K1 to usher in new Porsche look

PORSCHE’s top-of-the-range SUV was re-confirmed by the company’s chairman of the executive board and Volkswagen Group CEO, Oliver Bulme, at Porsche’s Annual General meeting press conference in Germany this week.

Disclosed in the middle of 2022, the new, electric-only, all-wheel drive, coupe-SUV, is based on the Porsche Cayenne but will sit above that model in the company’s portfolio.

Due before the end of the decade, the seven seat Porsche (code named K1) could appear as early as 2027 if Porsche’s planning remains on schedule.

A completely new, fourth generation Cayenne, on which the K1 is said to be based, is scheduled later this decade with the current third generation SUV about to undergo a comprehensive upgrade that will include up to three plug-in hybrid variants, all with greater range.

The K1 has been in planning and design stages for three years and will follow gen’ four Cayenne onto the market. Porsche says the “K1 will have an even wider breadth of abilities, balancing the on-road performance for which Porsche is famous, long-distance comfort and off-road capability”.

The sports car specialist has an ambitious electrification strategy with a focus on the all-electric Cayenne and K1, especially given the all-electric Macan has ‘reached the home straight’ and will be available to customers in 2024.

When it arrives in a few years, the electric only gen’ four Cayenne (and K1) will serve to underline Porsche’s goal of delivering more than 80 per cent of its new vehicles as all-electric models by 2030.

Several speakers at the recent AGM confirmed that the flagship SUV will underpin Porsche’s upwards expanded portfolio, targeting buyers in China and the US. The vehicle is designed to take on the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and BMW iX and will be based on Porsche’s SSP Sport platform developed in-house.

It will likely be powered by oil cooled synchronous electric motors with a high-performance 100kWh battery and rapid-charging 920V technology that are certain to price it above the current top of the line Cayenne 4.0 Turbo S E-Hybrid coupe at $311,100 plus on-road costs.

Adding to the K1’s dynamic capabilities will be four-wheel steering and a wheel-specific torque vectoring system.

The K1 is tipped to usher in new Porsche styling DNA with a ‘unique’ silhouette, a short bonnet, steeply raked windscreen, and an arcing roofline melding into a fastback tail. Adequate ride height for off road driving is said to feature on K1 that will have multiple drive modes and terrain settings similar to those used by Range Rover and others. Air suspension is a given to facilitated variable ride height and thereby ground clearance.

“This new vehicle concept is designed to offer strong performance and automated driving functions with the typical Porsche flyline, along with a completely new experience inside the vehicle,” said Mr Bulme.

He described the car as a very sporting interpretation of an SUV that will take the form of a raised coupé and was optimistic about the company’s prospects particularly after such a strong 2022.

“In difficult conditions, we achieved the strongest result in the history of Porsche, by some distance and were also able to offer our customers exciting new products yet again in 2022,” he said.

“We are expanding our product portfolio with new sports car concepts and will continue to focus on limited editions and expand our Sonderwunsch (special desires) program in the future.

“We want to accommodate the desires and lifestyle of our customers even more than we do already, exceeding their expectations time and again and are thereby underlining and strengthening our ‘sporty luxury’ positioning particularly in China and the US.”