So, the Cayenne Hybrid has recently gone on sale.  Some are already saying that it’s heresy, in that it’s not only the Cayenne (which is a Porsche SUV, and such a thing is apparently the Antichrist), but a hybrid as well.  All is not lost, in my opinion, because Porsche lately has been doing many things right, and they’re stepping into the environmental field with the right foot first.

Porsche tends to keep their hat on straight when designing their strategy for a car line.  The Panamera, for example, got so much scorn from some of the press in Britain (Top Gear, I’m staring right at you), but Porsche knew that their gamble would pay off.  For one thing, Porsche is particularly good at staying relevant–they know that just keeping their enthusiasts happy and nothing else will bankrupt them eventually, because hard-core enthusiast cars don’t sell in large numbers outside of the base.  This simple fact is why the Cayenne and Panamera have been such big hits–people will buy almost anything with a premium nameplate, and Porsche ended up making a serious killing.

The hybrid route was one I expected to happen at some point.  Porsche is particularly good at getting power out of an engine that seems comparably small in size, so why not efficiency?  Clearly, with the new Cayenne Hybrid, Porsche’s got some seriously good stuff coming on the environmentally-friendly front.  It’s been gifted with a little supercharged V6, supplied with an electric motor, for gas mileage in the low 30s according to the EPA–with 375HP on tap from the showroom, it’s clearly no road slug either, especially when it touts a 0-60 time of 7.5 seconds.  That’s not all that quick in the grand scheme of things for Porsche, but for an SUV that’s designed to be environmentally-conscious, it is most impressive.

In addition, I happen to know of a diesel model that’s been on sale in mainland Europe for a few years.  Now, I know that the idea of a Porsche with a diesel powerplant is pretty much heresy to most Porschephiles, but I think bringing that here as well could be good or bad.  It will indeed increase Porsche’s bottom line to at least some extent, but it could also steal sales away from the Touareg TDI, itself a well-established SUV.  Overall, I welcome Porsche’s first hybrid SUV with open arms, and I think it will definitely be a big hit here in America, just like its standard car.

-Al