The 911 may be Porsche’s icon, but the Macan is arguably Porsche’s most important vehicle. The compact SUV is the brand’s best-selling and least expensive model — the doorway to the storied brand. Porsche POAHY, -2.19% is now taking the Macan electric.
The 911? Never, if current leadership gets its way.
Porsche recently raised the curtain on an all-electric version of the Macan for the 2024 model year. It won’t replace the gas-powered edition. It will appear alongside it in showrooms. But the Macan EV may pull some shoppers over to the rechargeable side of the showroom with power alone.
The least powerful edition of the Macan EV almost matches the most powerful gas edition in horsepower. The most powerful EV takes the Macan name to a new level of performance.
The 2024 Porsche Macan EV
Porsche
It’s also pricier. The Macan EV starts at $ 78,800, with prices rising to $ 105,300 for the top trim. Porsche also charges a mandatory $ 1,650 delivery fee. For comparison, the gas-powered Macan starts at $ 60,900. The 2024 Macan EV is available for order now, with deliveries beginning in the second half of the year, Porsche says.
Range unknown for now
The Macan EV shares a name but little else with the gas-powered version. It rides on an all-new platform different from the chassis of the combustion-powered Macan and even the Taycan EV.
See: The 2023 Porsche Taycan: an electrifying drive in more ways than one
It uses an 800-volt architecture for faster charging. Even many current DC fast chargers can’t put out energy as fast as the Macan EV can accept it. But Porsche has a clever workaround for that problem, explaining, “At 400-volt charging stations, a high-voltage switch in the battery enables bank charging by effectively splitting the 800-volt battery into two batteries.”
Porsche claims a charge from 10% to 80% in 21 minutes at a properly equipped charger. But how many miles that 80% will get you, we don’t know.
Porsche did not announce range figures. Instead, the company focused on power output. Both trim levels get the same 100 kWh battery.
402 or 630 horses
The base model, called the Macan 4, uses a pair of motors to deliver 402 horsepower to all four wheels. Those numbers use a boost setting — in day-to-day driving, you’ll get a bit less. (But you need less — the gas-powered Macan is fun at its minimum of 261 horses.)
A step up to the Macan Turbo (yes, Porsche is calling it the Macan Turbo even though turbochargers don’t exist for EVs) gets you a wild 630 hp. It comes from three motors — one on the front axle and two on the rear. At this power level, Porsche says, the Macan leaps to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds.
An adaptive air suspension supports both trims, and rear-wheel steering is optional if you feel the need to tighten up the handling.
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Slightly larger than combustion-powered Macan
The Macan EV is larger than the gas-powered model — about 2 inches longer and 2 inches wider. The wheelbase is larger than that, though, with the wheels about 3.4 inches farther apart.
Parked side-by-side, though, they’ll look like fraternal twins. The electric version gets wide divots in the hood, whereas the gas-powered model gets simpler character lines. Its rear hatch is more steeply raked (part of what gets it to a drag coefficient of just 0.25). And, of course, it lacks a grille, with no need for a radiator to cool an engine.
Indeed, the “engine compartment” is a small frunk with an additional 2.9 cubic feet of storage space.
“Turbo” models (it still feels weird to write that) get the unique “Turbonite” badges and trim Porsche introduced to differentiate turbocharged (and “Turbo”) editions of its cars.
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Lots of screens, voice assistant
Inside, the Macan EV takes its styling cues from the Taycan, not the gas-powered Macan. It boasts a 12.6-inch driver’s instrument screen and a 10.9-inch infotainment screen mounted in a flat, almost vertical dashboard. An optional passenger’s screen is shaded from the driver’s view.
But the driver can see “a head-up display with augmented reality technology” that superimposes navigation arrows on the road. “The image appears to the driver at a distance of 32.8 feet and corresponds to the size of an 87-inch display,” Porsche says.
Plus: Here are the 10 electric vehicles that sold the most in 2023: Tesla still leads the pack
The system runs on Android’s Automotive OS but is wirelessly compatible with Apple AAPL, +0.98% CarPlay. Saying, “Hey, Porsche,” triggers the voice assistant — though the company hasn’t said if you have to pronounce that as one syllable or two.
This story originally ran on KBB.com.