News: Hot Porsche Cayenne arrives but Lambo & Bentley may delay SUVs

Porsche has just launched a range-topping Cayenne Turbo S but its sister brands in the VW Group, Lamborghini and Bentley, may be delaying their own SUV projects because of darkening economic clouds.

The Cayenne Turbo S gets titanium-aluminium turbine wheels in the turbos to spool power up to a massive 542bhp, backed up by a more than ample 750Nm of torque. That means this 2-tonne 4x4 can sprint from 0-100kmh in a BMW M3-threatening time of just 4.5-seconds and run on to a top speed of 283kmh. Quite why you'd need a 4x4 with those kinds of figures, we can't quite imagine, but it's probably good fun.

Astonishingly though, Porsche claims that the extra power and performance over the standard Turbo model have not come at the expense of, well, expense. The Turbo S records the same 11.5-litres per 100km (about 26mpg) on the European combine cycle.

But while it's raa-raa all round for Porsche's hot 4x4, its VW Group sister companies, Lamborghini and Bentley, may be rolling back on their plans to launch (admittedly somewhat controversial) SUVs.

We've seen both the Lamborghini Urus and Bentley EXP 9F at various motor shows over the past year, and both their paths to production seemed pretty clear. After all, what the world's monied car buyers seem to want more than anything else are cars with premium badges, four wheel drive and chunky tyres. Porsche itself sells way, waaaaay more Cayennes than it does 911s and Boxsters, so both cars seemed to make perfect financial sense for Bentley and Lambo.

Today though, the word is that both projects are on hold. According to Automotive News, VW is starting to get a bit more careful about how it spends its money. The European car sales crisis that is so damaging the likes of PSA Peuegot Citroen and Fiat hasn't really started to affect the VW Group yet, but it seems that the bean-counters in Wolfsburg are starting to prepare for the worst, even if it never comes.

News: Regulator investigates Fiat cash pile

Consob, the Italian stock market regulator, is apparently investigating Fiat's reputed €23-billion cash pile and asking why Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne isn't dipping into it to prop up Fiat's investments in the flagging Italian economy.

Fiat itself has cash reserves of around €12-billion, with the other €11-billion belonging to Chrysler. According to reports, Fiat can't access the Chrysler cash for European investment (or to subsidise European losses) because of a complex deal agreed with the US Government when Fiat rescued Chrysler from bankruptcy.

Even so, Marchionne, the Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and Consob have been at repeated loggerheads over the past few months. Fiat is threatening to close down another Italian factory (it closed a plant in Sicily last year) and is idling some plants, including one that builds the Panda. That's because Marchionne sees nothing but financial pain in Europe right now, and has put a stop to all major investments and new model developments for the time being, leaving the burgeoning Chrysler to expand in the now-healthy US market and deliver much-needed profits.

The Italian Government, of course, is not keen on this at all, and the investigation (which Fiat currently says it is, officially, unaware of) is being seen as a strong-arm tactic to get Marchionne to unlock at least some of the money to invest in the Italian market.

Marchionne may be holding on to his money for another reason though; Opel. Opel is continuing to lose money for General Motors and analysts Morgan Stanley last week said that it expects that co continue, at the rate of $1-billion a year, through to 2021. GM is being urged to sell Opel and cut its losses, and Fiat, which made an offer for Opel amidst GM's 2009 bankruptcy, is thought to be once again interested.

GM is quashing such rumours though, saying that Opel is an integral part of its operations and will continue to be so, and that the recently-inked tie-up with PSA Peugeot Citroen is progressing well and is expected to save both companies €2-billion a year.