Porsche Cayenne diesel set for India drive

Along with other nations in the Middle East and Asia, India will also welcome the Porsche Cayenne Diesel in a short period from now.

Photo: Porsche Cayenne 3.0 D diesel coming to India

Sports car maker Porsche is currently lining up measures to launch the Porsche Cayenne SUV in India. Officially, the car is named cayenne 3.0 D.

Porsche manufactures the car at Leipzig in Germany and it will be available in select European markets from February 2009. The Cayenne diesel was designed for the European markets but the company intends to bring the same to the Indian market as well. European markets are used to high performance diesels, unlike United States, where gasoline (petrol) is still the norm.

Powered by a three-litre V6 turbo diesel engine with 240 HP (176 kW) supplied by Audi AG, the Porsche Cayenne SUV will boast of Tiptronic S automatic transmission as standard. Significantly, Porsche has not used diesel engines in its passenger cars in its past 60-years history. The technology has been used only in Porsche’s tractors earlier. Porsche in now unique in that they have hybrid, petrol and diesel models in the same 4×4 sports SUV range.

Dubbed as an SUV for its superb performance and style, the earlier Cayenne petrol model however doesn’t score full points in terms of fuel economy. However, the new 3.0 liter V6 Turbo Diesel engine from Audi will boast of excellent fuel economy, said previews.

Acording to Porsche, the company is also lining up measures to introduce the Cayenne diesel in other countries too. The previous Cayenne model is in fact India’s largest selling Porsche and a diesel version of the SUV is expected to find enough buyers – we think probably more.

The Cayenne diesel will be the newest addition to the family, and will make it a total seven.

Precision Cars India Private Limited was established in 2007 and has been the official Porsche Importer for India since then.

Porsche looks at offering the highest quality products and after sales service, providing customers with an unprecedented buying experience. This is what it has lined up with the proposed launch of the Cayenne diesel.

Performance of the Porsche Cayenne diesel

No official figures, so far. The new diesel Cayenne will surely weigh more than the 2170 kg of the 3.6 liter petrol engine version. 240 bhp from the diesel engine will put it lower than the 3.6 petrol engine in bhp stakes. Diesels, however, offer much more torque – we do not know how it will all work out in the case of the Cayenne, but our guess right now is that the diesel Cayenne will be superb on India’s roads with possibly higher torque figures than the petrol, while the extra bhp at the top end is practically impossible to use of Indian roads. Just our guess, no brickbats please. We will have to wait and see.

The diesel Cayenne will offer 12.4 kmpl – unbelievable fuel economy figures for a vehicle this size. We can see India already falling in love with it – the ones who can afford the diesel Cayenne, we mean!