Porsche Cayenne Electric review

It's not often that you think of Porsche being a particularly value brand, but the Cayenne Electric actually stands out in the range for… not being cheap, exactly, but reasonable money for the performance.

The range starts with the Cayenne Electric at £83,200 for 400bhp (442 with overboost) and 0-62 in 4.8 seconds, and currently only offers up the full-house Turbo at the other end of the scale for £130,900. But for a car with more than 1,100bhp and 1,100lb ft… that’s really reasonable.

The base car gets the same electrical architecture and battery too, so all the charging goodness remains in place, as does the 16 minute official 10-80 per cent charging time. Though as ever, the caveat of being able to find a charger capable of keeping up with the car applies. One thing to remember here though: it’s futureproofed against better charging infrastructure in the next few years.

After that, if it’s down to optioning. Many colours – all but a few conservative – from the Contrasts, Shades, Dreams and Legends ranges; 13 colours in all, then paint-to-sample.

Wheels come in four shapes of 21-inch (standard), five versions of 22s (£2,634 option), and that’s before you get into wheel colour (£972)  which, amongst the usual silver/grey/black, features body-colour options as well as California Gold, Pyro Red and Indigo Blue. Madeira Gold metallic car with Pyro Red wheels? Someone’s going to do it, and we salute them.

Interiors can be Race-Tex leather free, bi-colour leather or Club leather, and seats can be either Sports or Comfort at no-cost option. Surface heating – not just the seats but the armrests etc – is a £379 option. As far as external stuff goes, you can have the OffRoad Package (£2,036, and consists of reinforced side skirts with skid plates and modified lower front sections for better protection, plus that 3,500kg towing rating) or Sport Design Package (£1,458 – for slightly different bumpers/side skirts/rear trim and various badge/trim changes) depending on taste. 

After that, it’s all up for grabs. You can change the steering wheel, seatbacks, seatbelt colour, the colour of the illuminated logo on the back of the car, have Porsche crests embossed or embroidered, coloured badging, illuminated door sill guards, grab handles with special stitching – even personalised keys. You’ll spend a fair bit after the purchase price if you don’t take care.