A million Porsche Cayennes have been built

Nearly 20 years since the Cayenne was launched, Porsche has just built its one millionth unit SUV. Context? It took the company 54 years to build one 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 on a great track in the 1990s, with losses totaling DM 240 million at 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 partnered with VW and started work on ‘Project Colorado’, the joint development of the first-generation Cayenne and VW Touareg SUVs.

The Cayenne, presented at the 2002 Paris Motor Show, was an immediate success. It made a profit and, in the words of Porsche, “helped pull the company out of a crisis.” In fiscal year 2007/2008, the Cayenne outsold the 911 for a total 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 modifications have been made.

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