The new third generation, 2018 Porsche Cayenne has just been previewed here in Malaysia. It was officially unveiled at the end of August last year and it has finally made it here. Ever since the first generation Cayenne was launched in 2002, it has been a worldwide hit and the official importers of Porsche in Malaysia, Sime Darby Auto Performance are confident that this will be another boxoffice attraction for the marque.
The new Cayenne is targeted to be launched by the 3rd quarter of 2018 and the preview was for the Malaysian media as well as customers and other guests. This premium, luxury SUV is now available for order and those who are interested can do so at authorised Porsche centres in Sungai Besi KL, Glenmarie and in Penang.
It basically continues with what the Cayenne is all about, which is a excellent balance of practicality with the performance only something Porsche can build. Mr Arnt Bayer, CEO of Sime Darby Auto Performance gave a concise presentation where he said,
“The new Cayenne promises to be more Porsche and more Cayenne than ever. Our primary objective was to further highlight the character of the vehicle. The new Cayenne is now more precise, elegant, athletic and expressive. The Cayenne has also been digitalised and networked throughout by providing another level of digital connectivity to the cockpit. This includes versatility, quality and new cutting-edge driver assistance systems that offer both driver and passengers extraordinary comfort. This is how the Cayenne makes the Porsche experience even more fascinating but remains as a genuine sports car for five.”
The new Cayenne will be available here in two variants - The base Porsche Cayenne and the Porsche Cayenne S. Each actually have a different engine. The base Cayenne has 340 hp 450Nm, three-litre V6 turbo engine which delivers 40 hp more than the previous model. Top speed is 245kmh, up 15kmh from the previous version. 0-100kmh is in 5.9 seconds. It makes the old base Cayenne feel like a snail at 7.6 seconds.
The 2.9-litre V6 biturbo engine in the Cayenne S, allows it a top speed of 265 km/h. The twin turbocharged engine makes 440 hp or 20 hp up on the previous Cayenne S. Torque is a fatter 550Nm. If equipped with the optional Sport Chrono Package, the new Cayenne S accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds. The previous one did it in 5.4 seconds. That's progress for you.
The new Cayenne's new found light footed behaviour is also because it is now up to 65 kilograms lighter. This is thanks to its intelligent lightweight construction where a lot more aluminium it used in its chassis. Even the battery weight is capped with the use of a new lithium ion polymer battery which helped reduce the weight by 10kg. So whilst Porsche actually loaded the new Cayenne with more stuff and other useful bits, it managed to bring the weight down by at almost one full sized normal, not supermodel stick thin, adult.
It has a new eight-speed (ZF based) Tiptronic S gearbox, new chassis control systems, the new engines and innovative Porsche Advanced Cockpit display and control concept with total connectivity, the new Cayenne moves up a notch, or two over the already nice second gen model. The interior gets all the improvements which Porsche made inside the new Panamera and the Cayenne benefits from the improvements. Porsche claims that even though it does add more luxury to the package, the new Cayenne remains perfectly suited to off-road use.
The new Cayenne has its performance levels tweaked and Porsche have actually based its chassis development heavily on their iconic 911 sports car. Porsche are giving the Cayenne more rear grip and handling in some ways. It will feature mixed width tyres (wider at the rear like the 911) and rear-axle steering. Grip and handling is said to be improved with this.
As for its on-road capabilities, (as well as off road), these are further improved by active all-wheel drive as standard, Porsche 4D Chassis Control, three-chamber air suspension, the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control (PDCC) electronic roll stabilisation system, and the newly developed high-performance Porsche Surface Coated Brake (PSCB) which adds a special surface coating to the steel brake discs for added friction (which translate to better grip).
The Cayenne has been quite popular with the affluent here in Malaysia. This new model seems to have all of the hallmarks of another successful Porsche here. There were even loyal customers who came early as they could not attend the customer event later that day and there were those that came from as far as Johor to view the new car and then drove back right after that.
I wonder if these people will have sleepless nights until the official launch later this year.
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