Porsche may be best known for its sports cars, but Porsche also makes some great SUVs. One of Porsche’s SUVs is the Cayenne, and it delivers to customers everything they want in a Porsche, but as an SUV. While the 2021 Porsche Cayenne isn’t a cheap SUV, customers seem to love buying them.

The Porsche Cayenne’s weak sales history

Since it’s a Porsche, the Cayenne was always going to be an expensive SUV. For example, the 2021 Porsche Cayenne starts at about $68,000, and customers who want to splurge on their Porsche can end up spending six figures on their Cayenne. Compared to a Bugatti, the Cayenne is cheap, but regardless, not that many people are going to be able to afford a $68,000 midsize luxury SUV.

Unsurprisingly, according to GoodCarBadCar, the Cayenne’s sales reflect that. For example, in 2005, Porsche only sold about 13,000 units of the Cayenne.

Sales declined afterward, and it wasn’t until 2012 that Porsche managed to sell more Cayennes than it did in 2005. After that, the model’s sales have remained relatively stable at or below 20,000 units a year. 

And of course, in 2020, the pandemic happened, and the sudden economic crash led to a lot of people not buying a car. However, as things calmed down, it became clear that the economic crash wasn’t really affecting the people who could afford the Cayenne. As a result, after a massive dip in sales in the early months of the pandemic, the Cayenne rebounded and finished not far from how it sold in 2019. 

How popular the Porsche Cayenne is today

That rebound has continued, and so far in 2021, the Porsche Cayenne is still selling strongly. For example, in the first three months of 2021, GoodCarBadCar says that the Cayenne has sold about 4,200 units, and that’s better than its numbers for the first three months of 2020. These current sales numbers are slightly below 2019’s numbers, but that can be explained by the fact that 2019 was the start of a new generation of the Cayenne.

If 2019’s sales numbers aren’t in the discussion, then the Cayenne has so far sold more units in the first quarter of 2021 than it has sold in the first quarter of many prior years.

This is good news for Porsche and the Cayenne, as it means that people are more than willing to buy a luxury SUV right now. If the Porsche Cayenne’s sales trends continue to hold, then overall, Porsche should be doing some great business in the near future.

An overview of the 2021 model

The Cayenne is a Porsche, so performance is one of the most important things about it. And, as far as performance goes, the Cayenne lives up to the Porsche legacy. It comes with a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6, and that engine gets about 335 hp. That powerful standard engine, along with its impressive handling, means that the Cayenne is a pretty fun car to drive.

Performance aside, however, it’s also an SUV, and it does what SUVs do really well too. Not only does it have a luxurious interior, but it’s also a comfortable and spacious one. On top of that, the Cayenne has plenty of standard features, such as a 12.3-inch touchscreen display, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking, just to name a few. 

When equipped with its standard engine, the Cayenne also gets 21 MPG overall, which is respectable for an SUV as big and powerful as the Cayenne. However, for more environmentally-minded customers, Porsche also offers some powerful hybrid engine options. These hybrid engines can get over 670 hp, but they won’t be cheap by any means.