GoKawiilBack in 2002, Porsche fans sputtered with rage as the Cayenne made its debut at the Paris Motor. More than 20 years later, Porsche now sells more SUVs than anything else in its lineup. Last year, the Macan and Cayenne accounted for 62 percent of all Porsche sales. Now, these SUVs are trolling traditionalists in a whole new way: They’ve gone electric, with a Cayenne Electric joining a smaller plug-in Macan. And the Cayenne Coupe Turbo is fast enough to have 911 owners looking over their shoulders.
Even Porsche’s hardcore fans, the kind who attend Lollapalooza-type festivals to worship a bygone age of air-cooled engines, have to give the Turbo Coupe Electric some credit. The new Cayenne has a legitimate claim as the most powerful Porsche of all time, boasting a loopy 1,139 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque. Not a 911, or a seven-figure supercar like a 918 Spyder: instead, a suburb-loving, lacrosse-gear-hauling SUV.
This electric Cayenne treats the physical universe like a cosmic joke, accelerating faster than many supercars, and dispatching curves like, well, a Porsche. That includes a few effortless runs to its 261-kph peak — 162 mph for us Yanks — on unrestricted portions of the German Autobahn.
The Cayenne Turbo is fast enough to have 911 owners looking over their shoulders
The Turbo Coupe settles into an effortless 110-mph pace, gliding on standard air springs, optional rear-axle steering, and the Active Ride suspension. That wizardly system pairs sensors, electric motors, and hydraulic dampers to counteract body motions. Each damper can generate up to 2,250 pounds of proactive force at individual wheels, independently of inputs from pavement bumps. In its Comfort mode, the active system allows the Cayenne to “helicopter,” seemingly hovering (a bit strangely) over the road surface with virtually no body tilt.
A stupid-fast description extends to charging. Electric Cayennes can peak charge at a sizzling 400 kilowatts, matching a Lucid Gravity SUV. They can maintain a broad enough charging curve to refill a 108 kilowatt-hour battery from 10-to-80 percent in less than 16 minutes.
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