This PHEV Cayenne Coupe is the first locally-assembled Porsche to be exported to Thailand.
While there are to be more than a few Chinese cars that are set to be flowing down south from Thailand to Malaysia in the coming months, what we over here are sending there though is something altogether more premium. Such is as Porsche has recently announced that it since expanded its assembly facility at Inokom, in order to soon be locally-assembling its Cayenne S E-Hybrid Coupe for export to the Land of Smiles.
Located in Kulim, Kedah, this local assembly facility has been expanded to 11,000 square metres and a new assembly line has been introduced to accommodate the imminent production of the plug-in hybrid Cayenne S E-Hybrid Coupe. This new model variant is to be the first locally assembled Porsche to be exported from this Inokom site to the Thailand market, and incidentally the first electrified Porsche put together in Malaysia too.
Porsche has proudly touted that the locally assembled Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid will serve to fulfil the growing demand of its customers over there, with our neighbours to the North incidentally being one of the German automaker’s biggest market in the ASEAN region. The Stuggart stallion marque then went onto state that this latest export endeavour ‘signifies the immense growth and innovation potentials of the region, underlining its importance for its global business’.
It is nevertheless worth pointing out here however that while the Cayenne S E-Hybrid is to be locally assembled in Kulim, there has been no official word yet from Porsche that this particular CKD variant will be offered as such over here just yet. The only variant of locally-assembled Cayenne currently offered in Malaysia is the base trim 3.0 V6, which currently retails at RM 599,999.
This Malaysian local assembly facility for Porsche was to be the first of its kind outside of Europe when it was successfully opened in 2022, and its debut CKD model over here was the pre-facelift iteration of the current Cayenne. Fast forward to today, this particular production site has since rolled out two generations and more than 2,000 units of this large sports SUV to customers locally.
Dato’ Jeffri Salim Davidson, Sime Darby’s Group Chief Executive Officer, said of this new export endeavour by Porsche, “This is a significant milestone for us at Sime Darby together with our partner, Porsche, in unlocking new opportunities in the ASEAN region while affirming the capabilities of our highly skilled local talents. We remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering product consistency that meets the discerning demands of Porsche customers, expanding beyond domestic market to our neighbouring country, Thailand.”
Mr. Albrecht Reimold, Member of the Executive Board for Production, Porsche AG meanwhile added: “Porsche broke new ground when it established a local assembly facility in Malaysia in 2022. Since then, we have achieved many significant milestones, for example when more than 2,000 locally assembled Cayennes found new homes with Malaysian families just two years after assembly commenced. Today, we prepare for the future by considerably enhancing our site in Kulim, making sure that this first regionally exported Cayenne fulfils our customers’ demands and expectations.”
