2024 Porsche Macan 4 review: Has Porsche over-reached dumping ICE and adding $30K to the price of its most popular premium SUV?
The Porsche Macan has gone full EV. The petrol is dead and whispers of killing the Golden Goose get louder.
You thought Porsche was a sportscar company? Nah. It’s an SUV company that also sells bloody good performance cars many people want but can’t afford.
The Macan and larger Cayenne SUVs do the heavy sales lifting and profit pulling, making up three-quarters of all Porsches shifted in Australia.
Hello, gamble. This new second-generation Macan is purely electric, accompanied by price rises roughly $30,000 over retired petrol equivalents.
READ MORE: Porsche Taycan GT: Let loose in an EV that hits 100km/h in 2.2 seconds
READ MORE: Are Porsche Macan sales set to tumble with the introduction of the new EV-only version?
READ MORE: The most exciting EV yet? Track testing Hyundai’s incredible Ioniq 5 N
That’s a problem. Many were drawn to the combustion Macan because you could drive one away for under a hundred large, but the new EV’s entry-level weighs in at $128,400 plus charges.
Kudos to Porsche for the electrification commitment, but has this prestige mid-sized SUV landed as electric-only just a few years too soon?
New combustion Macans can no longer be ordered in Australia – it’s dealer stock or nowt. Again, this is one of their best selling vehicles we’re talking about. Gone.
It looks like a huge ask for the new Macan EV to match the ICE’s 3000 annual sales here. Such a number would eclipse our market’s best-selling prestige EV, the BMW iX1, which can be had for $50,000 less than the Porsche.
Similar-sized competition is fierce, and not only from the Macan’s petrol-powered predecessor.
EV rivals are as varied as the BMW iX3, Polestar 4, incoming Audi Q6 e-tron and fun-packed EV point-of-difference Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
2024 Porsche Macan 4 price and equipment
We’re initially getting four Macan EV grades. The Macan RWD ($128,400), Macan 4 ($134,400), Macan 4S ($149,300) and flagship Turbo ($184,400).
The 4 and Turbo are first to arrive (the other two come in early 2025), and these were available for our launch test. I’ll mainly cover the more sensible 4 here, with the Turbo review to follow.
The entry single motor rear-wheel-drive with 265kW/563Nm manages 100km/h in only 5.7 seconds. The all-paw Macan 4’s two motors bring 300kW/650Nm and a 5.2 second sprint; Macan 4S offers 380kW/820Nm and 4.1 seconds; while the bonkers Turbo offers 470kW/1130Nm and a 3.3 second warp speed sprint.
All models use a massive and heavy 100kWh (96kWh usable) lithium-ion battery in the underbody, which is a central component of Porsche and Audi’s Premium Platform Electric 800-volt architecture, used by Porsche for the first time here.
DC charge speed is up to 270kW, allowing a 10 to 80 per cent boost within 21 minutes. Roughly 100km range can be added in four minutes.
For home charging using a 11kW AC wall box, reckon on 11 hours to go from 0-100 per cent.
Range is excellent. The RWD achieves 654km, it’s 624km for the 4, 619km for the 4S and 616km for the Turbo.
The Macan is also the slipperiest Porsche SUV yet with a 0.25Cd drag coefficient aided by active cooling flaps at the front air intakes, flexible covers under the body and an active rear spoiler.
The Macan 4 is well furnished to match its $140,000+ drive-away price. There are 20-inch alloys, LED headlights and taillights, auto tailgate and auto bonnet popping with a hand swipe under the front crest (it didn’t work in the rain, FYI).
There’s Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM), but not the air suspension nor Torque Vectoring Plus found on the Turbo.
Inside is a 12.6-inch curved instrument cluster, 10.9-inch infotainment running Android Automotive OS (brings gaming and YouTube, etc.), wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and phone charging, two-zone climate control, 14-way electric memory leatherette seats, front seat heating, electric steering column, navigation, Porsche Connect, four USB-C ports and a steering wheel rotary dial drive mode selector.
It wouldn’t be a Porsche without some wallet-busting extras. Our test Macan 4, for example, had $7780 22-inch high gloss wheels, $3110 panoramic roof (which impacts otherwise good rear headroom), $900 Porsche crests on the headrests, $2700 passenger display screen and $2880 paint.
Safety’s solid with intersection assist, swerve and turn assist, traffic sign recognition, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control and surround view camera.
Porsche’s warranty is stingy at three-years/unlimited kilometres, while the battery’s an industry-standard eight-years/160,000km.
Servicing’s not bad for a Porsche, and they’re required only every two years or 30,000km. Prepaid it’s $1495 for three-years, $2795 for four or $2995 for five.
2024 Porsche Macan 4: What we think
As an electric car the new Macan EV’s superb, but is it a brilliant Porsche?
Its engineers have delivered a quiet, luxurious and serene driving machine for urban and highway work, then somehow managed to also make it eminently capable on a twisty backroad.
Very similar to the petrol-powered Macan, then.
But there’s not the tingly-feels drive experience we’re so used to in the old Macan, arguably the benchmark SUV for outright capability and driver involvement. A high-revving V6 always helped the occasion.
Many buy a Porsche for its personality-packed engine, but adding character to an electric drivetrain is, well, challenging. It’s easy to make it bloody powerful and quick, but nobody talks about an EV motor’s noise and vibrations as life affirming.
Should Porsche have followed the path Hyundai N has travelled with its superb, engaging Ioniq 5 N by giving the Macan EV fake combustion noises, revs and simulated paddle shifts?
Traditionalists would no doubt baulk at the thought, but this is a new era and a completely new Macan. Surely there’d be space to add steering wheel paddles for pretend gear changes and a raspy faux engine note that could be easily buttoned off or on depending on the driver’s preference?
Through clogged Brisbane streets on our Macan 4 test, initial impressions were firm, well-bolstered seats with a driver-centric cockpit (very Porsche). You can sit pleasingly low for an SUV and there’s excellent insulation against city noise.
It doesn’t feel cumbersome, darting into gaps with an instant torque hit. The ride is firm-ish on steel springs, but the PASM impressively irons out choppy bitumen, suggesting the $2830 extra for air suspension’s hardly a necessity.
There’s no one-pedal braking in town – regen is reserved for braking and coasting. It makes for a jerk-free and smooth drive, but again, why not offer drivers the option with some paddle shifts?
For most uses, the Macan 4 is performance-suited enough. You’re up to 100km/h briskly without any head-pinning. Then on the tight twisty section of bitumen, the steering precision and weight are brilliant and it turns in sharply for something so heavy.
These new Macan EVs are roughly 400kg heavier than petrol equivalents, with our test Macan 4 weighing in at 2334kg.
The standard adaptive dampers make the Macan feel more balanced and confident around sweepers than the bulk of sporting EV rivals, while brake feel is decent for an electric car, but feel next to a combustion Porsche simply isn’t matched.
A morning at the track reveals a mixed bag. Through a slalom course the lardy Macan displays impressive control, but ultimately can’t hide its weight with quick direction changes. Tyres cling on for dear life, but it somehow always sticks.
It’s impressive around a circuit, with ample torque pulling you out of corners and good grief the brakes do a brilliant job, proving fade-free after a handfult of hot laps.
You respect it rather than truly enjoy it. With no engine noise (unless you option Porsche’s not-great Electric Sport Sound for $860), and no paddles to play with it’s very much point-and-shoot.
But really, combustion Macans were rarities at the track, and the Macan EV will be even less likely to be found at one.
Where this car shines is as an everyday family SUV with range enough for practically every use. Our test returned 18kWh/100km, not far off Porsche’s official claim. So 600km+ between charges looks attainable.
Porsche knew there’d be driver involvement lost by going EV, so it ensured the cabin would entice shoppers.
The layout’s no-nonsense with solid analogue buttons for climate; there’s clear gauges in a 12.6-inch curved instrument cluster and a touch pad to select the likes of heat seating and air recirculation. It looks clean, if slightly fussy.
All surfaces above elbow height feel superb and controls are meaty, while the steering wheel is a lesson in elegant design and minimal, common-sense buttons.
Wheelbase is up 86mm to 2893mm, but rear seats don’t offer huge space, nor do they slide or recline. Flexibility points lost there. If there are tall folk up front, adults’ knees could be up against their seat’s hard plastic back. For proper family space, get a Cayenne.
The boot’s also fine but nothing more. It’s 540L (480L for 4S and Turbo), but there’s the bonus 84L frunk.
2024 Porsche Macan 4 EV: Verdict
The Macan 4’s a superb EV with rapid performance, delightful ride and handling skills, and a deep sense of quality inside and out.
While it’s an electric SUV high point, the amount of character, feel and boisterous fun that comes from a piston-powered sporting SUV isn’t quite there. Lots of Porsche buyers care about such things.
But we should view this Macan EV as a separate entity and a bloody good one.
Kudos to Porsche for taking the electric leap of faith, but has it come too early for its biggest seller? It deserves to do well, but that $30k price jump is going to be the Macan EV’s biggest challenge.
SCORE: 3.5/5
2024 Porsche Macan 4 specifications
Price: $134,400 plus on-road costs
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, SUV, AWD
Range: 624km
Battery capacity: 100kWh (96kWh useable)
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Energy consumption: 17 kWh/100km
Motors: 1 front and 1 rear 300kW/650Nm
AC charging: 270kW, CCS combo plug
DC charging: 11kW, Type 2 plug
0-100km/h: 5.2 seconds
