Porsche needs a hit. In the first nine months of 2025, Porsche's operating profit plummeted by 99 percent compared to the same stint the year before. Yep, 99 percent. Profit has tanked for the auto brand with a track record of making billions.
The reasons for Porsche's misfortune are no secret. There's the hugely expensive product strategy shift that saw the dramatic scaling back of EV plans. There was Porsche scrapping projects to build its own EV batteries in-house and instead developing new combustion and hybrid models. Plus, the double hit of US tariffs and a slump in the Chinese market have left the German automaker reeling.
However, whether or not the EU decides to rewrite its EV transition timetable, the future for autos, sooner or later, will not be combustion but electric. So this means that European car companies playing the long game must still show their prowess in electrification. Which brings us to today's reveal of the final production Cayenne Electric and Cayenne Turbo Electric.
Costing $109,000 for the Cayenne, and $163,000 for the turbo version (£83,200 and £130,900 respectively in the UK), Porsche will be hoping that this, its first ever fully electric SUV, will present better long-term value for money than its formidable Taycan has, which saw unlucky owners lose half the value of the car in its first six months, pushing some into negative equity on the vehicles.
This new electric SUV is the most powerful production Porsche of all time, and the specs are fittingly mighty. The Cayenne Turbo shifts from 0 to 62 mph in 2.5 seconds, from 0 to 124 mph in 7.4 seconds, and goes on to a top speed of 162 mph. A new drive system develops up to 850 kW (1,156 PS) and up to 1,500 Nm of torque when the cars' Launch Control is activated. Interestingly, borrowing an innovation from motorsports, the Turbo has direct oil cooling of the electric motor on the rear axle for high continuous output.
The “entry-level” Cayenne model has 300 kW (408 PS) in normal operation and 325 kW (442 PS) and 835 Nm of torque with Launch Control. It can manage 0 to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds, on its way to a top speed of 143 mph.
Energy recovery for the Cayenne Electric is also impressive, with recuperative power matching Gen 3 Formula E levels of up to 600 kW. Both models can be specced with rear-axle steering too. This allows the rear wheels to move by up to 5 degrees, making it easier to make tight turns or shimmy into parking spots.
Being electric, the battery is key, and these Cayenne models sport a newly developed 113 kWh battery, which gets double-sided cooling for better thermal management. The result? A WLTP range of up to 398 miles for the Cayenne Electric, and up to 387 miles for the Turbo. (The WLTP range is a measurement by the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure, an industry standard.)
Thanks to its 800-volt charging technology, the Cayenne refills at a capacity of up to 390 kW, and “under specific conditions” even up to 400 kW. This means charges that bring the battery from 10 to 80 percent in less than 16 minutes, theoretically, and the addition of about 200 miles of range within 10 minutes.
However, what caught my attention at a preview recently in Germany was that this is the first Porsche to have inductive charging, and at up to 11 kW, too—so the same as a home EV wall charger. The system uses what is essentially a giant Qi charging puck on the floor under the front of the car. Thankfully, Porsche has gone to great trouble to make sure it cannot fry your pets.
As you can see here, the design language is distinctly Porsche, an evolution of the Cayenne rather than a radical rethink. But the tweaks have been worthwhile, delivering a drag coefficient of just 0.25, benefiting range and energy use. Sticking with this efficient theme, active aerodynamic elements include movable cooling air flaps in the nose, an adaptive roof spoiler, and active aeroblades at the rear of the Turbo. These extend the lateral tear-off edges, improving air flow, which, according to Porsche, leads to an increase in range at higher speeds.
Porsche has taken great pains to keep the interior layout under wraps, and the most striking part is undoubtedly the new curved infotainment screen called the Flow Display. I tried it out for about five minutes, and it's responsive and intuitive. It resembles a folding tablet left mostly open, but without the crease in the middle. It works surprisingly well, with menus and options appearing on the lower half of the curved screen, while maps, graphics, and displays sit above the “fold.” It makes the display feel part of the interior rather than plonked into it. Competitors will no doubt copy this.
More good news: If you've had enough of touchscreen controls, Porsche has wisely read the room and included physical controls for vital things like climate control and volume. But a digital key is available so you can stop carting around that darn fob and just use your smartphone to unlock the car.
What's it like to drive? I can't tell you. However, I can tell you what it's like to be driven in one: fast, and seemingly easy to feel where you are on the road and what the car is doing. More on that when Porsche lets me get behind the wheel, though. For now I can confirm it certainly has a “Porsche feel,” which is what the engineering team was shooting for.
There is one last mystery yet to be revealed for the Cayenne Electric, however. Despite seeming very proud of it at my technical briefing, no one at Porsche will tell me which AI model its new “Voice Pilot” uses. In fact, at the time of that briefing I was told no one there in Leipzig knew which LLM powered Voice Pilot, and thus enabled it to “understand complex, interrelated queries, recognize the context” and help it “respond like a real conversation partner.”
In the two months since that briefing, I've asked three times for an answer. Porsche still won't say. Could it be the company hasn't yet signed up to a specific model? Who knows. But it’s very odd to shout about putting an AI helper into a car then avoid all questions about which model is powering it. Porsche will have to come clean at some point, of course.
The other thing Porsche doesn't want the likes of WIRED focusing on is the fact that this new Cayenne, coming to customers in the summer of 2026, isn't just electric. It's arriving in hybrid and full-on combustion-engined models too. Which means that this car, at its heart, is compromised in all the ways that cars are when their design is forced to accommodate ICE powertrains as well as electric.
You have to wonder what it would have been capable of if Porsche had held its nerve and gone all-in on EV.
