Porsche has confirmed that a new all-electric SUV will be joining its line-up, and could well sit above the established Cayenne upon its launch in the second half of the decade.
Speaking at the German brand’s Capital Markets Day shareholders meeting, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume announced that a new electric SUV, catering to the luxury market, is already in the works, and would be built at the brand’s Leipzig facility in Germany, at which the Panamera and Macan are currently manufactured.
Porsche Cayenne
“We are planning to add a new, all-electric luxury SUV to our attractive portfolio, that will roll off the assembly line in Leipzig,” Mr Blume explains. “This will enable us to further expand our position in the luxury automotive segment. We are primarily targeting the higher-margin segments and want to open up new sales opportunities in this way.”
Though details were kept to a minimum, the new e-SUV is expected to be built atop a new ‘Sport’ variant of the EV-dedicated Scalable Systems Platform developed by the Volkswagen Group. The next generation Taycan is expected to follow suit.
Porsche Cayenne
Blume’s reference to “higher-margin segments” and “robust growth for the luxury car market in the coming years,” particularly in the battery-electric and SUV segments, has led to speculation that the new electric SUV will sit above the range-topping Cayenne upon its arrival, and thus sit in the crosshairs of the new Mercedes EQS and BMW’s iX.
The more dynamic SSP architecture, set to make its debut on the production version of Volkswagen’s ‘Project Trinity’ in 2025, will likely introduce a higher capacity battery and more powerful electric motors front and rear, as the variant is also expected to sit beneath brand-new electric models from sister brands Bentley and Lamborghini.
The new SUV though is just the latest in an electric transition by Porsche, which is aiming for 80 per cent of its lineup to be fully electric by 2030. Among the next “milestones” confirmed is an all-electric version of the mid-sized Macan and EV examples of its 718 Boxsters and Caymans.
“We are stepping up our electric offensive: by the middle of the decade we want to offer our 718 mid-engine sports car as an all-electric model.”
Reports online suggest that supply chain delays – referenced by Porsche itself as “challenges in the supply chains over the past three years… due to the Covid-19 pandemic, [and] the shortage of semiconductors or the war in Ukraine” – have led to the Macan EV’s launch date being pushed back to 2024. Unlike the new SUV, the Macan EV will be underpinned by VW’s Premium Platform Electric (PPV) architecture, set to be launched with the Audi Q6 e-tron later this year.
