Yahoo Autos Porsche celebrates 18 years, three generations, and a million units of the Cayenne
In 2002, Porsche snapped the public's opinion in half when it sent the first-generation Cayenne to compete in the then-new high-performance SUV segment. Its bet paid off, and it just manufactured the one millionth example.
Built in Bratislava, Slovakia, the milestone car (shown above) is a GTS model painted in Carmine Red. Don't look for it in the company's official museum; it has already been delivered to a customer in Germany, so it might be cruising at 130 mph on the autobahn as you read this. Taking 18 years to build a million cars might not sound impressive, not when Ford sold nearly 900,000 units of the F-Series in 2019, but it's a significant achievement for a small company like Porsche that hasn't concerned itself with volume. Building the millionth 911 took 54 years.
And, without the hugely profitable Cayenne, we may not have the current 911. As it took a break to celebrate its production milestone, Porsche candidly explained it began looking at branching out into the SUV segment at the end of the 1990s as a way to boost its profits after a near-death experience earlier in the decade. It was saved from an uncertain fate by the original Boxster, but executives knew they had to reach more buyers by expanding the range to avoid ending up in the red again. Porsche consequently joined forces with Volkswagen to develop an off-roader code-named Colorado internally that blended the performance and handling buyers expected with a relatively high degree of all-terrain capability. It also needed to offer space for five passengers and their gear.
