The S E-Hybrid “fills the power gap,” Kirchner said. “Porsche wants its customers to be able to build their dream car, so that means having several variants to fit individual preferences.”
The Cayenne S E-Hybrid targets the Porsche customer seeking affordable performance, relatively speaking. The top-of-the-line V-8 twin-turbo-powered Turbo E-Hybrid carries a nearly 50 percent premium with its $153,050 starting price.
The newest Cayenne PHEV is aimed at consumers who find the E-Hybrid variant too tepid and the Turbo E too much, said Ivan Drury, insights director at Edmunds. He said the variant risks cannibalizing sales of the more aggressive and even the standard Cayenne hybrids.
“But in true Porsche fashion, the S E-Hybrid offering allows Porsche’s picky customer base to have their Cayenne in any flavor that best suits their needs,” Drury said.
The S E-Hybrid has a high-power three-liter V-6 turbo engine, compared with a V-8 on the gasoline-powered equivalent. The PHEV’s 348-hp engine is paired with a 174-hp electric motor, delivering a combined output of 512 hp and 553 pound-feet of torque. That power propels the crossover from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, and it reaches the quarter-mile marker in 13 seconds, a tenth of a second quicker than its nonhybrid twin-turbo V-8 counterpart.
Kirchner said the absence of a V-8 is unlikely to tap the brakes on adoption of the new hybrid model. “I don’t think it will hurt demand because those are different customers,” he said.