The first Porsche Cayenne was based almost entirely on the Mercedes-Benz M-Class.

It has already been 20 years since the Porsche Cayenne debuted at the 2002 Paris International Motor Show. However, Porsche's first SUV may have followed a very different development path than the version that would eventually take the stage in the French capital.

Porsche has revealed that the first Cayenne was based almost entirely on the Mercedes-Benz M-Class (predecessor to the current GLE-Class).

When Porsche began to consider a third model alongside the 911 and Boxster, five concepts were considered, eventually narrowed down to a minivan or SUV. The minivan idea was rejected by Porsche's U.S. office, and an SUV was deemed more attractive to the higher-income buyers Porsche wanted to attract.

Porsche still had fairly limited resources for vehicle development at the time and was looking for a partner for the SUV project. At the same time, Mercedes was preparing to launch the M-Class. The two companies had recently collaborated on the Mercedes 500E sports sedan, and Mercedes was not opposed to a second partnership.

"At that stage, we envisioned Porsche's SUV as a high-performance derivative of the Mercedes," Klaus-Gerhard Wolpert, former head of the Cayenne product line, said in a statement. while sharing some technology with the M-Class, it has its own exterior styling and was to feature Porsche-supplied engine and chassis components, Wolpert said. [According to Porsche, the two companies began talks in 1996 but broke off due to financial disagreements. Mercedes launched the M-Class Solo in 1997, which became a bestseller. In June of the same year, Porsche decided to partner with Volkswagen to develop the Cayenne along with the first Touareg. The common use of parts and the use of VW's plants for production made the partnership profitable for Porsche. The rest, as they say, is history.