The gasoline-powered Macan is not long for this world.
If you were hoping the next-generation Porsche Macan would carry on with a twin-turbo V6 engine, you may be disappointed here. Porsche AG has decided to make the Macan it’s first all-electric SUV, ditching internal combustion sometime after 2020. The company hasn’t announced exactly when it will build the next Macan, other than to say it is “due to roll off the assembly line at the start of the next decade”.
Porsche is throwing its hat in the pure EV ring later this year with the all-electric Taycan. Not only that, but the Cross Turismo shooting brake will emerge not long after. Then, it seems Porsche will turn its eye to the Macan. Apart from pure-electric models, the company aims to hybridize most of its lineup in the next decade. According to a company statement, “…by 2025 50% of all new Porsche vehicles could have an electric drive system.”
Like the current Macan, Porsche will build the new model at its Leipzig plant in Saxony, Germany. Porsche says the supervisory board made the decision to build the next generation Macan there last year. Since 2000, Porsche has invested more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.48 billion in 2019 Dollars) toward development at the plant. The company started producing the Cayenne SUV there in 2002. Now, the plant builds 90,000 units annually for global markets, including the U.S.
Moving forward
Porsche bills the next-generation Macan as an ideal candidate for electrification. Eventually, it will expand that approach across its entire brand, which has us wondering when we might see an all-electric Cayenne. Beyond that, when will we see an all-electric 911? The company will stick to internal combustion in its sports cars for now. However, with the move to shift the Macan to an all-electric platform, it’s only a matter of time before Porsche’s other vehicles head in a similar direction.
Like the Taycan launching later this year, the new Macan will have 800-volt technology on board. That means you could actually use super-fast charging in the future, when the infrastructure to support 800-volt charging expands. The new Macan will ride on the PPE (Premium Platform Electric), which Porsche co-developed with Audi.
While we’re waiting for the new Macan to arrive, check out the current generation model against the Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio:
