It is not enough to just buy a Porsche Cayenne Coupé as a stock product. Many expensive equipment crosses are needed to make it complete, and this makes a heavy car even heavier.
Porsche has a good business going. The German sports car masters have branched out from the iconic and always addictive 911 into SUVs and an electrified family car, and they make a lot of money on everything they produce. Does it sound like I’m not under them that much money? I do, because Porsche are really good at what they do.
A large block of the earnings for the Stuttgart company comes from additional equipment, and it is more than a few thousand kroner from each car that comes from there. If anyone has come out of a Porsche dealership with a car that is 100 percent standard, it is someone who has sold their dog, house and children just to get enough for a Porsche. My guess is that 99.8 percent of the cars from Porsche come with a little, a lot or really a lot of extras.
You cannot do without it. Now when I borrow a blue Cayenne E-Hybrid Coupé for testing, the website tells me that the car costs DKK 1,314,900. It could be worse, and it is. A Cayenne at that price is white and has some boring, clunky 20” alloy wheels. It has neither adaptive cruise control, heated seats nor keyless operation. The Montego blue car, on the other hand, costs DKK 1,923,912, and it is not at all with all the equipment that Porsche can pamper you with.
It makes for an inviting SUV
The blue Cayenne Coupé on 21” RS Spyder design wheels for approximately DKK 53,000 and it has Club leather for DKK 71,000. It can steer on the rear wheels and the doors are sucked in the last bit using electric motors. Steering wheel, bumpers, logos – everything is anything but standard and expensive.
It is the degree of individualization that makes it expensive to produce cars. That is why for some cars you can only choose mats and the color of the paint. At Porsche, you can come up with anything that has a color you like. Your dog, maybe. Then Porsche has a color that is similar, and you pay approximately DKK 146,000 for a color that you probably don’t see others driving around with.
It really gives an impression of an exclusive car when you have so much freedom to put together and decorate many different elements. The Accent Pack, as it’s called, gives the special Neodyne color to the panels inside, and with leather panels and the Porsche coat of arms embossed in the headrests (at a cost, of course), the cabin is discerning for connoisseurs.
The coupé syndrome that has infected the latest generation Cayenne is also a way for Porsche to raise earnings, and they score DKK 50,000 more than with a regular Cayenne. I don’t get an extra rush out of the Cayenne Coupé compared to a regular Cayenne. The coupé is less elegant and has a markedly smaller luggage compartment.
The hyperactive SUV
There is hardly any sportier plug-in hybrid powertrain than the one Porsche has equipped the facelifted Cayenne with. Six cylinders always make a world of difference in a plug-in hybrid. For the sound, for the bottom line, for the driving dynamics. The 3-litre petrol engine’s rather modest 304 hp requires the help of the powerful electric motor, but the sum of the work of the two power sources is high.
The 470 hp is not very well expressed if the system decides for itself and you drive in auto mode. The forces are awakened sleepily, so during the test days I mostly end up in Sport, where the sporty side of the drivetrain is allowed to break through quickly.
The Cayenne Coupé E-Hybrid is not underpowered by its weight, but it is in other not so flattering ways. It weighs the same as a 100 percent electric SUV in the same category, and that’s not something they should be proud of in Stuttgart. It weighs the big PHEV SUVs, including those from Audi and BMW, but shouldn’t a Porsche be lighter? Electric motor and battery – a very large battery – make the Cayenne Coupé E-Hybrid 370 kilos heavier than the Cayenne.
It is willing to steer, the heavy Porsche, but at the same time it is sensitive and easily influenced. The first hours are a confirmation that you are the driver of a heavy SUV that has sports car characteristics in it. Any longer and I start to get tired of the fact that it is difficult to relax behind the wheel. Adjust a little here, make sure you don’t hit that bump, don’t steer in too fast.
The Cayenne Coupé E-Hybrid is a catch-22 in car format. Something that, by itself, does not make sense. It is affected by the fact that it must be able to run on electricity and be fast, while at the same time it must be agile, flexible and comfortable. It can’t quite be, because it is heavy when it has to be able to run on electricity. Even with all kinds of pampering – DKK 600,000 worth of extras – I’m left with the feeling that Porsche can do better without putting earnings out of control.
SPECIFICATIONS
Porsche Cayenne Coupé 3.0 E-Hybrid
Engine: V6, 2,995 cm3 + electric
Performance: 470 hp/650 Nm
0-100 km/h: 4.9 seconds
Top speed: 254 km/h
Spending: 66.7 km/l
CO2 emission
Electric range: 66-74 kilometers
Battery size: 25.9 kWh
Dimensions (L/W/H): 493/198/167 cm
Curb weight: 2,530 kilos
Draw weight: 3,500 kilos
Trunk volume: 434-1,344 litres
Price: DKK 1,314,900 (Cayenne available from DKK 1,264,900)
Private leasing (one-off payment/monthly payment): Not informed
Tax basis, company car: Not informed
