You’ve seen the screen-tastic interior of the new Porsche Cayenne. You’ve observed its multitude of screens, some of which the driver can see, and one of which they cannot. You’ve seen the new vents and the starter button. You’ve seen that the heater controls aren’t buried in the touchscreen, and thought ‘hooray!’
Well, here’s the bit you couldn’t see before: the outside. And it’s… a Cayenne. Sharper headlights and grilles up front, and a lower home for the numberplate at the back. What, were you expecting a design revolution? From the company that brought you the 911?
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Where the engineers have been busy is underneath. The standard suspension’s been tweaked: new valves in the dampers mean the Cayenne’s apparently comfier at low speeds, and better controlled when you’re going quickly. Spec optional air suspension and you’ll apparently now notice more of a difference between the Normal, Sport and Sport Plus settings.
More concerned with how the car behaves in Nuremberg than the Nürburgring? Then enjoy the fact the Cayenne is now clever enough to know when it’s going into a tunnel and automatically turn on its cabin air supply filtration system, to catch any pollutant particles entering the car and getting breathed in.
Speaking of air quality, you might want to drive your Cayenne around emitting no pollution out of the tailpipes now and again. So, the V6 plug-in hybrid version’s had a proper update. The motor is more powerful, boosted to 176hp, the battery is more efficient, it charges faster, and you can go up to 80 kilometers on all-electric power. That’s twice the claimed range of the old plug-in Cayenne.
The engine department has been busy rummaging under the hood too. The entry level Cayenne is now a 350hp twin-turbo V6. The Cayenne S has graduated back to a 4.0-liter, 474hp bi-turbo V8 good for 0-100kph in 4.8 seconds.
There’ll be a Cayenne Turbo along in a while, but the ultimate Turbo GT version - Porsche’s answer to the Lambo Urus Performante and Aston Martin DBX707 - is being dropped from Europe, because of emissions targets. Naturally you’ll still be able to buy your Cayenne in more rakish ‘coupe’ flavour.
Still hungrily digesting Cayenne facts? Okay then, here’s a good’un: the lightweight package, which adds things like a carbon fibre roof to your two-point-something-ton SUV, shaves 33kg off the curb weight of a Cayenne Coupe. Crucial stuff.
NOTE: This story first appeared in TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
