Almost 20 years since the Cayenne was released, Porsche has just built its one millionth unit of the SUV. Context? It took the company 54 years to build a million 911s.
The Carmine Red GTS, which recently rolled off the production line in Bratislava, Slovakia, was ordered new by a customer in Germany.
Porsche wasn’t in a great way back in the ’90s, with losses totalling 240 million Deutschmarks by the end of 1992. The Boxster launched in 1996 helped a bit, but it wasn’t enough on its own. So, at the end of the decade, Porsche linked up with VW and begun work on the ‘Colorado Project,’ the joint development of the first-generation Cayenne and VW Touareg SUVs.
The Cayenne, revealed at the 2002 Paris Motor Show, was immediately successful. It made a profit and, in Porsche’s words, “helped to pull the company out of a crisis.” In the 2007/2008 financial year, the Cayenne outsold the 911 to the tune of 50,000 vehicles. The 250,000th Cayenne was built in 2009.
Click here to read our review of the current Porsche Cayenne GTS.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
