Risk reward

PORSCHE CAYENNE E-HYBRID

-  Ollie Kew

Some history: in 2002 Porsche revealed the Cayenne SUV. Purists recoiled. Children screamed. The Cayenne was undeniably ugly. It was expensive. It was a luxury SUV from a marque with no experience developing or building such a vehicle. In fact, half a decade earlier the whole company had bet the farm on the Boxster, and almost trolled its 911 faithful with the fried eggtastic, water-cooled 911. So the Cayenne was doomed to fail, taking Porsche with it. What’s that saying about history being written by the victors? Two decades and 1.25 million sales later, the latest Cayenne’s been treated to a monster update under the bonnet, beneath the bodywork and inside the cabin, to keep it on par with the likes of the Range Rover Sport, BMW X5, and Mercedes GLE – until 2025, when it’ll be joined (but not replaced) by a fully electric version on an all-new platform.

The base spec is simply called the Cayenne, and is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0 V6, good for 348bhp. Could you live with the entry level version, or is it unworthy of the Porsche badge? It’s fine in a relaxed, unsporting kind of way, and that’s what a lot of people secretly want from a bolshy, sporting SUV.

Ask the V6 for everything it’s got and it’ll play along until 5,000rpm, where it starts to get breathless. In a brief but mixed road drive, our test car returned 21mpg.