2015 Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid review: The SUV that shouldn't, but does

In Germany, as elsewhere in the world, pet parakeets occasionally escape (or are “liberated”) from their cages or from importation quarantine pens. These tropical birds should not be able to survive in the harsh winter, and with their foreign upbringing and acid-green plumage should make excellent prey for local predators. However, somehow, they’ve not only survived, but thrived. On the grounds of a riverfront castle we visited southwest of Frankfurt, flocks of them flapped, squawked, and clustered in the sycamore trees like one of Tippi Hedren’s more vibrant PTSD flashbacks. Anyone who thinks something this colorful cannot be menacing has not spent long enough in the company of clowns.

We stood amidst this avian plague in a break from driving the Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid and it occurred to us that the new vehicle — the third plug-in hybrid in the manufacturer’s ever expanding range — was very similar to the feral parrots. It behaves in a way that it shouldn’t, but it succeeds. Also, it has acid-green brake calipers.

For those unfamiliar with the mutating nature of the Cayenne lineup, the $76,400 S E-Hybrid slots in, in terms of price, right around that of the $74,100 Cayenne S, meaning that it stickers above the $61,700 Diesel but below the $113,600 Turbo. Interestingly enough, the same pattern follows for performance, with the Diesel at the bottom (0-60 mph in 7.2 seconds), the Turbo at the top (0-60 in 4.2), and the S and SE-Hybrid duking it out between, racing to 60 in a very respectable 5.2 and 5.4 respectively. The Hybrid thus earns the “S” designation in its name.

The way it gets to these specs, while delivering (projected) fuel economy that beats the pants off all of its siblings — think combined EPA ratings about 30-percent better than the Cayenne S and 15-percent better than the diesel — is what makes it such an, ahem, odd bird.