Porsche builds 200,000th Cayenne SUV

The Porsche Cayenne has been criticized since its launch in the early part of the decade. Not because it was a particularly bad vehicle but mainly because of what it represented. Until the launch of the Cayenne, Porsche was all about building the fastest and best handling sports cars in the world. The Cayenne, on the other hand, was a bulky SUV that was too low to take offroad and too heavy to race around the track. Despite all the bad press the SUV proved extremely popular (by Porsche standards at least), and now the 200,000th model, a red GTS, has just rolled off the line at Porsche's factory in Leipzig.

This is a significant milestone for Porsche, especially when you consider that production over the years has actually doubled expectations. Officials had originally hoped to build and sell just 20,000 Cayenne’s per year but the current rate of production is roughly 40,000 units per year, reports Auto Motor and Sport.

The success of the Cayenne proves that Porsche is no longer limited to just building small and lightweight sports cars. The future of the Cayenne may also see Porsche launch its first hybrid model, something that would have seemed impossible just a couple of years ago.