Porsche Says It Won’t Make Any GT-Badged SUVs

Porsche says there’s absolutely no chance it will launch any GT-branded Macan or Cayenne models, despite customer appetites for ever-faster SUVs.

In an interview with Car and Driver, the head of Porsche GT’s road-car development, Andreas Preuninger, said that the division’s road cars need a direct connection to race cars and neither the Macan or Cayenne do.

“The credibility of the GT car is based on direct bloodline to the race cars. A customer buying a GT3 knows there’s a derivative that’s on track every other weekend in a different race series,” he said.

Preuninger suggested that if the company were ever to enter the Macan or Cayenne in the Dakar Rally, it would only then have an excuse to make a road-going variant.

“If we were to enter the Dakar rally with a Macan or Cayenne—something we have no plans to do—then maybe the Motorsport department would develop that car and bring it to the race. Then I would see a good excuse to make something for the street that is very close.

“But to just use a badge on a Panamera or Cayenne to make it more attractive, for me, would not be credible. It would only be marketing, I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Fortunately, customers of the Macan and Cayenne are already spoilt for choice when it comes to performance models. Porsche has already applied its Turbo badges to both SUVs and is thought to be developing a Macan Turbo S to act as the little brother to the existing Cayenne Turbo S.