350, and pinged $233,000 for my options-laden check mannequin. A normal Coupe Electrical will ask $116,150 when these Porsches arrive in late summer time. The “starter” mannequin presents a wonderfully satisfactory 402 horsepower, 435 from a launch, and a 4.5-second run from 0–60 mph. The Cayenne S Electrical I drove feels just like the strudel-like candy spot within the lineup, with 536 horsepower, 657 horses of max overboost, and a depraved 3.7-second dash to 60 mph. That’s as fast as a BMW X6M Competitors SUV with a 617-horsepower V-8.
That S mannequin begins from $133,550. Filled with choices, it reaches $201,150. Appears we have been simply getting used to Porsches being $100,000 vehicles, and now they’re $200,000 vehicles.
EV followers able to splurge may think about Porsche’s wi-fi inductive charging system. At a lunch cease, I roll the Cayenne atop a magnetic floor pad that house owners can set up in a storage, or an outside driveway. A display screen show guides me into docking place, by becoming a member of a pair of animated inexperienced circles, one representing the shifting automotive, the opposite the pad under. The Cayenne begins to cost like a three-ton smartphone, absorbing 11 kilowatts of AC juice — no awkward twine or plug required. Don’t fear about stray cats or children: The Porsche stops charging if it senses movement across the pad.
Inductive switch is robust sufficient to cost the Cayenne’s hefty battery from 10 to 80 p.c in lower than 9 hours. Skip just a few superficial choices in favor of this pioneering residence system, and you could not often contact a grubby plug once more. In different charging information, these Cayennes are the primary Porsches with an onboard Tesla-style NACS connector.
Heat Reception or Chilly Shoulder?
Versus the previous, SUVs-off-my-lawn debates, these electrical Cayennes bear real points on their broad shoulders: a tariff regime that closely taxes these expensive European-built machines. A slowdown in EV adoption, and a Chinese language market that presently prefers its personal EVs. In an ironic upside, a warfare in Iran is offering an unexpected opening for energy-efficient fashions, regardless of the Trump administration’s makes an attempt to strangle EVs of their crib. And as with the controversial Ferrari Luce, the jury remains to be out on whether or not Porsche can persuade sufficient individuals to modify to an electrical efficiency automotive.
That’s a number of baggage for these Porsches to haul once they arrive, recent off the boat from a manufacturing unit in Bratislava, Slovakia. One factor is definite: America’s Cayenne consumers can be casting a progressive vote, with fattened wallets, for the unstoppable progress of EVs.
