#PorscheCajun

Sorry fans, but the possible successor to the Porsche 550 of the 1950’s is going to stay in the stable for quite a while longer.

Porsche‘s hard at work on their new Cajun, a smaller sibling to its popular Cayenne SUV, based on Audi‘s Q5 platform. The Cajun mule was recently spotted out testing in Northern Sweden, revealing little about its design.

It’s becoming somewhat of a broken record among premium German automakers. Now Porsche is the latest to say that it plans to significantly increase sales in the US market by growing its product portfolio.

Porsche broke ground on an expansion of its Leipzig, Germany factory, that will produce its upcoming Cajun crossover, a smaller model expected to slot below the popular Cayenne SUV.

The Porsche Cajun baby SUV is coming and according to a new report a 2-door version will likely follow. Expected to arrive initially as a four-door, built on the same platform as the Audi Q5, Porsche may look to bring to market an even sportier coupe-styled model to compete with vehicles like the Range Rover Evoque.

In an effort to align both brands more closely under the VW umbrella, as well as save on engineering and R&D costs, Audi will supply Porsche with it’s spicy twin-turbo V6 diesel engine.

Volkswagen‘s Spanish subsidiary SEAT is preparing to take on the task of assembling Audi‘s Q3 compact crossover, at their plant outside of Barcelona.

The move comes as a bit of a quid pro quo for Audi, since SEAT’s Exeo flagship is a re-badged Audi A4, and with SEAT’s flagging sales presenting an issue for Volkswagen’s overall profitability, the excess production capacity could be put to good use building a product that will surely be a hit. The move will also add between 700 and 1,200 jobs in a region that has been hit hard by the global recession.

The Q3 will share a platform with the upcoming Porsche Cajun, but the P-Car will be built at a separate facility in Leipzig, Germany.

[Source: SEAT]

Porsche has confirmed the Cajun compact crossover will head into production, hitting the market in 2013. The news comes as part of an announcement by the German automaker that it has selected its Leipzig plant to assemble the new vehicle alongside the Cayenne and Panamera.

The Porsche Cayenne was built to save the German sports car maker, selling in high volume and at high profits. Now a rumored smaller SUV, known as the Cajun, is likely to repeat it’s big brother’s successes.

With Porsche sales having recovered on par with pre-recession levels in the United States, Porsche’s CEO Matthias Mueller said that the brand is looking at adding production facilities in the United States or China so that the brand can meet its target of 200,000 sales by 2018.

Porsche‘s supervisory board has given the go-ahead for a new “efficient and sporty model” to be dubbed “Cajun”.

Referencing the Cayenne (seen above), the official Porsche news release dubbed the Cajun as an “entry-level” model, similar to the Boxster in terms of positioning, and stressed that the vehicle will be light weight and agile. No further details were given, but we’re glad to see the industry’s worst-kept secret become official.

Hit the jump for the official news release.

[Source: Porsche]

Rumors of a baby Cayenne have been around for several years now and have always been realistic, with the certainty that the new model could ride on the same platform that underpins the current Audi Q5. Rumored to be called the Cajun, we’re now hearing initial rumors of its powerplant.

Porsche employees are now banned from going on Facebook for fear of corporate espionage. A Bloomberg report states that Porsche brass are worried that foreign intelligence services are intercepting messages sent via Facebook. Sites such as Ebay were also banned at company computers.

In a recent interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn not only gave credibility to reports that Porsche is planning a new smaller SUV model; he even hinted at the name. Commenting that the new model would be used to increase Porsche’s sales numbers, Winterkorn used the name Cajun to describe the baby Cayenne.