Porsche's Cajun cookin'

Porsche AG today officially confirmed it is planning on bringing a new, smaller-than-Cayenne SUV to market.

Under the working title "Cajun" the little Porsche SUV will aim at a younger demographic and a lower entry price. Although the press release confirming it has given the green light to the new car is sparse on details (the image hereabouts is a com-gen from our friends at Carparazzi), the company did say the sub-Cayenne SUV will have "typical Porsche features such as light weight, ease of handling and agility."

The exact size of the new Porsche SUV, and the powertrains to be employed, are wide open to speculation, but it would be reasonable to expect it will draw heavily from Audi-VW parts bins -- not to mention existing smaller SUVs within the Teutonic empire, including the Audi Q5 and VW Tiguan (remember the Porsche Cayenne was co-developed with the VW Touareg).

That said, the Q5, which essentially is built off the Audi A4, is a fair bit bigger -- and therefore a more likely prospect -- than the Golf-based VW Tiguan.

If that was indeed the scenario, clear driveline choices would include 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol and turbodiesel engines, 3.0-litre turbodiesel V6 and 3.2-litre turbo petrol V6.

However given the distinct drivetrain separation between Porsche Cayenne and VW Touareg, it would be reasonable to expect Stuttgart to actively work on stamping its new SUV with a clearly individual identity.

Porsche family engines including the Porsche V8-derived V6 available in Panamera could ostensibly be factored in -- although the transverse installation requirements of an Audi Q5-based Porsche would obviously require a degree of re-engineering.

What could prove interesting is Porsche's decision on drive systems. Given that many SUV makers today are moving towards giving buyers a choice between all-wheel drive or two-wheel drive, it could well be that Porsche will do a BMW X1 and drag entry prices down to the point where they are more accessible than any previous product from Stuttgart.

Given that the base version of Porsche's Cayenne SUV starts at around $103,000 pre on-road costs and the top-level Audi Q5 is around $76,000, it would be easy to speculate that an entry-level Cajun could be tagged below $100,000.

Prospects for Australia are uncertain at this early stage, but the Cajun is touted as a world car and left and right-hand drive versions could be developed jointly for a world-wide launch in 2013. If that was the case, Australian introduction of what could be an extremely attractive model for the local Porsche operation could follow shortly after, maybe before the end of the same year.

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