Overview

An all-new Porsche Macan is a riskier play than the headline would suggest. Porsche has completely changed tack for the new car by fitting it with a pure-electric powertrain – and, considering EV sales have experienced a dip in popularity over the past six months, that could jeopardise the SUV’s incredibly broad appeal.

Let’s not forget, the previous Macan was Porsche’s best-selling car globally (in the UK, it’s second behind the Taycan), with more than 850,000 units delivered since it was launched in 2014. So, to get this new model wrong would be a disaster for the Porsche. Scroll down to find out how the brand has done.

What’s it like inside?

Plush and with enough technology to satisfy consumers’ latest requirements. Be wary of the configurator, though, as you can easily add lots of optional extras – the Macan 4 we had on the launch came with nearly £25,000 worth of additional kit.

As standard, you get a 12.6-inch curved digital dashboard and 10.9-inch central display. The latter isn’t dominant like it is on cars like the Mercedes EQA because it’s housed within the dash, rather than being proud of it, and anyone familiar with Porsche’s operating system will find it easy to use. Fortunately, physical controls remain for changing the climate control, unlike on those Merc EQs.

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The wheelbase is 86mm longer than the previous Macan so rear legroom is improved. Headroom is adequate in the back – a six-footer is fine – but if you regularly carry tall passengers you might want to opt for the panoramic glass sunroof as that yields a bit more head space. The front seat drops nice and low (28mm lower than the ICE Macan), giving a feeling of being sat in a sports car.

It’s also got a bigger boot than the last Macan that is supplemented by an 84-litre frunk and plenty of storage in the cabin thanks to the space efficiencies of batteries. But beware of carrying large, square items as the coupe-like shape of the Macan’s back end mean that the boot is a bit pinched for tall items.

Safety

As standard, the Macan comes with LED headlights, while the Turbo gets upgraded LED Matrix lights that can intelligently pick out oncoming traffic and blank out the respective LEDs. Incidentally, the top headlight with the distinctive four bars is the daylight running light – the lower unit in the bumper is the one that actually generates the light you’ll see with at night.

The usual plethora of safety systems are included as standard, including a speed detector that bongs gently if you exceed the limit, but this and lane keep assist can be turned off within a sub menu in the touchscreen. Not ideal, but those are the rules we’re all operating to these days.

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New to this generation of Macan is augmented reality nav, optional on both 4 and Turbo that features as part of the head-up display. This is now projected further ahead, so your eyes don’t need to adjust their focal length quite as much switching between the road and the display. It works well but is expensive at £1,694.

Comfort

On the 20-inch wheels (standard on the Macan 4), the ride comfort is largely impressive. It doesn’t suffer from the usual foibles you get from air suspension, in that the rebound over harsh intrusions is really well controlled.

We also drove some cars on 22-inch wheels, but we’d advise that you steer clear of these as they hunt and chatter over bumps too much. And that’s on the roads in the South of France – the Tarmac in Britain is far worse.

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In both cases, avoid the Sport Plus drive mode. It stiffens things up too much and doesn’t give a tangible enough handling benefit in compensation.

What’s it like to drive?

Switching from Normal to Sport via the rotary dial on the steering wheel tightens things up with the dampers and introduces a Tron-like noise. This is the mode you want if you’re pressing on – Normal is fine for most driving, Sport for when you want to enjoy the road. It allows for better body control, which in turn gives you more confidence to push on and get the motors working harder in shuffling the torque front to rear, giving the Macan a much more dynamic feel.

In Normal, we suspect it’ll be difficult to tell the difference between the Q6 and the Macan, despite the differences that Porsche has introduced like unique steering. But switch the dial mode around to Sport and the Macan comes alive.

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Incidentally, Sport and Sport Plus don’t alter the steering or throttle map, which is welcome because tweaking either isn’t needed. The steering is lovely; precise and with the sort of feel that was unheard of from electric racks only a couple of years ago.

We also tried the Turbo, complete with Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus and four-wheel steering. There’s an argument that this is the more Porsche-like of the two variants, with more of the brand’s DNA instantly recognisable.

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With the Turbo’s extra power, the pace is obviously upped. Plus, thanks to the increased stability on turn-in from the four-wheel steer, it’s possible to carry frankly bonkers level of speed into corners. But the car doesn’t feel as natural as the 4, with the rear-steer finding lumps and bumps in the tarmac that the front end seemed to miss entirely. You’d get used to it, but the 4 feels more instantly at ease with fewer quirks. As a family SUV, we’d go for the 4.

What models and trims are available?

This is a huge step-on for the Macan but it’s worth pointing out that the existing ICE car will remain on sale until the end of 2025. That date is a UK one – in Europe, it’ll go off sale from July because of new EU rules.

At the moment, only the 4 and Turbo are on sale in the electric Macan but you can guarantee more variants will come over time.

Both the Turbo and 4 have plenty of optional extras, even down to 72 paint options including the special colours, but the Turbo is differentiated by the availability of items like four-wheel steer and Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus that aren’t even options on the 4. In other words, if you’re buying a Macan as the family runaround, the 4 will be fine, but if you need it to have more driver’s tricks, it’s the Turbo you’ll need.