2026 Porsche Macan GTS Electric | PH Review

The GTS badge tends to bring the best out in Porsche - can it do the same for the battery-powered Macan?

By Nic Cackett / Thursday, 12 February 2026 / Loading comments

If you challenged us to root around in a wheelie bin containing every current Porsche model and trim grade, and extract the two names most important to the continued health of the firm, it is conceivable that ‘Macan’ and ‘GTS’ would be first in line. The original Macan was so popular with buyers that by the time Porsche actually stops assembling the venerable production car (assuming it does), it will have been cranking them out for 12 years. That’s longer than it produced the 944.

The GTS, meanwhile, has become a highly profitable lynchpin of every derivative. Porsche reckons in some bodyshapes it achieves a 30 per cent uptake. Little wonder really: the proper GT badge is generally preserved for the manufacturer’s high-end sports cars, meaning that elsewhere in the lineup the addition of an ’S’ has come to represent the most Porsche-iest variant available. Its customers like that distinction; Porsche likes charging them for it. Win-win.

Thematically speaking, whether or not the combination of ‘GTS’ and ‘Macan Electric’ actually belongs on the same bootlid next to each other is the sort of discussion we can still have amongst ourselves as Porsche purists - but for the company itself, the subject is beyond moot. Even allowing for the fact that the new Macan GTS Electric shares a lot of hardware with the range-topping Turbo (arguably limiting its status as a distinctive iteration), Porsche knows a winner when it’s onto one.

Of course, there is a much livelier debate to be had on the projected status of the Macan Electric itself as segment winner, partly based on the epically long shadow cast by its predecessor (the petrol-burning model still selling in significant volume last year despite the arrival of the EV), but let’s leave that to one side. Regardless of the current volume split, the battery-powered replacement is very much here and contributing positively to the Macan’s ongoing status as Porsche’s best-selling model line.

The GTS, as it does everywhere else, is intended to foreground a ‘good to drive’ vibe, and its maker, potentially to the chagrin of Turbo owners, effectively endorses the idea that this is the sweet spot in the Macan Electric range. (The notion that this is the version that the engineers would build if left to their own devices remains as pervasive as it does elsewhere). To that end, you get 571hp on overboost, less than the 639hp available to the Turbo, yet courtesy of the same chunkier motor on the back axle.

This is important because it is the presence of this beefier unit that helps separate the GTS from the three trim levels below it in the Macan pecking order - especially with the 4S being ultimately able to summon up 516hp without it (the brace of individually controllable motors to the front are unchanged). Nevertheless, the 4S doesn’t get Porsche’s actively managed, self-levelling air suspension as standard, another item shared with the Turbo, yet distinguished from it by model-specific tuning of the adaptive dampers and a 10mm lower ride height.

Probably you won’t clock that, though even a casual observer would find the GTS’s characteristic black trim elements hard to miss, especially in places where Porsche strays from satin-gloss to please-Lord-notice-me high-gloss black. Make of the styling enhancements what you will; our test car on the day (not pictured here, sadly) was helped no end by the optional addition of 22-inch RS Spyder alloys, which help to usher the curiously benign Macan into sportier territory before you even clap eyes on the inevitable rear diffuser or its black-tipped spoiler.

If the typical GTS hallmarks are a bit hit and miss on the outside, inside the appearance of fleecy Race-Tex on most surfaces you come into contact with - not least the always-welcome GT Sports steering wheel - works its familiar charm, as do the 18-way sports seats. More leather is deployed than in the cooking models, too, and while the Macan is no less preoccupied with touchscreens than any other high-end EV, they are at least nicely integrated into the dash and generally usable. You can even play video games on the optional passenger display if you wish, assuming you’re partial to very mild motion sickness.

Rest assured, this is not because the Macan subjects you to North Sea-style choppiness - far from it - but almost certainly because the person behind the wheel is driving too fast. Possibly not owing to a conscious decision on their part, either, but because more often than not the GTS, like a warm bath steadily edging up in temperature, attains prodigious speed effortlessly and then gives you precious few reasons for ever slowing down. It’s like being rolled up in a mattress and then pushed down a bobsleigh run.

While this is occasionally less than fun if you’re attempting to beat your laptime on Asphalt Legends, it is generally very gratifying when driving. Mostly because, in a typically impressive feat of fine-tuning the hardware already available to it, Porsche has arrived at a Macan Electric that convinces you everything is working in something approaching dynamic harmony. In France, in mixed conditions, its best moments brought the Taycan to mind, which says something about how cohesive the GTS is when you start tying corners together.

Ultimately it isn’t as deft or as readable as that battery-powered Porsche, and it could hardly be as swift to turn - yet it inches the Macan marginally closer to the gold standard, mostly thanks to the ‘sport’ version of the standard air-sprung chassis. Helpfully, whatever gains Porsche has endeavoured to find in body control versus the Turbo have not required a sacrifice in ride quality or refinement: the GTS is impressively supple almost no matter the surface, and superbly hushed. Little wonder it carries speed so well.

That changes of direction tend to occur in all-of-a-piece fashion is evidence enough that previous reservations we’ve had about the Macan’s rear-wheel steering (standard fit here) seem to have been laid to rest in the GTS. The rate of turn, and the middling heft articulating it, are right where you’d hope they’d be; ditto the ingratiating nimbleness for something weighing two-and-a-half tonnes. Much like the Turbo, the degree at which its impassive grip becomes unmistakable rear-end bias is left to your discretion - or just as conceivably, complaints from passengers.

They will have no more need for the flagship’s additional output than a cat has for pyjamas - and nor, it must be said, will you. Spared its overboost function, the GTS goes about the place with 517hp available, and this is plenty. Whether or not this number also represents the Macan ’sweet spot’ was a subject of much discussion in France, yet there is nothing incongruous about the car’s predictably energetic straight-line performance. The assured handling and exceptional brakes see to that.

On the basis that your choice of model does not adversely affect the Macan’s range (all share the same 95kWh battery with its 270kWh charging capacity), the decision may very well hinge on price: the £8,500 saving versus a Turbo is a virtual no-brainer; the £11,900 premium over a 4S, perhaps less so. But once driven, the GTS’s myriad, modestly enhanced qualities are hard to forget, and seemingly add up to more than the sum of their parts. In this respect, the new model, in the best tradition of its increasingly sought-after badge, must be considered a chip off the old block.

SPECIFICATION | 2026 Porsche Macan GTS Electric

Engine: Three electric motors; 95kWh usable capacity
Gearbox: Single-speed transmission; all-wheel drive
Power: 571hp (with overboost; 516hp elsewhere)
Torque: 704lb ft (with overboost)
0-62mph: 3.8secs (with launch control)
Top speed: 155mph
Kerbweight: 2,470kg (EU)
Combined range: 363 miles (WLTP)
CO2: 0g/km
Price: £89,000 (starting price)