New Porsche Cayenne Electric all set for 19 November reveal

The Cayenne is one of Porsche’s most important models ever and soon there will be a new chapter for the luxury SUV as it goes electric for the very first time.

Porsche just announced that the Cayenne Electric will be unveiled on 19 November, ahead of going on sale in 2026. When it does arrive, the Cayenne Electric will join Porsche’s two other EVs, the Taycan and the Macan Electric. 

The Porsche Cayenne Electric will also share the brand’s large SUV space with the current, third-generation combustion-engined Cayenne - which will be updated to live beyond 2030. We recently learned that the strategy of selling EV and petrol models side-by-side will extend to the petrol-powered Macan too, in the near future. 

Within the announcement of the Cayenne Electric’s reveal date, Porsche said the new car will set “new standards in the SUV segment” by offering “outstanding driving dynamics, excellent long-distance comfort, uncompromising off-road capability and the efficiency of modern e-mobility.”

We’ve experienced Cayenne Electric from the passenger seat and we’re already expecting big things - not least in terms of the sheer numbers involved. 

Sitting on a variant of the Volkswagen Group’s 800V PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture shared with the Macan Electric, the Cayenne Electric will come with a whopping 112kWh battery that’ll provide an expected range of around 370 miles. Charging is even more impressive with speeds up to 400kW resulting in a 15-minute 10 to 80 per cent top up. Power comes from a dual-motor system offering around 400bhp for the base model, up to 650bhp for the Cayenne S and close to 900bhp in Turbo form. 

It’ll be practical too. At around 5.1 metres long and two metres wide, the EV will be larger than the ICE Cayenne, though it’ll also be lower by around 15cm. The wheelbase will be longer (to help integrate the massive battery), which should help unlock extra interior space, especially in the rear. Under the bonnet you’ll find a 90-litre ‘frunk’ and compared to the current Cayenne, the boot will have an extra 99 litres of space. 

A new Porsche Cayenne currently starts from over £77,000 and we expect the EV models to be priced significantly higher. Our Buy A Car service has used current-generation Cayenne models from just over £20,000.

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What do we know about the Cayenne EV’s interior and tech? 

The all-new Cayenne Electric’s interior is defined by its extreme digital displays. The main ‘Flow Display’ is the most dramatic, as it doesn’t just occupy the centre space in the dash, but also bends laterally at its base to follow the contours of the centre console. 

This is the first car to feature a centre console touchscreen with a sharply curved element, although it’s not the first curved OLED screen unit in a car overall – these are already used across the BMW range and Porsche’s other models. 

To one side of this is an optional 14.9-inch passenger display, and when equipped with the main Flow Display it creates a wall of digital real estate that can be customised by those in the front row. The home screen will house the main map display, with the curved section at its base featuring configurable tiles that can control your phone or media and provide other shortcuts. 

It’s also here that the screen houses the key air conditioning controls, but Porsche has retained physical knobs for the temperature and fan speed. You’ll also spot a physical volume roller down there for the stereo. 

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This main display is integrated into the dashboard with a palm-rest underneath the lower section of the screen that should make it easier to use while driving. Below this is storage, and a wireless phone charger. 

In front of the driver is another curved display, this time 14.5-inches in size with touch-sensitive areas around its edge. These are largely to house controls for the chassis, lighting, suspension and parking cameras. 

Finally, Porsche has also integrated a new augmented reality heads-up display with up to 87-inches of relative screen space. This is capable of overlaying various information including direction arrows onto the road ahead. 

What else is new inside apart from the screens?

Porsche has also taken a few pointers from luxury brands, with things like a standard electrically-adjustable second row seat-back, plus heating for the armrests and centre console like you’ll find on a Mercedes S Class. 

There’s also a new opening panoramic roof with electrochromic panels, plus extended ambient lighting that can be matched to on-screen graphics for a more curated look.

Porsche is also proud of offering huge variation when it comes to interior colour and trim, with new leather options including Magnesium Grey, Lavender and Sage Grey, joining the existing more traditional Porsche shades. Various trim and accent packages will also be available. 

What will the Porsche Cayenne Electric look like? 

Fundamentally, the new model’s proportions will sit somewhere between the current Macan EV and the existing Cayenne. Previous prototype models have featured a shorter bonnet matched to a relatively upright and boxy body behind. The wheelbase will be longer than the current model’s, but the overhangs are shorter meaning the overall length shouldn’t grow by much. 

Up front, high-mounted headlights integrate all the lighting units, rather than just the daytime-running lights and indicators of the Macan EV. A simple lower fascia features active grille shutters to improve aerodynamics. At the rear, Porsche has reimagined the light bar, with the unit likely to be more three-dimensional. 

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To help disguise some of the car’s mass, Porsche has fitted its test cars with contrasting black bumpers along the car’s base and wheel arches – this is finished in matte grey plastic on this low-level prototype, but higher-spec models will be offered with gloss black or body-colour options depending on the model. The windows are also now frameless, helping give the car a sleeker appearance. 

All Cayennes will run a big wheel and tyre package, with wheel sizes likely to range between 20 and 23-inches. Turbo models, as have been previously seen at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, feature more aggressive design details, including new front and rear bumpers with larger intakes. Porsche will also introduce a new Coupe variant. 

What electric motors and batteries will the Cayenne EV use? 

Just like the Macan EV, the new Cayenne EV will run on Porsche’s 800V PPE electric architecture. However, it’ll also introduce a range of new technologies that will make this electric generation faster, more dynamic and more capable than even the previous ICE version, starting with the suspension. 

Porsche has confirmed that it’ll fit high-spec Cayenne models with its clever Active Ride Control system as previously introduced on the Taycan and Panamera. This system is truly ‘active’ as it uses clever technology to make the wheels truly independent of one another. This will give the car superb ride quality when wanted, but then excellent body control when needed. Other chassis technology like rear-wheel steering, air-suspension and torque vectoring will also be included. 

Most models will run a dual-motor layout, with the battery capacity still to be confirmed, but likely to sit above the 100kWh found in the new Macan. It’s unknown whether Porsche will offer an entry-level two-wheel drive option. 

Power will probably be around 400bhp at the lower-end but could top out nearer to 800-900bhp for the Turbo – a figure the EV will need to compete with high performance rivals from AMG, BMW and Audi.

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Porsche has also prioritised the new Cayenne’s towing capacity, confirming that it’ll be rated at up to 3.5 tonnes with a braked trailer. This is the highest of any current EV sold in the UK.  

Porsche’s extensive development program continues

All of this time waiting for the new model isn’t being spent idle, though, with Porsche not only taking its new EV to every corner of the globe in its development, but also making full use of virtual testing to try and create the most complete product possible when the Cayenne arrives next year. 

Real-world testing will always be indispensable when creating a real-world product such as a car, but as Porsche explains, it’s also enormously expensive and time-consuming. With a car like the Cayenne, Porsche will typically build 120 test vehicles before the production line fires up, but during development of the Porsche Cayenne Electric, these were “largely replaced by digital equivalents”, according to the company.

Predictably, this involves a bit more than slinging a pixellated SUV around in Gran Turismo. Virtual prototyping begins while the car is still in its design phase, enabled by advances in computing power that let engineers create incredibly detailed virtual models of everything from individual components to entire cars – as well as what are referred to as “precisely digitised routes” of real-world environments, from the Nürburgring race track to everyday traffic.

From the very start, Porsche can visualise and test the Cayenne virtually, and importantly, modify components easily and quickly in the digital world, ensuring that by the time road-going prototypes are out and about, most of the snagging has already been done. Porsche says the Cayenne Electric is the first vehicle where it’s been able to move directly from “digital whole-vehicle testing” to pre-series production.

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You need a physical product at some stage, though, and that’s where things get really clever. Test a virtual car on a digital Nordschleife, and you can then plug a real car into what Porsche calls a “composite test bench” and simulate that virtual lap (or multiple virtual laps) on a real car, under realistic conditions. Rollers on the test bench can simulate different road conditions, resistance under acceleration, braking and cornering, and even different asphalt surfaces.

This kind of testing also lets Porsche assess the thermal abilities of a car such as the Cayenne Electric when under duress, keeping the battery in its sweet spot (leading to it having the most powerful heating and cooling systems of any electric Porsche so far), and be able to deliver its full power whenever the driver demands it. The digital twin simulation is so accurate that Porsche says there are hardly any deviations that need to be corrected after running a real car on the test bench.

Real-world testing remains vital, though, and as Sascha Niesen, Team Leader Overall Vehicle Testing at the Porsche Development Centre in Weissach says: “In reality, only humans can perform the finishing touches.

Experienced test drivers can still tease out details that even the simulations may not have picked up on, and testing in extreme conditions (such as the 50-plus degrees of Death Valley in the United States, or the minus 35 of Scandinavia) mixed with real-world use is still needed for validation. Porsche is confident that few other manufacturers put their cars through such demanding tests – particularly vital with EVs, which are especially susceptible to temperature extremes.

Yet being able to test digitally before a tyre touches the road has certainly made development quicker and less resource-intensive; Porsche says the Cayenne Electric has taken 20 per cent less time to develop than it would have in the past.

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Porsche Cayenne Electric: wireless charging tech

The new Porsche Cayenne Electric is set to have a little trick up its sleeve - wireless charging technology. That’s not in-car wireless smartphone charging (which can be had in everything from city cars to supercars these days), but the big SUV EV will actually come with the ability to wirelessly charge its main battery. 

While the Cayenne EV will be the first vehicle to market with the ability to use inductive charging, the technology is nothing new in the automotive industry. Tesla has spent tens of millions in research and Volvo has conducted tests while other brands are also developing the tech. 

Porsche says that around 75 per cent of its cars are charged at home - which is where it expects the wireless charging method to be popular. The wireless charging floor plate that Porsche has developed measures 117cm by 78cm and stands 6cm tall. You simply install it on a private car parking space, connect it to the mains and park your Cayenne EV over the top of it, making sure the pad sits between the wheels. 

Hardware to enable wireless charging will need to be added to the Cayenne EV - though Porsche says this can be installed at Porsche Centres. There’s also a lowering function for the Cayenne EV to ensure the distance between the charging pad and the battery stays at a minimum, with Porsche stating the efficiency level of the charge can reach up to 90 per cent. 

In terms of safety, the floor plate (which weighs 50kg) has a motion and foreign object detector. Porsche says charging will end if a “living creature” or “a metallic object” lies on the plate and “heats up”, which sounds mildly concerning.

With an 11kW maximum speed, we don’t expect  wireless charging to replenish the Cayenne EV’s massive 112kWh battery quickly. Although when plugged into a rapid charger, Porsche says the car is able to take on a 400kW charge. That’s enough for a 10 to 80 per cent top up in 15 minutes. 

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