Porsche’s incoming seven-seat flagship SUV will now be twinned with the forthcoming Audi Q9 Porsand provided with high-powered V8 and V6 powertrains after the Stuttgart automobile maker cancelled plans to launch it as a bespoke electrical automobile.
The range-topper, described by Porsche as a D-SUV and identified internally beneath the codename K1, will occupy a market place beforehand not touched by the model. It’s tentatively scheduled for a UK launch in 2028.
The K1 is predicted to be provided in a variety of configurations, together with four-, five- and seven-seat layouts. Its measurement, seating choices and technical spec will allow it to problem the likes of the BMW X7 and Mercedes-Benz GLS, Autocar has been instructed.
It is going to sit on guardian Volkswagen Group’s Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) structure, according to its Q9 sibling. Audi is creating the seven-seat Q9 as a high-end range-topper, primarily centered on markets such because the US, the Center East and China.
The K1’s transfer to the PPC follows Porsche’s important shift in its electrical technique final yr on account of rising monetary pressures. Certainly, the choice to base the K1 on the identical underpinnings because the Q9 – which Audi has but to formally affirm – is seen as a key think about serving to Porsche to offset the excessive price of creating its new electrical fashions, sources have instructed Autocar.
The PPC has been engineered to make use of a spread of six- and eight-cylinder petrol engines, in addition to a next-generation plug-in hybrid system. Because of this, the K1 is predicted to be launched with a selection of set-ups centred on twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8s and three.0-litre V6s, with energy overlaying an identical unfold to the smaller Cayenne’s 348bhp-730bhp providing.
Earlier plans had earmarked the K1 as a purely electrical mannequin based mostly on the Volkswagen Group’s Scalable Programs Platform. Nevertheless, delays in that structure’s engineering, particularly its software program, and a slowdown in EV curiosity (centred on a speedy decline in Taycan gross sales) have pushed Porsche to as an alternative launch it with combustion energy.
However, an eventual launch of an electrical K1 continues to be deliberate, Porsche has confirmed to Autocar. The primary K1 fashions, with petrol and plug-in hybrid energy, are anticipated to be launched round 12 months after the primary Q9 fashions, that are due subsequent yr. Whereas the UK is predicted to be one of many new Porsche SUV’s largest markets in Europe, each the US and China are thought of essential to its long-term success.
The K1 is predicted to be constructed on the identical strains because the Q9 on the Volkswagen Group’s Bratislava plant in Slovakia. The Cayenne EV can be constructed there, suggesting manufacturing potential for the electrical K1. The EV was initially earmarked for Porsche’s Leipzig plant however rising manufacturing prices in Germany have pressured the automobile maker to search for a less expensive various.
