Porsche Cayenne Electric review

Confident. That’s pretty much the Cayenne Electric across the board. But let’s deal with the electrical Godzilla in the room first. Acceleration from Launch Control isn’t so much thrilling as some sort of medical test. It’s supposed to be 2.5 seconds to 62mph, but there’s a suspicion that Porsche might actually be underselling it, with 100mph coming up more quickly than it has any right to in a world of Newtonian physics.

Part of the slight disbelief is that this isn’t a sportscar – the H-point is SUV high, the view out of the bonnet and interior acoustics all speaking loudly about this being a big car. And yet it bolts from the line without wheelspin, fear or favour. This is a car that is Getting The Job Done, with capitals.

It is not, however, an EV with a 99mph top speed. On the de-restricted parts of the Autobahn, it wanged (and yes, that is now a verb) its way to the limited 162mph max like a fat Veyron, blatantly capable of at least 20-30mph extra, if not more. But at both extremes of speed, the car never feels like it’s even brushing against the outer reaches of its comfort zone. Obviously this is incredibly confidence-inspiring, but also a touch bloodless.

Mind you, save that stuff for the sportscars that are supposed to be thrilling, and leave the calm competence to the family SUV. Nobody really wants a car to start being thrilling at 160mph+. Interestingly, back off and hit the powerful brakes, and you’ll get a maximum of 600kW of brake recuperation – comparable to a Formula E racing car. Which is nice. 

On the twistier roads, you can play with the five drive modes, but ‘Normal’ seems to be the best compromise. Sport and Sport+ noticeably firm things up and are a bit pointier, but when you push, the steering loses some texture and the weight pops up to say hi. Yes, it’s a class leader when it comes to ‘sporty’ driving, but there’s only so far the systems can go with that size/weight of battery.

It’s a deft all-rounder though – we even toddled down a couple of tracks, albeit ones you could manage in a saloon if you were careful, and it handled them perfectly. It’ll even wade to 555mm, but if you’re looking to drive a Cayenne through more than half a metre of water, may we suggest you get some plastic mats.

What about the electric stuff?

Sport and Sport+ modes are worth a mention for the noise. The car can be perfectly silent if you want, but put the sound generator on and Sport gives you a very background V8 rumble. Sport+ ups the volume, but it stays classy – and it really does sound like an engine. No fake pops ’n’ bangs, pseudo exhaust crackle or Star Trek whoosh, just a clean V8 noise that follows exactly the movement of the accelerator. If you like the soothing off-beat of a V8, you’ll grow to like it.

What about range and charging?

The Autobahn attack did a number on the car’s efficiency, as you might expect, and as it would for a combustion-powered car. According to some back-of-envelope calculations, the Cayenne was doing just less than 1.0 mile-per-kWh at full chat, offering up a maximum range from a full battery of 108-ish miles. You’d be stopping every 40 minutes.

For reference, once all the trips were re-set, the Turbo managed 2.8 mi/kWh (a 302 mile real-world range), which is perfectly good for such a large vehicle.

When you do stop, try and make sure you get a charger that can offer up enough of a meal for a hungry Cayenne. Rolling up to a deserted ‘Porsche Lounge’ (posh, exclusive 24hr charging stations for electric Porsche owners), the Cayenne delivered some 389kW of peak charging, running at 200+ even at 65 per cent SoC and above.

Just over 10 per cent charge became just over 80 in less than fifteen minutes. Impressive, and thanks largely to an 800-volt system and some very trick thermal management, including a battery pack that’s both heated and cooled on both sides, and thermally graded from the outside of the car (where it tends to be cooler) to the cells nearer the middle (which get more ambient heat).

But with charging like that, it’s getting pretty close to shutting up the EV naysayers. It’s just a shame you have to have a £130k Porsche and access to the mega-chargers to make the point.