Next-gen Macan EV to use Taycan tech
The electric Porsche SUV will arrive in 2021, potentially with 700hp in Turbo S guise. By Richard Bremner
Porsche’s SUV boss has confirmed more details of the next-generation, all-electric Macan. The new model will feature an entirely different body style from the existing Macan to reflect its status as a reinvented model for the brand.
Porsche’s director of SUVs, Julian Baumann, confirmed that the existing, internal-combustion-engined Macan will remain on sale alongside the new Macan during a transitional phase. The offering will broadly mirror that offered by the Taycan/Panamera duo.
The electric Macan will arrive in 2021 and initially be a high-performance model in the mould of the Taycan, carrying the same Turbo badging to identify it as the top-of-the-range version.
The current Macan will be offered alongside it partly because “some customers are not ready for EVs”, according to Mr Baumann. “So there will be two different cars,” he said.
Substantially different, in fact: the electric Macan will be based on an evolved version of the platform used for the new Taycan. The ICE Macan is based on the Volkswagen Group’s new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture, developed from the Taycan’s J1 platform to allow the physical flexibility required when low-slung GTs and high-riding SUVs share the same hardware.
Additionally, Porsche deputy chairman Lutz Meschke said that the platform, currently reserved for Audi and Porsche models only, saves 30% of costs from developing its own architecture.
Despite the models’ differing roles, Mr Baumann said: “There are no real differences in the challenges of developing the Taycan and Macan. The current Macan is not so aerodynamic, and we’re working hard on this. It’s the Taycan team working on it. With the Taycan, we haven’t given anything up to get the aerodynamic performance, and I’m confident it will be the same for the Macan. The 600kg battery isn’t beneficial to dynamics, but the low centre of gravity is an advantage.”
Being a purpose-built all-electric model, there’s no need to package a conventional powertrain up front, allowing for a lower nose, Mr Baumann said. “The design of the electric Macan is the next step, but it will be immediately recognisable,” he said, despite it having “no common body structure” with today’s Macan.
Although the existing Macan received a facelift late 2018, four years after it was launched, the model is now likely to live for longer than originally planned as Porsche hedges its propulsion bets. Mr Meschke suggested that the overlap for internally combusted and full-electric Macans would be “a couple of years”.
The take-up of electric cars is growing, but at different rates in different countries, not least because the infrastructure is only patchily appearing and isn’t always reliable.
“It’s difficult to say when the transformation will end. It’s different by region,” Mr Baumann said. But Mr Meschke predicts that “30-40%” of Porsches sold will be all-electric in five years’ time.
Despite the performance potential of the PPE architecture, which delivers a sub-3.0-second 0-100kph with the Taycan, the Macan EV will not be a coupe SUV. Mr Baumann said: “We need to keep the everyday usability. It’s usually the main vehicle in the household.”
The electric version will provide four-wheel drive, using a motor to drive each axle. The most powerful version will potentially be able to offer around 700hp.
The electric Macan will be offered with a variety of power outputs beneath this level, but the two most powerful versions will be badged Turbo and Turbo S, as with the Taycan.
Besides offering excellent on-road handling, the high degree of precision provided by electronic control of the motors and wheels should enable the Macan EV to be effective off-road.
Mr Meschke, meanwhile, predicts that Porsche may make the current lithium-ion batteries 20-25% more efficient, but “the next big step is solid-state” batteries, which for the same output as today’s could be half the weight. Still, these are “five to seven years from industrialisation”.