2026 Porsche Cayenne Turbo Electric | PH Review
The Cayenne has helped turn Porsche's fortunes around before - can a 1,156hp battery-powered version do it again?
- Porsche has promised a Cayenne EV for years; here it is
- Flagship Turbo Electric is the most powerful production Porsche ever
- Mid-tier Cayenne S announced prior to launch with up to 666hp
- Third-generation model is still available to buy with a petrol V8, for less…
If the 500-mile-capable BMW iX3 is arguably the first EV to offer real-world usability on par with a petrol equivalent, the new Porsche Cayenne Electric is the first one capable of luring performance SUV fans away from big capacity alternatives. There’s so much more to this car than a frankly ludicrous 1,156hp peak output and predictably monstrous levels of mechanical grip that you don’t need to be an executive with a Cayenne Electric on the company car list to see the appeal. You just need to love driving. And I’m not only talking about EVs.
Granted, the Turbo variant does arrive with some very silly on-paper performance numbers. Like, for example, an apparently ‘conservative’ 0-62mph time of 2.5 seconds delivered via launch control and the car's four-figure overboost. Otherwise, the Turbo Electric has to make do with a measly 857hp, though that’s good enough to rocket this 2,645kg single-speed brute to a 162mph top speed. As you'd expect from a model that must do it all for Porsche in a flagging EV market, this is a big car writing big performance cheques - yet it also has a fantastic handle on the sensible side of things.
Take, for example, the enormous 781-litre boot and limo-like rear space. Or the 113kWh battery feeding all versions of the Cayenne Electric’s dual electric motors. It has enough juice to give the top-grade Turbo a 383-mile claimed range, which sounds decent enough given the power of the thing, but most impressive is how it’s just 16 miles short of the more modest 408hp Cayenne Electric. You’d never get similarly close fuel economy stats on petrol-powered cars, and yet thanks to some active aerodynamics and Formula E-developed recuperation tech, the new Turbo Electric manages to mix its heavyweight punch with impressive efficiency.
That active aero, by the way, is the most notable differentiator between the regular Cayenne Electric and the Turbo. The former has a cleaner rear design as it lacks the two openings at the Turbo’s rear, where black horizontal ‘aeroblades’ hide, until they’re called into action with an extending motion that ultimately lengthens the Turbo’s body to clean up rear airflow. Another external difference is, predictably enough, tyre size, because the Turbo gets either Michelin Pilot Sport EV or Pirelli P-Zero Rs on wider rims. With the optional 22s, the top-grade electric Cayenne gets 315-section rubber at the back, a stance that suits its purposefully muscular shape.
Barring one omission (as I’ll explain shortly), the interior is an almost perfect blend of mandatory 2026 tech and familiar Porsche analogue controls. Star of the show remains Porsche’s fully round steering wheel, complete with its instrument cluster customisation buttons and the Drive Mode rotary switch that has become a welcome fixture. A cruise control stalk is just behind with the lane keep assist on/off button in easy reach, and while there are some touch-sensitive features, they’re on the panel just behind the wheel. As in the Taycan, they allow quick changes to the car’s ‘engine sound', damper settings and ESC, among other things, via a single or prolonged tap. Other brands, take note.
The new touchscreen is impressive to behold thanks to its folded lower section, though after a while you begin to appreciate it not for gimmickry but because its shape brings buttons on the screen closer to the centre console hand rest. This allows you to fiddle with the menus with greater accuracy as you drive, meaning less time with your eyes off the road. Best of all, Porsche hasn’t been tempted to follow the trend of ditching climate control switches for temperature and fan speed. They’re there, tactile and easy to operate on the move. Rejoice. It all means you can focus on the stuff that matters, like not losing your licence. Passengers can help out too, as they can make changes to route guidance and find chargers via an optional third screen. Although they’ll also need to hold on…
The organ-shifting performance of any high-power EVs is well documented enough - but flat out, the Cayenne Turbo Electric’s ability to take you from here to way over there in an instant is like being punched in the back of the head and waking up in a new country. It’s never short of deeply impressive, and it’s made all the more visceral by a synthetic V8 rumble that rises in tandem through the speakers. Of course, after one or two launches, a brewing headache means most people will learn to use full power more sparingly. Thankfully, there’s much more to the new Cayenne than a straight-line fist fight. In fact, the real reason to go for a Turbo over the standard car (and indeed, any other performance SUV EV) is in the corners.
Steering feel is an overused phrase these days. Plenty proclaimed that the BMW iX3, as technically impressive as it is, has steering feel. But it takes one corner in the Cayenne Turbo Electric to confirm that it doesn’t. This is steering feel. The fact that a 2.6-tonne machine on air suspension can provide such a close connection to the front axle - far more than any competing SUV I've driven, let alone an electric one - means the Turbo Electric can claim to rival the Taycan for readability. Push hard into a corner, leaning on a blend of regenerative braking and those powerful (and also feelsome) carbon ceramics, and you'll kick off the equivalent of an open conversation between your fingers and the front contact patches, making it wonderfully easy to feel in sync with an intimidatingly fast SUV - even more so when it’s equipped with the grippier and firmer P-Zero Rs.
What’s more surprising is how the air suspension works to enhance the feedback, allowing the Turbo to flow in what seems like a natural state for something high-sided, while still offering fantastic body control. You can change the settings of the optional (and very worthy) Active Ride system so the suspension tilts the car into a corner for comfort if you want - a la Mercedes Magic Body Control - yet in the performance modes the configuration feels more like a perfectly damped coil and spring setup, able to deal with lumps and bumps like the mass on top of it were half Porsche's claim. The chassis is so manageable and predictable, in fact, that you can use lift-off weight transfer to pitch this brute into a corner like a hot hatch, before relying on torque vectoring and the Turbo’s rear limited-slip differential to see you right.
For me personally, all that’s missing from this driving experience is a pair of regenerative braking shift paddles behind the steering wheel. While you can change the regen’s strength via a tap of a touchscreen button, there’s clearly room for Porsche to add some to the options list, much as it already has with the Taycan. Certainly there’s enough regen to play with, as the Turbo can generate a Formula E-matching 600kW of the stuff under heavy braking, providing a higher peak than at-the-plug charging. Whatever the charge source, to keep things cool, the battery is sandwiched in its own water cooling system. And by the way, the Cayenne Electric is one of the first cars to be compatible with inductive charging, which is very cool, if not immediately of much use in the UK.
So while yes, in many ways this is just another super-SUV with preposterous figures attached, it’s also drives like nothing that's come before. Porsche hasn’t just created another plus-two-tonne, physics-bending teleportation device, it’s engineered a Cayenne Turbo Electric to offer keen drivers plenty to enjoy from behind the wheel - via cutting-edge technology and proper chassis engineering. To this extent, the question of whether or not someone who wants a battery-powered super-SUV needs one quite this explosive is beside the point. The Cayenne Turbo Electric is objectively and subjectively brilliant, and even though it costs £50k more than the regular Electric (and £30k more than the just-announced S model), the combined effects of its enhancements really do make it feel like it’s worth every penny.
SPECIFICATION | PORSCHE CAYENNE TURBO ELECTRIC
Engine: Twin permanent magnet synchronous electric motors
Transmission: Single-speed, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 1,156 (with launch control)
Torque (lb ft): 1,106 (with launch control)
0-62mph: 2.5 secs
Top speed: 162mph
Weight: 2,645kg
Battery: 800V lithium-ion, 113kWh capacity
Efficiency/range: 3.0miles/kWh, 388 miles
Max DC charging: 400kW; 10-80% charge in 16mins
Price: £130,990
PH Verdict: Big, heavy, expensive - but brilliant to drive and sit in. A new electric SUV benchmark, assuming you rank performance first
king LOL.For all the older gentlmen here, there is never too much power! My daugther loves it, when I (safely) floor my 5N. I am doings this for the kids, honest.
Hate that colour though. Probably it is the colour, that makes it look meh.
- i checked, it is the colour. Dark orange metallic looks fantastic. I know, 90% will be gray/black....
130k for a 1000+hp luxury full size SUV, that drives amazingly well? I call that a bargain.
This is now my dream car. Someday...
Less Manosphere-style SUV, more chunky and practical estate. Cool.
Ticking active ride, RWS, Burmester hi-fi, Y-spoke 21s, Algarve blue and, umm, no, wait… what’s with the dowdy interior colour options??
For example, the ICE Cayennes get the rather lovely Barrique / Basalt combo, but the EV does not.
FFS Porsche, why? #dealbreaker
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