The Porsche Cayenne has reached an important milestone: since the introduction of the SUV in 2002, one million units have now been built. With that, the Cayenne has reached seven figures significantly faster than the 911, which is a good indication of how important the Cayenne has been to the brand.
At the beginning of this millennium, things were not going so well at Porsche. The Stuttgart sports car manufacturer was on the verge of collapse and something has to be done. That ‘something’ became the Cayenne, which was reviled by purists when it was introduced in 2002. However, it is partly thanks to the Cayenne that Porsche is flourishing today. In the meantime, the large SUV has been thrown off the throne by the Macan in terms of popularity, but the mastodon still sells well. Unlike the millionth 911, which remained in the possession of Porsche itself, the millionth Cayenne does go to a customer. This is the 460 hp Cayenne GTS in the color carmine red, not a bad way to celebrate a milestone.
The Cayenne turned out to set an important precedent. Nowadays almost every self-respecting sports car manufacturer has an SUV in the range. Even Ferrari is working on it now. The third generation of the Cayenne has been running since 2017. Nowadays, the SUV is even available as a Cayenne Coupé, with which Porsche – albeit relatively late – responds to the trend of sloping roofs on SUVs. The buyer can choose from six variants, two of which are hybrids: the E-Hybrid and the range-topper Turbo S E-Hybrid.
Porsche has not yet revealed any concrete future plans for the Cayenne, but given Porsche’s ambitions in the EV field, it is obvious that the next generation of the Cayenne will also be available as an EV. After all, Porsche has already given a small preview of such a variant with the Macan.