Is your Porsche Cayenne Coupe safe? This new bulletproof armour package will change everything

With vehicle hijackings and violent crimes increasingly targeting high-end SUVs in South Africa, SVI Engineering has expanded its range of discreet protection solutions by introducing the SVI Lite bullet-resistant B2 armouring package for the Porsche Cayenne Coupe.

Level B2 protection is rated to stop 9mm and 124-grain rounds fired from a handgun.

Better than smash and grab

Earlier this year, the Bashewa-based company in Pretoria introduced the SVI Lite product range, which slots in below its B4 discreet and B6 discreet 360-degree armouring packages but well above smash-and-grab window film. 

Launched with the Toyota Corolla Cross and Ford Ranger, the SVI Lite treatment has since been extended to several other models, from the Suzuki Jimny through to the Audi Q7 and now the Cayenne Coupe.

“In addition to its cost-effectiveness when compared to full 360-degree ballistic protection, one of the key drawcards of our lightweight SVI Lite partial armouring solution is the fact that the vehicle’s general usability is virtually unaffected. In this case, that means the Cayenne Coupe remains very much a sports car,” said SVI business development director Nicol Louw.

What it gets

As with other SVI Lite packages, this anti-hijack solution for the Cayenne Coupe is limited to the doors and door windows, with the customer given the opportunity to specify how many doors are to be armoured.

All doors gain carefully shaped and fully concealed Kevlar panels, while the standard side-window glass is replaced with special lightweight armoured glass. Together, these components deliver Level B2 protection and are thus rated to stop 9 mm, 124-grain rounds fired from a handgun.

In total, the armouring components add less than 15 kg to each door, meaning vehicle performance is virtually unaffected – regardless of whether it is applied to the 260kW Cayenne Coupe, the 349kW Cayenne S Coupe, the 368kW Cayenne GTS Coupe or the 485kW Cayenne Turbo GT or of the e-hybrid iterations.

The special ballistic glass used in the package allows for the standard operation of the side windows, allowing unhindered access to parking-ticket machines, biometric readers and the like, while passengers are able to operate their windows, too.

Cost and time

Compared with 360-degree B4 discreet armour, which, for a similarly sized SUV, starts at approximately R850 000, the cost comes in with the price per door for the Porsche Cayenne Coupe, starting at R74 950.

Regardless of the number of doors specified, fitment at SVI’s facility outside Pretoria takes two weeks.