Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric first drive review

It can do it again, but do I have to? Such is the ferocity with which the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric tackles its 911 Turbo S-matching 2.5sec 0-100kmph run that I don’t much fancy it. But without circuit laps in prospect, a few back-to-back launches are all the performance repeatability testing we can manage. I’m happy to report that such performance is ‘repeatable enough’.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric performance

The Porsche Cayenne’s first all-electric steps are quite the opposite of tentative. This Turbo version’s 1140bhp and 1500Nm in Launch Control mode (845bhp standard) make it the most powerful production Porsche yet, and render the Lotus Eletre R a silver medallist in the hundred-click dash. The Porsche’s rear axle alone can, in rare conditions, output almost twice the power of the original 521bhp Cayenne Turbo S of 2005. Direct oil-cooling technology developed in Formula E affords this performance, in addition to 600kW regenerative braking capability that’s on par with a Formula E car. Porsche claims regen will handle 97 per cent of braking duties, but as I rubber-band the Turbo through the hairpins and chicanes of Spain’s Coll de Serra Seca, accompanied by the V8-aping Electric Sport Sound suite, the regen needle is only swinging three-quarters of the way around the dial. Here the optional (₹13.5 lakh) ceramics are stepping in, pleasingly with pedal feel more consistent than a Porsche Taycan’s.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric handling

Indeed, this road is calling upon the Cayenne’s full arsenal of tech. This is Hadron Collider levels of physics law-bending. The ₹12.11 lakh Active Ride hydraulic pump-equipped dampers (air springs are standard) are controlling if not eliminating the body’s movements, the yaw and roll characteristics feeling similar to what you’d expect from the very best fast estates. At turn-in, the rear-axle steering (₹2.5 lakh) is twisting the back wheels by up to five degrees, aiding prompt and willing responses to steering inputs. There’s none of the latency you’d expect from this sort of car.

The PTV+ differential, meanwhile, lets you tighten the car’s line with the throttle, or even overcome the prodigiously grippy (optional) Pirelli P Zero Rs and carve a neutral or oversteering arc. On what is a world-famous cycling route, a 2.6-ton SUV should feel like a humpback navigating a sluice gate, yet only its physical girth limits its biddability. Away from the mountains and on the autopista, a twist of the wheel-mounted drive mode dial from Sport Plus to Comfort has the Cayenne loping between toll booths at a 120kmph canter, active cooling flaps closed and drag-reducing aeroblades deployed. It was never as frenetic as some fast EVs, but now there’s an appreciable calm as it shrugs off all the pretension of a car with Bugatti Veyron-matching sprinting ability. The long throttle is never jerky, the steering is silky and the hydraulic dampers fully relaxed – even on 22-inch wheels – but quietly diligent. If the cabin is the club, Active Ride is the bouncer, and 90 per cent of the unruliest thunks get turned away – unlike the hint of tyre roar from the Pirellis.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric interior

The interior itself is a big step on for the Cayenne too – airy but still cocoon-like and opulent, and in some ways familiar in terms of the digital dials, fit and finish. In others, the game has moved on. In the centre of the dash is Porsche’s new Flow Display, an OLED screen that bends at 45 degrees as it reaches the centre console. It’s crisp, responsive and hides fewer essential controls behind myriad menus. Speed warnings and lane assist are mercifully easy to deactivate too, via wheel-mounted hot keys, a button on the instrument binnacle or through the infotainment.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric battery and range

The heavy-duty performance-orientated engineering runs throughout the powertrain. The 113kWh battery pack, consisting of modular replaceable cell pouches, sits in a sandwich of liquid cooling. Charging can peak at 400kW, allowing 10 to 80 per cent in 16 minutes. Or option the 11kW inductive wireless floor charger and never plug in again. Impressive, as would be the 623km range figure if it were 2022. Instead it sits in the shadow of the likes of BMW’s new iX3 and its claim of up to 800km. The figures we saw in the Cayenne indicated less than 400km could be expected from it in reality, though admittedly this wasn’t after ‘normal’ driving as such. What it would drop to when making use of the 3.5-ton towing capacity (with off-road pack), I dread to imagine… Surely range, along with the ₹2.26 crore basic price of the Turbo Electric, are the figures buyers will care more about than the wild performance numbers.

Porsche Cayenne Turbo electric verdict

Driving the basic Cayenne Electric (₹1.76 crore, 402bhp, 120kg lighter) clarifies how Active Ride, PTV+ and rear steering elevate the Turbo to another level. A 536bhp Cayenne S Electric with those chassis options, plus 18-way sport seats, 22-inch wheels and Pirelli tyres is available internationally, but not in India. Or you could get a V8 Porsche Cayenne GTS for ₹1.94 crore. The Cayenne Turbo Electric is an astonishing technical achievement and a hugely impressive car, in all arenas, from highways to byways and even off-road (as proved by an eye-widening ride on a rallycross route with Le Mans winner Timo Bernhard at the wheel). But in this new era of electrification U-turns, how it will fare on forecourts, how effectively it will tempt buyers, remains to be seen.