What a Great Way to Travel

I’ve spent some time recently in a 2023 Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and came away thinking that, for the right owner, this really does offer the best of both worlds.

The first impression is refinement.

It’s quiet, beautifully comfortable and has that feeling of substantial engineering that a good Cayenne has always delivered. You sit in a superb driving position, surrounded by quality, yet despite its size it remains remarkably easy to place on the road.

Then there’s the hybrid element.

Electric Where It Makes Sense

Around town, where a large petrol engine is arguably least suited, the electric motor comes into its own.

Pulling away quietly on electric power suits the Cayenne incredibly well. Stop-start traffic becomes peaceful, manoeuvring is smooth and there’s something rather satisfying about moving a substantial luxury Porsche around without the petrol engine running.

Get beyond town and the other side of its personality is waiting.

You still have a turbocharged V6 petrol engine.

So there’s no sense of range anxiety and no need to plan a longer journey around finding a charger. If you’re travelling across Britain or heading into Europe, you simply keep going.

And when you ask for performance, there’s plenty available.

That’s the clever bit for me.

Let the Car Work It Out

Porsche didn’t simply install an electric motor and battery and leave the driver to decide what to do with them.

The hybrid system intelligently manages the two sources of power, and its strategy can use route and navigation information to help decide where electrical energy is best deployed.

So rather than you constantly thinking, should I be using petrol or electricity here?, much of that work can be left to the car.

Use it properly, charge it regularly and many shorter journeys can make considerable use of electric power, while the petrol engine remains available whenever distance or performance demands it.

Specification Makes a Difference

The particular Cayenne I drove was very well specified, and I think that’s important on these cars.

It had the panoramic opening glass roof, flooding the cabin with light.

It had ventilated seats which, on a warm day, quickly move from being something you might consider a luxury to something you wonder why every car doesn’t have.

And it had air suspension.

For me, that really suited the character of the E-Hybrid. The ride was excellent, yet the car still had the body control and precision you expect when there’s a Porsche badge on the bonnet.

Add the excellent lighting, beautifully finished interior and the overall quality of the controls and you have a very pleasant place to spend several hours.

Driver and passengers are properly looked after.

A Porsche That Does Almost Everything?

Perhaps that’s the point of the Cayenne E-Hybrid.

It’s not trying to recreate a 911.

It’s doing a completely different job.

It can carry the family and luggage. It can deal with poor weather and long-distance motorway journeys. It can quietly negotiate towns on electric power and then cover serious distances without worrying about where the next charger might be.

Yet underneath all that practicality there’s still substantial performance and some very clever Porsche engineering.

I really enjoyed it.

It felt expensive, refined and incredibly easy to travel in—and perhaps that’s exactly what a Cayenne should be.

Finding the Right One

We handle a lot of Cayenne and Macan models at Williams Crawford, from really nice earlier examples through to nearly new cars.

Specification, history and condition can make a considerable difference, particularly with highly equipped cars like these, so knowing exactly what you’re buying matters.

If you’re considering a Cayenne E-Hybrid—or you’re simply wondering whether a Cayenne might fit your life—give our sales team a call.

We buy, sell, source and maintain Porsche for clients throughout the UK and worldwide.

And, as is increasingly the case, some of our best cars find their next owners before we ever advertise them.

Passion for Porsche. Since 1991.