New seven-seat electric SUV seen on road as testing ramps up ahead of 2027 launch
GREG KABLE
Porsche’s largest and most luxurious car yet, codenamed K1, has been spotted for the first time, as testing begins some three years ahead of the model’s scheduled launch.
New images from a spy photographer purport to show the new electric SUV undergoing dynamic testing, while giving an early indication of its size and shape.
Conceived as a rival to the likes of the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and BMW iX but with the added utility benefits of a third row of seats, the five-metre-plus K1 has been described as having a silhouette that’s “part saloon, part crossover”.
These first images seem to corroborate that positioning, with the prototype seemingly standing as tall as Porsche’s Cayenne SUV but having a flatter roofline and a straighter back end, together with a longer wheelbase and a lower ride height.
Gaps in the camouflage suggest it will be a close visual relation to the new Porsche Macan Electric, with a familiar LED headlight design and wraparound tail-light bar, but bulky cladding and fake trim details obscure the fine details.
It’s unusual to see a car testing in production-spec bodywork as far as three years before its scheduled release, but the Macan Electric hit the road for the first time back in 2021, so it’s not unprecedented for its larger sibling’s design to have been locked in already.
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume has described the K1 as “a very sporting interpretation of an SUV”, adding: “This new vehicle concept is designed to offer strong performance and automated driving with the typical Porsche flyline [shape], along with a completely new experience inside the vehicle.
“We’re thereby underlining and strengthening our sporty luxury positioning. We’re observing growing profit pools in this segment, in particular in China and the US.”
Porsche deputy chairman Lutz Meschke said the K1 was the “perfect match for the Chinese market”.
The K1 will offer the latest in synchronous electric motor, high-performance battery and rapid-charging technology – developments that, insiders at the company’s Zuffenhausen headquarters in Germany say, will extend its price well beyond the £154,000 of today’s range-topping Cayenne.
The K1 will be the first car to sit on Porsche’s adaptation of the Volkswagen Group’s Scalable Systems Platform, known a
