Widely updated Cayenne gets an impressive interior revamp and, even in bottom-rung form, doesn’t want for relative driver appeal
The 'new' Porsche Cayenne isn’t quite all-new: as the kids might put it, “because reasonsâ€. Its maker is currently investing in both an electric Cayenne to sell alongside this one (due in 2026) and an even larger electric SUV to sell alongside that (known for now as the ‘K1’ and due in 2027).It’s also about to deliver its electric new Macan, in which it’s been investing for even longer than either the electric Cayenne or K1.In other words, it’s shovelling cash into a scenario that might leave a rapidly diminishing place for a traditional, combustion-engined SUV, but it has also yet to really test the market’s appetite for any of its new zero-emissions offerings (save the Porsche Taycan, of course). Right now, the company accountants could well be taking it in turns to breathe.Understandably, it’s sought out a little pragmatism where it can, by eking out the lifecycle of the current, E3-generation Cayenne. The first-gen car lasted eight years, the second-gen Cayenne a little less, and this one will have served for more than a decade by the time Porsche retires it.So this is the Cayenne that its maker refers to internally as ‘E3 II’. It’s a wide-ranging technical facelift. To be fair to Porsche, it contains at least as much material change as plenty of full-generational model renewals: overhauled V6 and V8 engines, new suspension hardware, a pretty much all-new interior and a couple of all-new model derivatives thrown in for good measure.
