The 2024 Porsche Cayenne Ditches the Analog Tachometer

These days, a car gaining a fully digital gauge cluster is hardly news, yet it's a little different in the case of the new Porsche Cayenne. The updated version of the SUV, set to debut next month, loses its analog tachometer, a longtime Porsche hallmark. Instead, the tachometer is digitally rendered on a curved, 12.6-inch display similar to what's used on the Taycan.

The Taycan was the first Porsche to do without an analog tachometer, but that's because being fully electric, it doesn't need a tachometer at all. We're still a few years away from an all-electric Cayenne, so this is the first internal-combustion Porsche to represent engine speed on a screen. Previously on the Cayenne, an analog tachometer was flanked by two displays on either side.

Porsche's central tachometer has long been a hallmark of the brand, appearing on most examples of the 356, every 911/912, Boxster/Cayman, the Macan, the Panamera, and the most recent two generations of the Cayenne. (The 924/944/968 and 928 always had tach and speedometer side by side.) In this digital age, an analog tachometer in the middle of the gauge cluster certainly isn't a necessity, but it was always a nice thing to have. It separated Porsche from other luxury-car companies, and brought a bit of old-school feel to the interior. It was a little romantic. Now, that little connection to the past will slowly disappear. Though we're holding out hope that it'll remain in the 911, which unlike the rest of the Porsche lineup, is not going all-electric.