The Porsche Cayenne has always been a bit of a contradiction. It's a sports car brand's practical family hauler, yet it's one that can embarrass supercars at the traffic lights.
Now, Porsche has taken that formula and turned the dial even further by introducing a fully electric Cayenne Coupe - an actual good-looking SUV that's fast, furious, and functional all at the same time.
Here are the five things about the car that actually matter.
1. It's fully electric and properly serious
Let's get the elephant out of the room. Unlike the electrified 911 Turbo S that we tested, Porsche isn't flirting with hybrid technology with the Cayenne Coupe. The car has gone fully electric.
Underneath the car's body sits an 800V architecture, the same high-performance setup seen in Porsche's latest EVs, enabling both serious power delivery and rapid charging. In that sense, the new SUV is designed from the ground up to deliver both everyday usability and proper performance.
It has a 113kWh battery pack that's good for about 630km worth of range on a full charge. This figure should be able to last you between 10 to 14 days without any problems.
2. Figures are quite frankly ludicrous
Three variants are available at launch - the base model, the 'S', and the Turbo. The latter variant, which we thoroughly tested, has a plenty 845bhp on tap at any given time. Go into Overboost mode and the car transforms from a beauty to a beast, immediately shooting out a massive 1,140bhp and a stomach-churning 1,500Nm of torque to all four corners. As a result, the car dashes from zero to 100km/h in just 2.5 seconds.
Yes, you read that right.
This is about the same time it takes you to properly process that number. Normal for an SUV? Not quite. Absolutely ludicrous? Yes, very much so.
3. It still drives like a Porsche
Numbers aside, despite its sizeable proportions and heft of 2.7 tonnes, the car feels surprisingly agile around bends and sure-footed on the straights. See, I reckon making a heavy SUV fast isn't quite too difficult, but making it engaging and entertaining is the tough part. And Porsche has managed to succeed well in this aspect.
The Cayenne Coupe Electric, in its Turbo guise that we tested, packs serious driving involvement with a talkative steering wheel, superb stability, and a tight chassis.
Of course, driving systems like the firm's torque vectoring plus and adaptive air suspension all work quietly behind the curtains to ensure the driver gets full enjoyment behind the wheel without compromising on safety.
4. Big car, small miracle
The result of everything working properly in tandem is a big car that manages to perform small miracles. On the move, the big Cayenne Coupe shrinks as you drive along with speed. It feels smaller and sharper than it looks, with a controlled behaviour around tight corners that is hardly associated with SUVs.
It also manages to cut through air like a hot knife through butter, thanks to aerodynamic enhancing features like its cooling flaps up front, adaptive rear spoiler, and the active aeroblades that come standard with the Turbo variant. The drag coefficient is, thus, merely at 0.23 - a figure that's even lower than the already impressive 0.25Cd of the regular Cayenne Electric SUV.
So while the coupe SUV may look like a fashion statement, it's still engineered like a proper driver's car.
5. It has the signature silhouette
On that note of aerodynamics, such an impressive drag coefficient figure is also achieved thanks to its body shape. The coupe roofline on the Cayenne Coupe is inspired by the 911 sports car - also known as the "flyline". Because of this, the new car gets a coupe-specific windscreen in order to achieve better looks and aerodynamics. Hence, the car does resemble a huge 911 when viewed from the side.
This is Porsche doing what Porsche does best: Taking something that's successful and making it even better. In this case, a sporty coupe SUV that has the same design language as the iconic 911 that's pushed it into full-blown absurdity.
It shouldn't work. But then again, neither did the idea of a Porsche SUV in the first place. And we all know how that turned out.
