2020 Porsche Cayenne Coupe revealed at media event (video)

We’re used to seeing a dizzying array of model variants being spawned off Porsche’s 911, but the Zuffenhausen marque has thus far been content to offer a single body style of its volume-selling Cayenne SUV.

That’s now changed, with the company revealing a ‘Coupe’ variant of the all-terrainer at an exclusive media event in Stuttgart on Thursday night (March 21). It’s a damning indictment of motor shows that the brand chose not to use the recent Geneva motor show to whip the covers off the newcomer, but that’s another story.

Why is Porsche adding a model to its line-up that offers less practicality than the Cayenne it’s derived from? The simple answer is because customers seem to like the SUV-coupe genre, and as proof of this you only need to see how many BMW X6s and Mercedes GLE Coupes are visible on our roads. Audi also recently joined the party with its slope-roofed Q8.

It’s against these rivals that the Cayenne Coupe will compete when it launches in the GCC in October, with pricing starting at Dhs 335,900 for the 3.0-litre V6 turbo, rising to Dhs 598,700 for the range-topping 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.

The entry model serves up a 340hp/450Nm punch, enabling the six-cylinder Cayenne Coupe to sprint from 0-100 kph in 6 seconds and hit 243 kph flat out. The range-topping V8-powered Cayenne Turbo Coupe thrashes out 550hp and 770Nm, which means it hits 100kph in a ballistic 3.9sec and can reach a v-max of 286 kph.

As evident from the accompanying images, the main visual changes are at the rear, with its sharply tapered roofline and adaptive rear spoiler that’s part of Porsche Active Aerodynamics (PAA). The spoiler extends by 135mm at speeds of 90 kph and up, which Porsche claims keeps the rear end glued to road at high speeds.

The roofline tops out around 20mm lower than the standard Cayenne, and the A-pillars and front windscreen also have a steeper rake than the standard Cayenne. Meanwhile, redesigned rear doors and fenders broaden the shoulders of the Coupe by 18mm, giving it a beefier stance on the road.

The new Cayenne Coupe comes with a 2.16-square-metre panoramic fixed glass roof as standard, adding to the airiness of the cabin, but you can also choose a carbon roof that’s available in one of the three lightweight sports packages. These packages also include the Sport Design features and new, weight-reduced 22-inch GT Design wheels, seat centres in classic chequered fabric, as well as carbon and Alcantara accents in the interior. The package also includes a sports exhaust system in the flagship Cayenne Turbo Coupe.

The rear seats in the Coupe are set lower than in the standard Cayenne to ensure headroom isn’t compromised by the steeply raked roofline. This DriveArabia scribe sat in the rear at the reveal and can confirm that anyone up to 1.83m (or six feet in the old scale) won’t have any head-space issues in the back. Boot capacity is 625 litres with all the seats in place, but folding down the rear pews boosts luggage space to 1,540 litres, which means the new Cayenne derivative is still a practical all-purpose chariot.

The Cayenne Coupe wasn’t conceived to be a volume seller, but Porsche sales and marketing boss Detlev von Platen says he expects the new variant to account for about 30 percent of total Cayenne sales once it hits the market. That’s still a fairly significant number, but time will tell if this forecast is accurate.