Enthusiasts appreciate Porsche for its sports cars, but bean counters know it's the SUVs that bring home the bacon. The Macan and Cayenne have been leading the sales charts for many years and the numbers should get even better with the arrival of the next-generation, electric-only Macan in 2023. Fueled by the success of its high-riding offerings and the EV boom, the peeps from Zuffenhausen are preparing another electric SUV.
Speaking at Porsche's Capital Markets Day held this week at Porsche's R&D center in Weissach, CEO Oliver Blume announced an extension of the lineup: "We plan to add a new luxury, all-electric SUV model to our attractive portfolio." It's going to be assembled at the factory in Leipzig, and while details are not available, the following statement leads us to believe it will be bigger and more expensive than the Macan EV:
"This [new model] will further expand our position in the luxury automotive segment. We are targeting the higher margin segments in particular and aim to tap into new sales opportunities in this way."
With this new larger electric SUV, the upcoming Macan EV, and the zero-emissions 718 models, Porsche is on track to achieve its goal of having EVs account for more than 80 percent of annual sales by 2030. The new model may or may not have something to do with a report from November 2021 about dealers being allowed to take an early glimpse of a new SUV.
Automotive News cited dealers saying it looked like a "part sedan, part crossover" with a "rakish" profile and without sharing styling cues with the Macan or Cayenne. At that point, dealers were told it had a plug-in hybrid powertrain but with a purely electric drivetrain set to arrive later in the life cycle. If we're dealing with the same vehicle, it could mean the project won't be related to the Volkswagen Group's Artemis Project.
As you may recall, Automotive News Europe's sister publication Automobilewoche wrote at the beginning of this year about Porsche being willing to buy itself out of a deal by paying €100 million to build the EV in-house. According to the original plan, the model was supposed to be assembled in Hanover by VW Commercial Vehicles.
The report went on to specify Porsche would ultimately build the vehicle in Leipzig, which falls in line with the statement made by Blume during the Capital Markets Day. Instead of being based on the Artemis Project, the new model is now expected to ride on the PPE platform that Porsche and Audi have been jointly developing. The Premium Platform Electric will debut in 2023 with the Macan EV and Q6 E-Tron.
