Porsche Cayenne vs Nissan Pathfinder

What's the difference?

There is a lot riding on this new Cayenne Electric, it is the sales leader for the German brand and if it suffers the same sales decline as the Macan, that will be a big concern for Porsche.

The good news is it’s an impressive all-rounder, with an incredible breadth of capability. But so is the electric Macan.

Going electric hasn’t diminished its trademark Porsche elements, and instead has amplified them in many respects. The speed is nothing short of staggering in the Turbo, but across the range the on and off-road driving ability is impressive. 

Plus it has the kind of spacious, well-considered and premium appointed cabin you should expect for a luxury SUV.

There are two key differences that could see it succeed where the Macan has faltered. Unlike the Macan, Porsche’s decision to give Cayenne buyers the option to stick with internal combustion if they prefer, is likely to ensure it remains a popular member of its line-up for years to come.

And while the Macan was perhaps too much, too soon, the Cayenne arrives at a time when Australians are embracing electric cars more than ever before. Although the luxury and performance end of the EV market is growing more slowly than the mainstream.

As for the pick of the range, as mind-blowing as the Turbo is, the truth is (like pretty much every Porsche model) the entry-level Cayenne is arguably the pick of the bunch. It has all the performance you’ll reasonably need and offers a good blend of capability and luxury for the lowest price.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

There’s a lot to like about the Nissan Pathfinder. The current model not only looks a lot better than its predecessor but in ST-L trim — and with an even cheaper front-wheel drive model — it offers the kind of value Australian families are chasing. 

For all its practicalities, towing capacity and refined driving experience, the Pathfinder’s fatal flaw is its limited engine choice. A thirsty petrol V6 with no engine start-stop tech stunts its appeal for those who live in suburban areas where a Kluger hybrid just works better.

The ST-L is a worthy consideration for your next purchase if you’re less bothered about fuel use, and it's the pick of the line-up, offering just about every creature comfort and safety feature you'd want in a good-value package.

For all the positives of continuing to offer the previous generation Cayenne alongside the new one, it does come with some downsides too. The most obvious is unmissable design differences between the older generation and this newer one.

This new electric version has the same basic silhouette of the previous Cayenne, but the details give it a distinctive look. Being electric it needs to cut through the air as efficiently as possible, so this new model is longer and lower than the internal combustion versions.

The details of the design also give it a sharper, more modern look too. Not that the previous Cayenne suddenly looks old and outdated, but if you stick with petrol power you will be sacrificing the latest styling.

Another surprising design element with this new model is an optional off-road package, which includes a unique front bumper for greater off-road clearance and approach angle. It’s unlikely that too many Cayenne Electric owners will head deep into the bush, but for those who want to, the unique bumper will help them go further. 

However, it does create a rather unusual look, as it has quite a pronounced undercut, or what I referred to as an ‘overbite’ that definitely doesn’t look as well-proportioned as the standard bodykit.

Inside, for all the hype around Porsche performance, one of the brand’s standout features has always been interior design. 

This new Cayenne looks really interesting inside, with curved screens for the digital instrument display and the multimedia system, as well as the option to add a third screen in-front of the passenger. 

The overall level of fit and finish, the detail and quality of the materials is exactly what you’d expect from a premium brand and an SUV at this price point.

The Pathfinder has a lot going for it in the looks department. Lead designer Ken Lee leaned into the nameplate’s past, incorporating the three horizontal strips between the broad bonnet and 'V-Motion' grille which is encircled in chrome. 

There’s real presence to this SUV (partially down to the Pathfinder's sheer size) with chunky wheel arches and plenty of vertical surfaces. The most eye catching colour is 'Scarlet Ember' red ($750) but the pearlescent 'Deep Ocean Blue' seen here is a classy look. 

Every manufacturer is doing the spaced out nameplates on the boot lid now, but the Pathfinder was an early adopter and it is particularly well executed on this car. There's also the massive (in proportion to the vehicle) Nissan badges. 

Inside, the Pathfinder focuses more on practicality and usability than wow-factor. There are no tacky design flourishes and the three-row SUV manages to stay on the right side of Americana, a trick the Toyota Kluger could learn.

As for the space and practicality, once again Porsche showcases that it’s not a one-trick pony brand. As fast as the Cayenne Electric is - and is very fast - the designers have also ensured it is a genuinely spacious vehicle for a family.

The second row space is good, enough to take two adults in comfort and easily accommodate three kids.

The SUV is obviously the more practical of the pair, with the Coupe losing some rear headroom.

As for the boot, space varies between 781L for the Cayenne SUV and 747L for the S and Turbo SUVs, while the Coupe looks sleeker but comes at the expense of cargo capacity, dropping to 534L for the Coupe and Coupe S and just 500L for the Coupe Turbo. 

The technology integration is well-considered too. One highlight is the new curved central multimedia screen, which has a palm rest that extends out from the centre fascia to make it more ergonomic to use the screen. 

The intuitive menu, as well as the physical controls for the volume and climate control, plus the ability to integrate the smartphone apps, means the key non-driving functions are incredibly easy-to-use, even on the move. 

Integrated into that palm rest is a large centre console space between the front seats, which has both wireless smartphone charging as well as four USB-C ports and two cupholders. It means there is plenty of small item storage space to go with all the room for people.

The Pathfinder is a thoughtfully packaged and practical vehicle, trading on more than just size with plenty of clever storage solutions. 

In the front there are generous door bins, twin cupholders and a deep central cubby. But there’s more, with a thin rubberised storage shelf above the glove box perfect for phones or sunglasses and a pass-through space below the centre console for larger items. 

A storage space for a smartphone is found in close proximity to USB-A, a USC-C and 12-volt sockets. All of thus is beneath a physical switch panel for the dual-zone climate control. 

The 9.0-inch multimedia touchscreen is the only letdown, feeling quite small in the Pathfinder's vast cabin. It is still responsive and features wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, though. The Pathfinder’s sound system is passable after tweaking the bass and treble balance. 

The analogue speedometer and tachometer sits either side of a 7.0-inch media screen that gives driving information along with settings for safety systems. There are switches on the steering wheel to control major functions, including cruise control, media and the screen operation. 

Among its competitive set, the US-built Pathfinder’s build quality is excellent. There are cleverly positioned soft-touch plastics and we didn’t notice any rattles over our week of testing, unlike Palisades and Klugers. The steering wheel, especially, is appointed in a high quality, smooth-grained leather.

While the ST-L may only get cloth upholstery, which is admittedly harder to clean than leather, the high-quality material is more temperature stable than the imitation cow hide often seen at this price. It’s also combined with heated front seats. 

Adding to the comfort factor is power adjustment for the driver’s seat including in/out and up/down lumbar control. The passenger seat is manually adjustable but with a lever for height and the driving position is pleasingly low-set. 

The low front seats open up a world of excellence for the second row’s stadium seating which gives passengers a fantastic view out. Not only is this just nice, it also helps kill travel sickness for kids (and grown-ups). 

The second row is on front/back sliding rails with fine backrest adjustment to dial in a comfortable position. There’s ample room even for adults over 185cm with plenty of head, leg and toe-room. 

Amenities include a third climate zone, USB-A and USB-C charge points, a total of six beverage holders and a fold-out armrest.

The Nissan Pathfinder has ISOFIX tabs in the two outboard rear seat positions. The anchors are not hidden behind a cover so there is nothing to lose and the three top tether points are big and meaty for easy access. 

Nissan deserves praise for its wide opening doors, the Pathfinder’s go almost perpendicular to the body with a large square aperture making loading dogs, children or shopping extremely easy.

But there’s one crucial flaw — the back windows don’t go all the way down leaving around a third of the glass sticking up. 

The Pathfinder’s three-wide third row is vast in the third row, with enough space for adults in a pinch — at least two across the three-wide bench — and up to four beverages.

The power-actuated second row gets out of the way quickly (perhaps a little too fast!) and slides back into place easily. The rear bench is split 60/40 with the long portion on the Australian kerbside.

There are no ISOFIX or top tether points in the third row of the Pathfinder ST-L which does hurt its practicality. The Ti-L features ISOFIX and top tether for one third row seat.

Aside from that, the Pathfinder is about as good as an SUV gets for practicality, though a Kia Carnival people mover has the edge for outright human carrying ability. 

Behind the shapely power tailgate, the Pathfinder offers either 205L, 554L or 782L of cargo space depending on how many seats are in use. And while the smallest figure sounds compact, the space is tall and square making it quite practical. Four school bags would fit easily or five at a pinch. 

With the third row stored elegantly in the floor, the space is generous although interrupted by the roof-mounted middle third-row seat belt which is a faff to unbuckle.

Amenities include two shopping bag hooks, a 12-volt socket, four tie-down points and a spacious wet storage area below the boot floor.

The spare tyre is hung beneath the Pathfinder however it is a temporary space saver, rather than a full-size item. 

Despite no diesel powerplant, the Pathfinder’s towing capacity is best in class, beating both Palisade and Kluger with its 2700kg braked limit (750kg unbraked).

Though still shy of the ladder frame Ford Everest and Isuzu MU-X (3500kg), the monocoque Pathfinder’s high limit is impressive.

The ST-L is not lacking for features, with 18-inch alloy wheels, a 360-degree camera view system, tri-zone climate control, a head-up display, built-in navigation, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, front and rear parking sensors, cloth upholstery and heated seats. 

The front-wheel drive ST-L starts at an impressive $59,670, undercutting the Hyundai Palisade Elite ($66,800) and more spartan Toyota Kluger GX hybrid ($60,920). The all-wheel drive ST-L seen here costs $64,170, with all prices before on-road costs.

As for other Pathfinder trims, the Ti adds a more powerful stereo, leather-accented upholstery and different wheel designs for $67,990 (in front-wheel drive) and the full-fat Ti brings a digital driver’s display, 20-inch alloy wheels and second row captain’s chairs — dropping seat capacity to seven — for $82,490, all before on-road costs.

As mentioned earlier, there are three initial Cayenne Electric variants and each offer a different powertrain option. All are dual-motor, all-wheel drive but the power levels vary greatly depending on what you spend.

The standard Cayenne Electric comes with 300kW (325kW on Overboost), which is enough for this five-seat, family friendly SUV to launch 0-100km/h in just 4.8 seconds, which is genuinely impressive.

However, stepping up to the Cayenne S raises the power level to 400kW (490kW on Overboost) and drops the 0-100km/h time to 3.8 seconds.

Finally there’s the Cayenne Turbo, with up to 850kW of power and a claimed 0-100km/h capability of just 2.5 seconds. Which is borderline crazy for such a big SUV. 

It is worth explaining that the 850kW claim for the Cayenne Turbo is only available for short bursts of performance when you activate Overboost, and the ‘standard’ output for the two electric motors is 630kW, which may sound like a lot less but is actually more than enough to make the Cayenne Turbo feel fast anytime you need more performance.

The Nissan Pathfinder is only available with a petrol engine. It is an all-aluminium dual overhead cam direct and multi-point injection 3.5-litre V6. It's part of Nissan’s ‘VQ’ engine family that has been around since 1994. 

The V6 develops 202kW at 6400rpm and 340Nm at 4800rpm which are respectable outputs. The torque builds steadily from around 3000rpm and starts to really move the Pathfinder above 4000rpm. 

The lusty engine note is a nice touch in a world dominated by down-sized turbo-petrols and hybrids. There’s something refreshing about the natural response of a large capacity naturally aspirated engine, too, interfacing slickly with the nine-speed automatic transmission.

The Cayenne is Porsche’s third electric model, after the Taycan and Macan, and it shows. The brand has taken battery production in-house for the Cayenne, producing the 106kWh unit at its own factory in Eastern Europe.

Range is rated at 542km for the Cayenne, 571km for the Cayenne S and 537km for the Cayenne Turbo.

Thermal efficiency is the key selling point for Porsche, as it unlocks not only the peak performance but also the repeatability that allows the Cayenne to launch so quickly over and over again. It’s notable, that unlike most other EVs that get slower the more time you extract peak performance out of them, Porsche was happy for us to undertake multiple acceleration runs in the same vehicle.

But that’s not the only trick Porsche has up its sleeve. It will be introducing inductive charging with the Cayenne. This means you’ll be able to buy a charging pad you can place on the floor in your garage, and simply drive it, park on top of it and the Cayenne will charge wirelessly.

This has the potential to be a game-changer for EV buyers as it removes the need to plug in to replenish the batteries, making life even easier for owners. It’s not available in Australia at the time of publication, but the company says it will be available from the fourth quarter and all Australian-delivered models, even those sold now, will be able to be retrofitted to take advantage of the technology.

For all the benefits of that large capacity V6 it has a fatal flaw and that is fuel efficiency — particularly around the suburbs. 

The Pathfinder’s rated fuel consumption is 10.5L/100km in the ADR combined (urban/extra urban) cycle with 245g/km CO2 outputs, however it is much thirstier around town. 

After 100km of suburban driving in Sydney, the Pathfinder’s trip computer read 15.3L/100km. It lacks an engine start-stop system to save precious millilitres when sitting at traffic lights. 

Other large V6 vehicles will be similar, or probably slightly higher in the case of the multi-point injected Palisade, but the gold standard in this segment is the Toyota Kluger hybrid which easily returns figures of 6.0L/100km or less in pretty much all driving. 

A longer 200km loop taking in motorways and country roads saw the Pathfinder consume fuel at 11.4L/100km which is an improvement but still very high.

Our observed fuel consumption gives the Pathfinder, with its 71L tank, a theoretical driving range of 602km. It will happily take standard 91 RON unleaded at the pump.

Porsche Australia invited us to drive the new Cayenne Electric in Port Lincoln, South Australia. While a picturesque part of the country, it seemed like an unlikely venue to test drive a new Porsche, as it’s typically Ford Ranger/Toyota HiLux country.

But one of the reasons Porsche launched the Cayenne Electric in regional South Australia was because they had managed to find a small airstrip we could use to fully explore the acceleration potential. 

Even some operator error, which meant my launch was using ‘just’ the 630kW, the acceleration was sickeningly fast and had me hitting more than 170km/h in just 200m. With the full 850kW unleashed the Cayenne is actually faster 0-100km/h than Porsche’s hero sports car, the iconic 911 Turbo S. 

That alone is a remarkable achievement, but Porsche had a few more reasons for taking us to Port Lincoln. After a drive on some sealed roads, which demonstrated the SUV's on-road composure, we found ourselves heading off-road… more off-road than I thought possible (or at least sensible) in a Porsche.

After surviving some of the gnarliest rocky roads, we found ourselves in some stunning sand dunes. We were driving the Cayenne S with the optional off-road package but the only other modification was to let down the tyres.

Carving through sand dunes like you’re in the Dakar Rally is likely to be a rare job for the Cayenne Electric, but the fact it is capable is immensely impressive and helps to demonstrate the breadth of capability that this electric SUV has.

But Porsche wasn’t finished showing off just how multi-talented the Cayenne is. 

They had a Cayenne Turbo attached to a trailer, carrying the previously beaten 911 Turbo S, to prove that it can live up to its claimed 3500kg towing capacity.

Towing a nearly $600k sports car with a $260k SUV is an expensive way to demonstrate the point, but the Cayenne didn’t miss a beat. Certainly the battery was dropping more rapidly than it was unladen, but the electric Cayenne underlined that it can do everything the petrol versions can manage (at least over a short distance).

The Nissan Pathfinder is a remarkably pleasant drive. It is smooth and quiet on the motorway, comfortable around town and talented on testing Australian country roads. 

Nissan has managed to nail the fundamentals including a well-weighted electronic power steering system, good ride comfort at high and low speeds and impressive body control for a high-set 2052kg vehicle that rides on passive dampers. 

The 18-inch alloys are wrapped in 255/60 Kumho Crugen HP71 tyres which are notably cushier than the Ti-L’s bigger 20-inch alloy wheels shod with 255/50 rubber. 

Being a car-based SUV, the Nissan Pathfinder is more comfortable and a sportier drive than more off-road focused vehicles such as the Ford Everest and Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. It is not as dynamic as smaller seven seaters such as the Kia Sorento but is still secure and stable. 

There are seven drive modes in total, with three ('Sand', 'Mud' and 'Snow') dedicated to off-roading, a further trio ('Auto', 'Eco', 'Sport') for the tarmac and a dedicated 'Tow' mode. 

Along with adjusting steering weight and shift logic, the all-wheel drive Pathfinder adjusts the torque split settings. It can be a little slow to shift torque to the front wheels leading to chirping on fast getaways but it is mostly solid and a worthy $4500 investment over the new front-wheel drive only model. 

Visibility is not great with a high belt line and low-set driving position. With the third row's large headrests up it's hard to see out the rear window, too, so it can be difficult to judge kerbs and walls while parking. A standard 360-degree camera system helps in low-speed manoeuvring.

The Nissan Pathfinder received a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2022. 

It has a total of nine airbags including dual front, a front centre, side chest for first and second rows and curtain airbags covering all three rows, unlike some smaller rivals.

Active driver assistance systems include autonomous emergency braking (AEB) that can detect cars, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcycles.

The AEB system functions front and rear and includes junction cross-traffic detection. Lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring and speed sign detection are also standard. Stability control and ABS systems intervene early and smoothly.

Going further than just having the systems, the Pathfinder’s integration is very good. The adaptive cruise control is smooth, the lane-trace assist is mostly good. They can all be easily disabled if you like, too.

The Cayenne Electric is covered by Porsche’s usual three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and the battery gets eight years of coverage.

Both of these are fairly standard by historical terms, but with so many luxury brands - including Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz - all now offering five years of coverage, it does leave Porsche lagging behind.

Servicing intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first, which is standard for an internal combustion engine vehicle.

Porsche doesn’t offer capped-price servicing, so prices may vary from dealer to dealer. However, the brand does sell a special EV-focused ‘Porsche Scheduled Maintenance Plan’ that costs $1995 for three years, $3695 for four years and $3995 for five years of servicing. 

Nissan recommends the Pathfinder is serviced every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first.

You can pay-as-you-go ($2592) or up front ($2333) which saves $259 over five years ($518.40/$466.60 average per workshop visit).

Those service price options are closely aligned with the Hyundai Palisade ($2345) but Toyota’s $1325 Kluger offer remains unbeaten. 

A five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty covers all Nissan vehicles in Australia. It is now the standard with other marques, including Kia, MG and Mitsubishi pushing boundaries with longer seven and 10-year offers.