Porsche Cayenne Electric Review: A Phenomenally Capable SUV | WIRED

$109,000 at Porsche

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Rating:8/10

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WIRED

Great handling. Luxe comfort. Top-notch interior tech and quality. Premium feel.

TIRED

Lacks proper one-pedal driving. Some bland styling. Unnecessarily powerful in Turbo guise.

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.

Courtesy of Porsche

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.

Curved Screen

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. That said, buyers bored by the Tesla trend of limiting paint options to the bare minimum will welcome the Cayenne’s 13 exterior color options and 11 wheel designs.

Inside, it’s recognizably Porsche but with a new curved display that cascades down the center of the dashboard. It’s an arched OLED panel that’ll remind you of the first time you saw a folding smartphone—thankfully without the crease. Discard it as a gimmick if you want, but I like Porsche’s approach here, since it allows the user interface to expand or split into two across the two planes of the curved screen. It also helps reduce glare, while a thoughtful panel below the screen acts as a rest to steady your hand while tapping the display. Physical switchgear controls the basics like temperature, fan speed, and media volume, and mercifully, there are proper buttons on the steering wheel, too, instead of hit-and-miss haptics.

Porsche’s infotainment system is one of the best I’ve used in recent years, and with the Cayenne, it’s been further refined to make menu navigation simpler and more intuitive. The navigation is also a delight compared to many other systems, but naturally, you’re likely to hook up Apple CarPlay or Android Auto instead. Porsche still hasn’t made the jump to CarPlay Ultra, despite stating its intention to do so back in 2022 and again a year later. That means your phone apps don’t appear on the Cayenne’s driver display, and CarPlay can’t handle the temperature or radio.

Since this is a full-size SUV, there’s plenty of space for four tall adults, plus a fifth if needed, and the trunk stretches from 27.6 to 56 cubic feet depending on the position of the rear seats. A frunk under the hood adds 3.2 cubic feet, handy for storing the charging cable.

Speed Demon

At launch, there are three variants of Cayenne Electric to choose from. The base model costs from $109,000 and has 435 horsepower, the midrange Cayenne S Electric starts at $126,300 and produces 657 horsepower, and the flagship Cayenne Turbo Electric is $163,000 and has 1,139 horsepower with 1,106 lb-ft (1,500 Nm) of torque. Yes, that last stat is absolutely enormous for any car, let alone a big SUV. It gives the Turbo more pow