This Porsche plug-in SUV is a pricey dayglo antidepressant on wheels

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  This dayglo assault of orange and volt green is the (deep breath) 2020 Porsche Cayenne Coupe Turbo S E-Hybrid. It's the top-of-the-range Cayenne and also a plug-in. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ]

The car you picture when someone says "Porsche" probably isn't an SUV. Yet these days, most of the vehicles that Porsche builds are SUVs. Last year, it sold nearly 100,000 Macans and more than 92,000 Cayennes. Add up all the 911s and 718s and Panameras across the same 12 months and you only get 88,000.

I offer these numbers to say that SUVs keep the lights on at Porsche. And when the company's engineers are called upon to build one, they make sure that it's packed full of Porsche attitude. It's the same attitude that has spent decades proving that, actually, you can put the engine behind a car's rear wheels and still make a safe-handling sports car. A Macan or a Cayenne has to also be a Porsche as much as it is an SUV. If you just want German luxury, you'll find it cheaper-and more luxurious-at Audi, BMW, or Mercedes-Benz.

But if cheap German luxury is what you're looking for, the 2020 Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid Coupe is definitely not the SUV for you. It's the most expensive Porsche SUV you can buy-a base price of $164,400 before one hits the notoriously expansive, expensive options list. It's an awful lot of money for a car, whichever way you slice it.

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