When Porsche announced it was making an all-electric Macan, there were plenty of raised eyebrows. But a trip to the Leipzig factory it’ll be built in, and quality time with some of the people behind it, shows that there’s no skepticism necessary. Porsche’s got a high-tech money-printing machine on its hands.
The Macan will celebrate its 10th birthday next year and will do so by having an electric glow-up. Since its 2014 launch, it’s fair to say the smallest Porsche SUV has been something of a hit. Find the right school parking lot in the right bit of town and you can barely move for them. It became a Porsche for all the family in a way that the Cayenne never really could: it’s smaller, more nimble, more fun. With an EV powertrain on board, it’ll be the darling of the middle classes in no time.
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InsideEVs contributor Tim Stevens drove a Macan EV prototype earlier this year, and then I got to have a go in one for myself a bit later. My trip to Germany also included a few new details, like a good, official look at the car’s interior. It’s quite impressive how much the Taycan vibes have trickled down here. And as the Taycan is such a good car, it’s no surprise that the Macan follows its lead: it’ll boast an 800V architecture and permanently excited synchronous motors.
Throw in a battery with, according to Porsche, “a total capacity of around 100kWh,” and you’re in for a good time. The headline specs are impressive: up to 603 hp and 737 lb-ft, up to 270kW fast charging, huge displays for the driver and their passengers, up to 240kW energy recuperation, rear axle steering, and everything we’ve come to expect from Porsche. If it comes together the way Porsche says it’s going to, this thing will slap.
Porsche’s particularly proud of the Macan’s battery; it’s “around 100kWh,” which means we’ll get exact figures later down the line, because its 800v architecture is clever. The lithium-ion battery (standard on all Macans) can charge at up to 270kW, which is enough to get it from 10-80% in fewer than 22 minutes, though you have to have the right kind of charger to get it to do that. If you find your charger of choice runs on a 400v system, the Macan will use “bank charging.” What it essentially does is split your 800v battery into two 400v batteries, allowing the two to be charged in parallel.
You’ll spot a charging flap on each side of the car, too. Each can charge with A/C, while the left side will also take D/C charging. What those ports link to is immensely smart, too. The onboard AC charge, DC converter, and high voltage heater are all bunched together in a single 42lb unit under the rear bench so as not to eat up too much space.
Porsche’s also aiming to make charging more convenient. The Macan’s new control unit can, so long as they have a corresponding charging contract, simply plug their car in and the unit will do the rest. No more RFID or credit cards needed, thankfully.
With all that charge on board, you’ll want to have some beefy motors to throw it at. But a Porsche is up for the job. Using water-jacket-cooled permanently excited synchronous electric machines (PSM in Porschespeak), the Macan offers huge power. At launch, there’ll be an entry-level car and a top-of-the-range version channeling power to either the rear wheels or to all four.
It’s a safe bet that the all-wheel drive car will be the one with 737 lb-ft to play with. It gets a thicker and longer rear axle after all. The power gets to the axles via a two-stage single-speed transmission.
While you’re using all your power, you’ll want to grab some of it back under braking or when you lift off. The Macan will recuperate up to 240kW depending on how firm you are with brakes. If you give them too great a hoofing, the car’s hydraulic brakes will be used, but thanks to Porsche’s magicians the two will blend together seamlessly. You can coast the car, too, using as little energy as possible to keep you rolling, though you can tell it to claw back power as you’re rolling along.
You’ve got power, charge, and… drive. The Macan has always been on the sportier edge of SUVs, and the new one should be just the same. As such, Porsche’s lobbing just about everything it can at it. First up is the platform, the Premium Platform Electric (PPE to its friends), which was developed with Audi. It’ll underpin a host of models further down the line, and the Macan hopes to show that it’s got some gusto.
Up front, you’ll get double wishbone suspension, while the rear gets a multilink setup. On top trim cars, the rear electric drive unit is mounted directly onto the body, and you get Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus (PTVP) as standard. PTVP features an electronically controlled differential lock on the rear axle, and should allow the car to turn in better thanks to braking over the rear axle. If it’s a tighter turn-in you’re looking for, this is the first generation of Macan to get rear-wheel steering. Up to 49.7 mph, the rear wheels will turn up to five degrees in the opposite direction to the front wheels, while over that speed they go in the same direction as the front wheels, aiding stability.
If your Macan comes with air suspension, Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) comes into play (you can add it to steel-sprung cars as well, as an option). PASM now comes with two-valve shock absorbers, which control rebound and compression in the blink of an eye—basically, PASM will let your Macan go from sporty to springy in no time at all, you just need to tell it what to do.
The Macan’s interior toys are also next level. This is also where it feels strongly Taycan-ish. (Taycan-esque?) Porsche’s new infotainment system has been developed to be as fast as possible on start-up because waiting for your car’s brain to wake up when you’re in a hurry is rage-inducing, and in 2023 we don’t need any more things to wind us all up. Of course, there are plenty of screens to keep an eye on.
The driver’s instrument binnacle is a glorious 12.6-inch curved display that shows everything you could possibly need on the fly. The central display is a 10.9-inch touchscreen. You can add favorite apps to make using it easier, too. There’s also an optional 10.9-inch passenger display to keep your front-seat passenger amused. They can adjust music or nav settings, scroll through apps, or even stream video content.
That last point might sound dubiously legal to do on the move, but it’s possible thanks to “special film technology” that keeps moving pictures away from the driver’s eyes. If you’re keen on ticking options boxes you can, for the first time, spec augmented reality tech into your heads-up display. If you’re dreadful at following your GPS, it’ll point you in the right direction.
It boasts some robust voice controls as well – we were shown that you can use colloquialisms and it’ll pick up on what you’re saying, and react accordingly. The Porsche App Center will keep the system up to date over the air and will let you download your music streamer of choice, YouTube, and even some games.
Its inbuilt map will be updated monthly and takes charging locations into account, as well as which provider you prefer. If you’re dozing of a Sunday morning and fancy a road trip, you can plan your trip on the My Porsche app and send it to the car, which have your route standing by when it’s time to go.
Of course, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay come bundled in, so Porsche’s efforts to make its homegrown system more robust can be ignored. These do come with an extra boon: Apple Maps will be displayed in the instrument cluster, not just on the center screen, if you’re using CarPlay. Google Maps will sit there if you’re an Android user.
For people fond of YouTube streamers, the Macan’s “communication light” will be a big win. The car comes with ambient lighting, but in the front 56 LEDs run from door to door and changes its colors depending on charge status, drive mode, launch control, and more. It’ll even complement the driver-assist tech, and warn you if you’re about to open the door into the path of a cyclist (the people of London thank you for this, Porsche.)
Porsche saw fit not only to show us the ins and outs of its new family wagon but to show it off as well. Ushered to the Porsche Experience Center track at the Leipzig factory, we met a fleet of camouflaged Macans with very smiley drivers standing by. Hopping inside, the interior with its bevy of screens was as slick as you’d expect. The reactive lighting was impressive. At first I didn’t notice it; mood lighting in cars isn’t exactly a new thing, and can easily find itself categorized as “pleasant chintz.”
Here, as my driver was waiting to join the circuit, he had activated launch control, and the lights pulsed blue. Of course, I’d had no aural clue that we were about to use an entire stable’s worth of horses, but a glance at the instrument binnacle hinted I was in for a surprise.
Holy hell that thing shifts. All of its torque is fed through each wheel to catapult it forward. Sure, the EV party piece of being chuffing quick isn’t new, but it’s still bizarre to feel a family car move quite that quickly. My driver was clearly enjoying himself, metering out every hint of grip, showing that, yes, the Macan nails the ‘sporty’ brief. He also took great joy in demonstrating that over 700 lb-ft of torque, even though it’s shared between four wheels, means you can hang the ass out of it with great ease.
I recall asking my driver, while trying to keep from giggling, whether it was easy to slide: “Yes,” he grinned, “very.” The tire squeal was the only thing cutting through the generopop tinkling through the sound system.
It slides, it corners, it handles. Good. What about the off-road stuff? Well, round the corner from the track is an off-road facility. Designed to show customers how capable the firm’s all-wheel drive vehicles are, for a city dweller its mix of deep channels, and steep inclines looks rather intimidating.
Throwing the car into its off-roadiest setting whether the hill was steep, the puddle was deep, or the going was rough, the Macan could hack it all with ease. Bearing in mind that the car’s target market isn’t likely to take it on anything more challenging than a damp field, its abilities are perhaps overkill. Good to know it can hack the rough stuff though.
A couple of short rides aren’t really enough to get a full impression of its capability, but initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive. “Porsche makes good car,” what a shocking outcome.
The new, electric Macan has to work for Porsche. It’s a volume seller, and its success would keep the company going (and let it carry on making 911s and hypercars) long into the future. The ingredients for a hit are there—the tech’s smart, it’s got plenty of power, it’s comfy, it’s roomy, and it’s got the right badge on the nose—but we’ll see if buyers are ready to make the switch the production car is revealed next year.
