Today Porsche reiterated that the “fourth generation of the Porsche Cayenne will be all-electric,” but also confirmed that “up to and beyond 2030, the successful SUV will be offered with three powertrain variants worldwide.” Looks like the current-gen gasoline-powered Cayenne will be sold alongside the new one, at least for a time.
Having some generational overlap is not unheard of in the car business, though it is somewhat uncommon. Ram, for example, had a carryover of its last-gen models sold alongside current ones for a while known as the “Ram Classic.” In Ram’s case, the move was probably done to keep lower-budget customers in its stores and squeeze a little extra amortization out of its outgoing tooling. Porsche is just doing whatever it can to keep its golden goose alive before cooking it, using batteries as the stuffing.
It remains TBA what exactly the Cayenne lineup will look like when the electric gen-four model comes online, but Porsche is currently promising that the third-gen Cayenne “will be further developed with major technological investment in the future,” and went on to call out increasing the efficiency of the V8 as a priority in a press release. I dropped one of our contacts at Porsche a note to try and get some more clarity and here’s what they sent back:
“Around the middle of the decade, the fourth generation of the Cayenne will set new standards in the segment, as a completely redeveloped and redesigned electric SUV. At the same time, into the next decade our customers all over the world will be able to choose from a wide range of powerful and efficient combustion and hybrid models. The third generation of the Cayenne will be further updated and will continue to be offered alongside the fourth, all-electric generation.” That’s from the company’s product comms manager Frank Wiesmann.
The Cayenne is a major volume seller, keeping the German automaker’s dealerships busy along with the even more popular (because it’s cheaper) Macan. Porsche committed the incoming new Macan to be a fully electric model years ago when every publication, analyst, and automaker seemed convinced that EVs would blanket the car market in the near future. That’s become a less popular prediction more recently. The decision to keep the current combustion-powered Cayenne alive was most likely a pivot from initial plans to follow the Macan into life as a fully electric model. That’s me analyzing, not Porsche’s proclamation. The company likes to keep its own announcements somewhat cryptic so it has headroom to make adjustments as the car market shifts.
Electric cars, despite their advantages, still don’t have the universal mass appeal of good ol’ gasoline guzzlers. And the reality is, EVs are still very expensive and less convenient than their combustion-powered counterparts. Nobody needs to go zero to 60 in two seconds and Cayenne customers probably don’t care about tailpipe emissions, so Porsche would be smart to fear those people jumping ship for a BMW or Mercedes-Benz if and when Cayenne goes electric.
Kicking that down the can another five years gives Porsche the chance to watch the market a little bit longer and see what the regulatory environment looks like after, for one thing, the next U.S. presidential election.