PORSCHE CAYENNE E-HYBRID COUPE

Does a swoopier look and electrified power compromise or complete this big SUV?

- MURRAY SCULLION

TESTED 30.1.24, NORTHUMBERLAND ON SALE NOW

TESTER'S NOTE I really miss the old gear selector. Yes, it takes up more space, but you also got to select drive with a whole, satisfying forearm movement, rather than just a flick of a wrist. MS

I'd just choose the S. Don't get me wrong: the E-Hybrid works well enough. When it's at full chat, the 176bhp electric motor decadently imbues the torque gaps of the 3.0-litre V6 and it feels like it's doing a good enough impression of a V8. The problem is that the plug-in hybrid powertrain just isn't as broad, as brazen, as boisterous as the 4.0-litre eight-cylinder one.

People might want the PHEV Cayenne for tax reasons - but if you really cared about BIK, wouldn't you pick a fully electric car? And yes, on paper it's very economical, but in the real world it can return a mere 30mpg without you pedalling all that hard.

Theoretically, the 25.9kWh battery offers 55 miles of electric-only driving, which is very useful, if perhaps a little ambitious. It's very satisfying to drive through a village.

Little Englanders with littler corgis initially redden at the sight of a 2445kg Chelsea tractor stomping in, but their blood pressure decreases once the steering wheel-mounted driving-mode twister is flicked to Electric and you simply pootle on past in near silence (twist it to the right and you can put it in Hybrid, Sport or Sport+).