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Next-generation Porsche Cayenne could go electric

Next-generation Porsche Cayenne could go electric

It depends on whether advancements in battery tech allow it to.

Porsche already confirmed the second-generation Macan will be entirely electric; it won't be available with any type of internal combustion engine. The next Cayenne could follow the same path if advancements in battery technology allow it to.

"Of course we are discussing the electrification of the Cayenne -- but we are doing the same for every model line,” said Wolfgang Butschek, Porsche's manager for sales and marketing, in an interview with British magazine Autocar. He added there are many global markets asking for electric cars.

Autocar learned the third-generation Cayenne won't go on sale until 2025 at the earliest. It will most likely arrive as an electric vehicle if Porsche and/or parent company Volkswagen can manufacture solid-state batteries reliably and cost-efficiently by the time it enters production. Solid-state technology promises to make battery packs lighter than the lithium-ion units that are the norm in the industry as of 2019, so a large, bulky vehicle like the Cayenne would be able to offer a substantial amount of driving range without tipping the scale at a number normally associated with a Sherman tank. Most of the companies developing solid-state battery packs say the technology will be ready in the early 2020s.

If the Cayenne carries on with gasoline engines, Porsche will need to get creative in order to make it compliant with the Euro 7 emissions regulations that are expected to come into effect across the European Union in the early 2020s. If it goes electric, however, the current model (pictured) will remain in production for a couple of years to satisfy demand in markets where electric cars aren't being made mandatory.