After years of waiting, the 2025 Porsche Macan EV is finally here. Alright, so it’s not a 911 GT3, but it’s sure to be a more common sight on the street, and the more of these that sell, the more fantastic sports cars Porsche can make. Besides, the Macan EV is compelling in its own right. Not only has this thing beat BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse electric X3 to the punch, it promises some serious performance and capability in its own right.
Originally expected to be on sale near the start of the decade, the Macan EV has suffered a somewhat difficult development. Back in 2022, Porsche delayed the car’s launch due to software issues at Volkswagen’s CARIAD division, and here we are in 2024, seeing the electric crossover officially unveiled. Mind you, despite the delays, Porsche isn’t far behind the curve. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have yet to unveil compact crossovers on dedicated EV platforms, and the Lexus RZ doesn’t seem to stack up against the latest and greatest EVs.
So, if you want an electric Porsche that’s smaller and less expensive than a Taycan, what do you get? Let’s take a closer look at the two Macan EV trims coming first, along with the brand-new architecture that lies beneath.
Unsurprisingly, the Macan EV looks like a Porsche, although it has a few new tricks up its sleeve. Yep, Porsche has climbed aboard the split headlamp bandwagon, although the implementation here doesn’t seem that controversial as it conjures up shades of old 911s with driving lights. In addition, the combustion-powered Macan’s clamshell hood is gone, replaced with a more conventional panel. Add in a sloping roofline, trademark Macan sideblades, and a full-width taillight treatment, and the Porsche Macan EV looks as familiar as ever.
Sitting atop the range is the Macan EV Turbo, and while that may be a silly name considering battery electric vehicles can’t have turbochargers, it makes for a compact crossover with 630 horsepower when launch control is activated and a claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds. Yep, that’s quicker and more powerful than a Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-2 Evo RWD.
Mind you, sheer grunt isn’t the only trick aboard the Macan EV Turbo. Inside the rear drive unit sits an electronically-variable limited-slip differential, which should prove useful for putting that monster output down. Also on deck? Adaptive dampers and air springs, along with optional rear-wheel steering.
However, not everyone will want to splash the cash on the top trim, which is where the Macan 4 comes in. It features a more modest output of 402 horsepower with launch control active, a claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 4.9 seconds, and a substantially more sensible price tag. Sure, it’s still an expensive vehicle, but it’s $26,500 cheaper than the Turbo trim.
The Macan EV rides on Porsche’s new Premium Platform Electric, um, platform, a dedicated EV architecture with an 800-volt high-voltage system. This means DC fast charging at up to 270 kW, and the ability to split the battery pack into two 400-volt packs for optimized charging at 400-volt DC fast chargers. As for AC charging at a home station, the Macan EV can do that at 11 kW. Porsche took its time with this platform, but it’s clearly done its charging homework.
Mind you, it’s not like the Macan EV uses ultra-fast charging to make up for disappointing range. Porsche claims its baby EV offers 320 to 380 miles of range on the optimistic WLTP cycle, which blows the Taycan out of the water. More importantly, the Tesla Model Y maxes out at 331 miles of WLTP range, so when specced right, Porsche seems to be setting a new benchmark in the compact crossover segment. Granted, it does have a massive 100 kWh battery pack, which undoubtedly plays a huge role here.
While we’re on the subject of capability, it’s worth noting that the 2025 Porsche Macan EV is rated to tow 4,400 pounds. That’s air-cooled 911 on an aluminum trailer territory, or a 914, or a 356, or even an older Boxster. Granted, electric vehicles are known to take a range hit while charging, but if you don’t live terribly far from a track and don’t want a large vehicle for occasional towing of light cars, this might do the trick.
Although massive battery packs typically don’t mesh with low driving positions, the Macan EV doesn’t raise its occupants to the sky. Instead, it offers a driver and front passenger seating position up to 28 mm lower than that of the combustion-powered Macan. The rear seat’s now 15 mm lower, all while promising improved legroom. Porsche even touts an 84-liter frunk, although you’d expect that from the company that makes a mid-engined roadster with two perfectly usable cargo areas.
Speaking of the interior, the Macan EV gets a new Google Automotive infotainment system that still supports Apple CarPlay. It’s all viewable on a 10.9-inch touchscreen, although that’s far from the only screen on deck. The driver gets a 12.6-inch curved, hoodless digital instrument cluster, and a dedicated screen exclusively for the front passenger is available. Want to go bigger? Porsche has a new heads up display with Midnight Club-style augmented reality navigation arrows, and it claims the projection to be equivalent to an 87-inch screen.
By now, you’re probably wondering what all this costs. First, make sure you’re sitting down. The electric Macan 4 starts at $80,450, while the electric Macan Turbo opens at an eye-watering $106,950. Plus, those prices are before options, and since this is Porsche, you’ll want options. The Porsche Macan EV promises to soar to new heights in the compact luxury electric crossover segment, but it has the pricing to match. Then again, with that crest on the hood, did we really expect differently?
(Photo credits: Porsche)
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“Turbo” EV. I can’t tell if I hate it or love it.
If it (likely) doesnt have it… the turbo version needs the image of an alternator laser etched on to the outside case of the electric motor 😉
And a carb.
Thought it was awkward looking when leaked last night (and it still is) but I think this is a great evolution. The light bar is a little too blocky and it could use a roof spoiler over the rear window (I’m sure it would ruin the Cd). Otherwise, it’s pretty incredible how closely this tracks the original while still looking fresh, considering the current model is 10 years old.
Regarding pricing concerns, there will almost certainly be a base Macan slotting in below the Macan 4, just like for the Taycans. Porsche always does this. The 2.0 Macan which represents the bulk of sales for the current model came out 2 years after the S and Turbo.
I own a 15 Turbo and am continuously impressed by the quality and polish of that car, despite being the “entry level” Porsche (in admittedly the top trim of the time, but still). This ticks all the boxes for me, and I’ll certainly take the 200+ extra hp.
Is “crossover” just a style description at this point? The breakover angle for this is probably similar to a 356. It’s just a car isn’t it?
“crossover” is just a fancy word for “ugly car”
Quicker than an ocelot, and can tow a grand piano!
Sounds painful. 😉
Predictive text will someday start world war three. ????
Man if they were to make a plug-in hybrid version of this a la the Panamera, I’d be seriously conflicted. That E-Hybrid Sport Turismo is a grail car for me at the moment, but a E-Hybrid version in the Macan would be something to consider too.
This is the most Beetle looking Porsche ever. They should make a stripped down version with much less performance and lower cost.
Clarkson? Is that you?!?!
Powaaaaaaaa
Somehow, as cool as all that is, I just can’t find it in my heart to give a shit.
I don’t hate it. I don’t hate EVs. I have no doubt I will own an EV one of these days. And that’s fine.
I still feel dead inside about this.
Thing looks AI generated, or like a chinese knockoff. Pretty awkward looking vehicle imho.
With that face I think it would have been better named the Porsche Cephalopoda
“Sitting atop the range is the Macan EV Turbo, and while that may be a silly name considering battery electric vehicles can’t have turbochargers, it makes for a compact crossover with 630 horsepower when launch control is activated and a claimed zero-to-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds.”
No sillier than the “Turbo” button on my 80’s desktop PC.
The turbo button on old computers actually slowed them down for games and software made for slower systems..
IIRC it was the opposite. Pushing the button increased performance.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbo_button
That extra passenger screen makes me want to hurl. Please god no.
But can it fake-tow a 911 faster than a 911?
And why does an EV need such a large grille?
Much less two extra grilles on the back of the faster one?
As someone with a preorder for the Volvo EX30 the Macan is making me feel things…
Can’t believe the dual motor EX30 is faster than the base model Macan 0-60 by more than a second!
This ain’t a Tesla forum my friend. Here in Autopia we understand that 0-60 is pretty meaningless in 2024. Don’t get me wrong-I think your EX30 is going to be cool as hell and I hope you enjoy it. But I promise you it isn’t going to drive like a Porsche. To be fair, nothing does. That’s why they’re so damn expensive!
It was merely an observation.
You’re good. Didn’t mean to lay the snark on as hard as I did! You’ll need to keep us updated on the EX30 because it’s a car that a lot of folks here are interested in.
I really wanted to hate this. I’m sad that the gas Macan is on its deathbed, because for a lot of us it essentially represents the best hope we’ll ever have to get into the Parsh life with a warranty and daily driving potential. A certified spicier variant of one (S, GTS, etc.) has always been a possibility in the back of my mind.
…but you know what? This thing rules. I think it looks fantastic, particularly in the lavender color they’ve been showing off. It looks like a Porsche without trying to be some sort of futuristic overstyled tech nightmare. Some publications have already been given a chance to test the range in real world conditions and they actually make it about 300 miles. So it has real, usable range.
And as always Porsche put a lot of thought into the engineering. Savagegeese already has a video up of Jack interviewing one of the engineers and they did some cool stuff with these. There’s an actual, mechanical differential. They focused heavily on steering and road feedback. It comes standard with PASM. Etc.
It’s cool as hell. The starting price is a bit of a bummer but what can you do, Porsche isn’t in the business of making affordable cars. Hopefully there will be some competitive lease offers, and there will have to be when you can lease a Lucid Air or new EV 5 series for around $700 a month, so fingers crossed.
I also think it’s important to keep in mind that Porsche doesn’t usually launch with the lowest spec available. When the OG Macan came out you could only get the S and Turbo for the first few years. When the Cayenne launched it was only available in the S and Turbo trim and a base model came later. I imagine that there will be a single motor, RWD version eventually that will be priced similarly to the base ICE Macan.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get flogged for this, but I love it. This is the first EV in years that I’ve been genuinely excited for. To be quite honest this may be my #1 aspirational car now. Plus, with an EV you aren’t going to have as many ludicrous Parsh mechanical service/ownership costs or reliability concerns.
Also I’m not sure if this is the standard or not (I’m not an EV guy….yet) but the Porsche engineer in the video I mentioned said that they have this set up so you can swap out individual battery cells (is that the word?) if one goes bad, so being able to replace individual parts of the battery could potentially help longevity too. Regardless, this Porsche fanboy is all in, and I’m not ashamed to say it.
I was wondering about this. Is there enough data from the Taycan to extrapolate? Six figures (near enough even if I don’t get the Turbo) is still more than I will likely every spend on a car, but added reliability would soften the ouch.
It would also potentially soften the ouch of being a second owner. At 80 I could only comfortably afford one with a generous lease offer. But a certified one with 40k miles at 60 in a few years? That’s doable.
Something else to keep in mind is how goddamn expensive routine maintenance on ICE Porsches is. Pretty much any service costs 2-3 times as much as it does on any normal car. The thing I always see people kvetching about online is that an oil change is $300 because of all the weird engineering choices they made, and if your PDK goes bad your car is essentially totaled unless you want to fork over $20,000.
EVs don’t have any of that. Don’t get me wrong-if you get into an accident or the battery goes haywire or something you’re in trouble, but the ridiculously expensive preventative maintenance won’t be as much of a thing.
Oh, I am aware of the costs. I have a 996 with a dead tiptronic. Roll the dice on an ebay unit, or $8k on a reman?? New is more than the value of a working car.
I was talking to a buddy who had a Cayman. Interestingly he said the maintenance costs on the engine and transmission were not too bad. Sure more than a Honda, but not insane. The cost of replacing worn control arms (or bushings or something) and some other chassis components out of warranty, however were insane. He had multiple 10K+ (CAD) bills. He did not race the car or winter drive, just used it as a fair weather fun car. EVs will still have those chassis components.
It’s past time for Porsche to retire Turbo as a trim level. No EVs have turbochargers and all of the current ICE Porsches do, so it makes no sense anymore.
Porsche can keep the “Turbo” name if they put a big button on the dashboard that speeds it up.
Better if it actually does something. Maybe takes it out of valet crawl mode.
Or. considering some valets. puts it in.
Maybe a rocker then:
Valet – Turbo
At the very least they should put an 800V insignia on the back.
Eureka vacuum cleaners in the 80s were electric, too. Didn’t stop Eureka from slapping turbo decals on it. Hell, in the mid 80’s about everything had a dammed turbo decal somewhere. Blenders, hair dryers, you name it, manufacturers made sure you knew their product has “TURBO” power.. It was an odd era
I kinda miss my old TURBO hair dryer. Don’t really know what brand it was, but the bathroom light would dim a bit when I turned it on.
-not that I really need one now, though
Same here on both counts. Not sure what I miss more from the 80’s, the luxury of turbo everything or a full head hear. Kind of a toss up.
Right?
-the sad part, though, is what we did with that hair when we had it.
<cringe>
So true. If the ozone ever does get a hole in it, I’m sure the big hair 80’s era is partially responsible. I mean all of the extra particulates spewed out in air the by the time you got your hair jacked up high enough to reach Jesus had to go somewhere.
It did have a hole in it but the world united and most countries banned the peopellents that caused the problems with almost no one claiming it was just a government conspiracy to take away their Aquanet.
We didn’t have social media back then, took a lot longer to spread those conspiracy theories around. I remember when the world was purged of the propellants. Everything from spray paint to PAM cooking spray was affected.
I’m getting strong Citroen Cactus vibes on this one…
Thank you. I couldn’t quite put my finger on the vibe I was getting, yup, Cactus.
But can it tow that 911 faster than a Cybertruck towing a 911 faster than just a regular 911?? I mean without cheating.
Well, they did almost tie in time from announcement to production of product.
A lesson on how to out-Mercedes Mercedes in the botched rear end department
I presume this refers to Mercedes-Benz, because while I haven’t met her, I can’t believe this is relevant to Ms Mercedes at all.
Why, no, I don’t actually have anything to say and am limited to feeble riffs off the substantive comments of others. We all have our place in life.
LOL! I mean, I did rip the rear end off of Ski-Klasse:
https://www.theautopian.com/i-took-our-snow-crushing-mercedes-party-wagon-off-roading-and-it-was-total-chaos/
Just going by the color, your headline should have been “Camped Up.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for creative color choices, but this scoop of black raspberry ice cream is a shade too far for me. Of course, that means down the road it will probably be the most valuable collector color among aficionados.
Like the early ’90s easter egg hued 911s!
If you are going to buy an overpriced midsized SUEV, this looks like a good one.