McKenna Porsche Debuts the Cayenne Electric and the Mind-Blowing Cayenne Electric Turbo
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On Tuesday June 9 McKenna Porsche played host to two VIP visitors from Germany. The stars drew a crowd of hundreds of onlookers and were unveiled in a Hollywood-style treatment, with multiple unveilings and a throng of auto enthusiasts that turned the Norwalk-Downey showroom into more of a party than sales center.
Of course, they were two amazing new cars from the venerable brand: The Porsche Cayenne SUV Electric and Electric Turbo.
The sporting autos made their debut in Southern California to fanfare, a festival atmosphere put on by the McKenna brand, which also operates a BMW and Audi dealer in the same location. The all day event, which featured refreshments to go along with timed unveilings, allowed auto enthusiasts a unique sneak preview into the brand’s latest offering.
The experiential event comes during a newsy year for McKenna Porsche, who announced in May that they would be expanding their operations to Anaheim, bringing a new sales center to the city in a massive, $60M undertaking.
For the company, the Cayenne Electric represents a future direction for not only Porsche, but the California EV market, said John Hall, VP of sales operations for McKenna. “We’re in the California market, and EV has become a centric part of the car industry. So, I think EV has, because there’ve been so many dull entries into it, it’s unfortunately taken a little bit of an appliance approach,” he said.
“Porsche wanted to kind of address the luxury customer, the sports car customer, but the driving enthusiast, all in one aspect.”
In the Cayenne Electric series, with spirited performance coming from a base 435-horsepower electric motive system and extending all the way to an mind-boggling 1,139-horsepower output from the Electric Turbo, Porsche has offered a luxurious, roomy vehicle that is still good for a 2.4 second 0-60 time.
The debut represents the brand’s further extension into both the EV and SUV market, something that Hall says helps account for a large part of the brand’s sales. “The 911s are … 10% of our business. So, as nostalgic as it is, and all the heritage that comes with that car, it’s only 10% of the business,” he said. “The volume of this business for us is SUV.”
For those who already own a Porsche, said general manager Amy Buontempo, the Cayenne Electric fills a practical niche. “This is gonna be the most exciting part for our sports car enthusiasts, because we’ll get the best of both worlds. We get the people that have families and need the space, but we also get to have the people that have our 911s in their garage to be able to transition into this as a daily driver and be just as excited.”
The assembled crowd seemed to agree as they dug into the two cars on display, checking the roomy trunk, the “frunk,” the beautifully appointed interior and all the integrated systems, including dual experiences for the driver and passenger and wraparound information screens throughout.
McKenna’s leadership said that they were taking deposits now, and that vehicles would start rolling in in late July.
Jon & Vinny’s provided wood-fired pies for the gathered guests. (Alan LaGuardia)
Further bolstering the party atmosphere was a daytime coffee popup from Cafablanca Coffee and an evening pizza and wine event from Jon & Vinny’s, serving the hungry enthusiasts with slices and pairings right in the showroom.
While the cars have been taken to their next tour stop, McKenna Porsche is currently taking deposits for both the Electric and Electric Turbo and both are available to configure at the showroom or on the company’s website.
