Out of Spec Reviews says it has become the first US outlet to get the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, and the car did not arrive on a boat. The hosts say it was flown in from Germany after a shipping holdup, then trucked to their North Carolina track. What they have is the base Cayenne Electric in full range specification, wearing the polarizing aero wheels most buyers will skip. The team walks through a pack they describe as roughly 108 kWh usable and 113 kWh gross, 400 kW peak DC charging, and a rear motor shared with the Macan EV rather than the oil cooled unit further up the range. This is not a full review, they say, just a first look. They spend it poking through the software menus, launching it on track, putting a wheel in the air off road, and trying to guess the sticker on a car that has no window sticker.
Porsche lists the Cayenne Electric from $109,000 before its $2,350 destination fee, with the S near $126,000 and the Turbo topping the range at well over $150,000. The SUV rides on the 800 volt PPE platform it shares with the Macan and Audi's electric Q6, and Porsche positions it against the BMW iX, Mercedes EQE SUV, Tesla Model X, and Lucid Gravity. That set is where Out of Spec's running theme lands: value. The base car here opens around six figures with a smaller battery than several of those rivals, and the hosts repeatedly point to a competitor they expect to start near $80,000 with a much larger pack. Their counterargument is the intangible Porsche stuff, seating position, build quality, and the way it moves, none of which shows up on a spec sheet but all of which people pay for. One thing worth remembering for used shoppers: six figure electric SUVs like this tend to depreciate hard, so a well kept Cayenne Electric could become a relative bargain a few years out, which is the angle Out of Spec's broader coverage often chases.
On track, the hosts say the 435 horsepower base car feels quick off the line in launch control but tapers past about 30 mph, and presenter Scott compares the sensation to a quicker Nissan Leaf rather than anything savage. They note the whole cabin is eerily quiet, thanks in part to the optional double pane glass, to the point that 100 mph felt like 30. Off road, the video reports the rock mode drivetrain was impressive at locking a spinning wheel through the brakes with almost no drama, yet the same base car could not climb the track's stair steps. The team blames limited stall torque and a raised suspension that cuts low speed power, and suggests the pricier S, with its oil cooled rear motor, would do better. They also flag a rough charging edge case: plugging an AC connector into the NACS port produced zero kilowatts and only a misleading left charging port impaired warning, which they worry could stump a first time EV buyer. On top of that, the hosts say early US cars shipped without the optional lane centering because of a software issue. They estimate the tested car around $122,000 as configured, roughly $10,000 under their pre drive guess.
Bottom line: This is the Cayenne for someone who already knows they want a Porsche and is buying the badge, the feel, and that flat charging curve rather than the numbers. As tested it lands near $122,000 with a smaller battery than several rivals and, on early US cars, no lane centering. If it were our money we would wait for the S with the oil cooled motor, which the hosts themselves land on by the end. The base car is competent and beautifully built, but the value math only closes if the intangibles are the entire point of the purchase.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.