While the idea of a battery-powered Macan has been around long enough now to eliminate any element of surprise, it’s hard to overstate what a big deal this is. Porsche has made an electric car before, of course, but anyone unconvinced by the Taycan still had the Panamera available as a combustion alternative. Now the enormously popular small SUV, having never offered up anything more environmentally friendly than a 2.0-litre turbo (because the architecture was so old), will only be offered as an EV. Perhaps the notion isn’t quite as ambitious as it might have been even five years ago, but still - it’s a lot.
Now we know that the fully electric Macan will be revealed to the world next Thursday, January 25th, confirmed by Porsche with a teaser pic on its customer site that suggests the trademark Macan rear light bar has been retained. Porsche likes maintaining its recognisable design cues, of course - and for those hundreds of thousands of Macan customers thinking about making the switch to an EV, the familiar look will probably be welcome. Elsewhere, the development pics show a front light signature that actually looks a little like the 963 LMDh car, plus there’s a bit of Cayenne to the back of it as well. Inevitably packing in a 100kWh battery has bulked out the smaller Porsche SUV somewhat, though even clad in disguise there’s no mistaking what this is. And more space inside feels pretty much essential for an all-new Macan.
Of course, such a significant new model has been subjected to every possible extreme of testing, from minus 30 in Scandinavia to plus 50 in Death Valley. Porsche reckons more than 3,500,000km have been racked up in testing on road and off it, so even the gnarliest of farm shop car parks should pose no problem for the new Macan. It’ll be road-focused, sure, though if these pics are to be believed then there might be some proper off-road ability lurking in the new EV as well.
Aerodynamics are said to have played a big part in the Macan’s development, most notably with a drag co-efficient that’s dropped from 0.35 to 0.25 - which must be one of the single biggest improvements from one generation to the next. That will have benefits for range (all models will do more than 310 miles on a charge) as well as refinement. It’s been achieved through a lot of wind tunnel testing plus Porsche Active Aerodynamics including an extending rear spoiler and active cooling flaps. The new Macan has an entirely flat floor underneath, too - that’s how serious the aero obsession has been. The tyres have ‘aerodynamically optimised’ contours, the wheels are ‘largely closed’ and there are flexible fairings that can ‘ensure low air resistance when rebounding’.
There isn’t any additional info on the powertrain for the moment, though the confirmed numbers have always looked very competitive: 603hp on overboost, more than 738lb ft with Launch Control, two permanently excited axles and 270kW charging. This will also be the first Macan with rear-axle steering, plus it will borrow the two-valve damper tech used to such effectiveness in the latest Cayenne.
Speaking of which, Porsche has an image of the Macan interior on the customer site already, which borrows very heavily from the larger SUV. It features the drive selector up by the steering wheel, the passenger display and revised centre stack. Completely different from how we know the Macan at the moment, yet instantly familiar given the groundwork laid by recent previous Porsches. Don’t be surprised if that’s how the whole car turns out, in fact. We’ll know a whole lot more come next week.
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