Exclusive Update: 2011 Porsche Cayenne to be Launched at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show

We got ourselves a bit of an inside information from our very own "Deepthroat" at Dr. Ing. Ferdinand Porsche AG. According to the aforementioned sources, which we will keep undisclosed for obvious reasons, the current generation of the Cayenne will stop being produced this December. The Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany, where the current generation of the Cayenne and the Panamera luxury five-door coupe are currently being manufactured, will start the obligatory re-tooling for the second generation of the Porsche SUV.

Usually, the re-tooling process for the manufacturing of a new model takes between two and three months, which can only mean that the next Cayenne will most likely be presented in flesh and bones at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, in March. Customer deliveries might start as soon as May of next year for all the "regular" Cayenne versions, including the postponed Hybrid model, while the Turbo variant will most likely arrive about six months later, at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.

Sporting pretty much the same underpinnings as the next generation of the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7, the Cayenne "Mark II" is expected to shave quite a lot of weight, with previous rumors suggesting as much as 250-300 kilograms (550-660 pounds) per corresponding version. This will be done by replacing steel with high-strength aluminium and magnesium wherever possible.

The hardcore off-road features are expected to be either dropped or simplified in order to improve on-road performance to the maximum. Not to say that the next Cayenne will be more of a crossover, but apparently the extreme off-road capabilities of the current generation have remained mostly untested by more than 90% of its customers.

As for the other technical bits, the unpronounceable PDK transmission (Porsche Doppelkupplunggetriebe) will make its way on all engine variants, replacing the aging Tiptronic. The engine line-up will remain almost unchanged, except for the addition of the new Hybrid S version. Both performance and fuel economy are expected to improve thanks to the weight reduction and a better drag coefficient. Stay tuned on autoevolution.com in the following months for more info regarding the above.

UPDATE made on October 21: It's been officially confirmed: the next generation of the Porsche Cayenne will be launched at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. We can now also tell you that the new version will be aproximately five centimeters (two inches) shorter than the current one, while the overall weight will drop with about 250 kilograms (550 pounds), as we previously stated.