Overhauled Porsche Cayenne revealed with more tech and grunt

One of the star attractions at the recent Shanghai Auto Show, Porsche, has officially detailed the updated third generation Cayenne bound for South Africa this year.

What has changed?

The first and likely major overhaul the current Cayenne will receive as Porsche moves towards an electric future, is the exterior tweaks to the now six-year old model which comprises new Matrix LED headlights across the entire range, redesigned bumpers, a new bonnet and grille, wider wheel arches and wheel sizes ranging from 20 to 23-inches.

New for the Cayenne Coupe is an expanded choice of colours and sport packages capable of reducing weight by 33 kg, with the final tweaks being new taillights as part of an altered apron and the optional Matrix Pixel LED headlights that use 32 000 pixels per cluster.

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Taycan inside

Inside, the bulk of the changes have been applied to the Cayenne’s cabin, which now sports a look and design similar to the Taycan.

While a Head-Up Display remains available from the options list, the entire range comes as standard with a Taycan-style dashboard housing the 12.3-inch Porsche Communication Management touchscreen infotainment and, as an option, a smaller 10.9-inch display on the passenger’s side.

Also standard is the 12.6-inch digital instrument cluster and a brand-new centre console housing an array of physical switchgear, but no gear lever Porsche has relocated to the dash in a toggle switch configuration.

V8 returns

More minor are the changes underneath the Cayenne’s attire, namely new shock absorbers, the inclusion of the Porsche Active Suspension Management on all derivatives fitted with the standard steel springs and better differentiation between Normal, Sport and Sport Plus modes for versions equipped with the new two chamber, two-valve adaptive air suspension.

Up front, the biggest highlights is the return of a V8 engine on the popular Cayenne S that until now, had been motivated by the Volkswagen Group’s 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6.

Available in both the standard Cayenne as well as the Cayenne Coupe, the returning 4.0-litre twin-turbo bent-eight delivers 349kW/600Nm, an uptake of 25kW/50Nm over the V6. Top speed for both models is rated at 273 km/h with the 0-100 km/h sprint taking 4.7 seconds.

In base form, the simply badged Cayenne and Cayenne Coupe retain the bigger 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, albeit boosted from 250kW/450Nm to 260kW/500Nm.

Next in the range is the E-Hybrid that carries over the base’s model V6, but mated to a bigger 25.9-kWh battery pack instead of the pre-facelift’s 17.9-kWh module.

The end result is a combined output of 346 kW and a claimed all-electric range of 90 km. While fitted as standard with an 11 kW on-board charger, no further details regarding performance figures were divulged.

Completing the range in the absence of both the Turbo and Turbo S E-Hybrid due at a later stage, the Cayenne Turbo GT is again modelled exclusively on the coupe and while it too is motivated by the same 4.0-litre engine as the S, Porsche has extracted an additional 14 kW from before, meaning an output of 485 kW and an unchanged torque figure of 850 Nm.

The claimed top speed is again pegged at 305 km/h, with the same applying to 3.3 second dash from 0-100 km/h.

Despite the change in selecting gear, all Cayenne models once again employ an eight-speed Tiptronic ‘box sourced from ZF, with drive going to all four corners as standard.

Price

As mentioned, sales of the updated Cayenne will commence from the third quarter of this year comprising a line-up with the same engine options as those offered internationally. Included in each’s sticker price is a three-year/100 000 km maintenance plan. 

• Cayenne – R1 848 000
• Cayenne Coupe – R1 933 000
• Cayenne S – R2 125 000
• Cayenne S Coupe – R2 232 000
• Cayenne S E-Hybrid – R2 194 000
• Cayenne S E-Hybrid Coupe – R2 259 000
• Cayenne Turbo GT Coupe – R4 128 000

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