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23 Jan 2025

Back to back: Just how different can two Macans be?

Adam Towler drives two Electric Macans for an insight into Porsche's electric future  

To be brutally honest, it’s not the most exciting car I’ve ever driven away from Porsche GB HQ in Reading, nor is it the fastest or the best looking. I haven’t lain awake the night beforehand filled with a mix of expectation, wonder and curiosity, nor will I be straight on the phone later to discuss its attributes with like-minded car-mad friends. But I do understand this: it’s quite possibly the most important car I’ll ever take for a drive.
 
Why? Because the Macan is the bestseller that keeps the euros rolling in at Stuttgart. It is the daily bread that makes the world go round for 911s and all the other wonderful things we love to enjoy from our favourite sports car maker. It is a car that has sold 50,000 units in the UK alone since its introduction 10 years ago and now, in all-electric form, will be the ultimate acid test in the market. If it sells, the future is surely set fair for the Porsche business as it attempts to navigate this unique period of transition in the new car market from ICE to electric. If it doesn’t, there will be profound pressure applied to almost every level of the company and ramifications that stretch beyond Porsche.
 
Today’s Macan E experience consists of drives in two new press fleet examples: a Turbo and a Macan 4. Just as a recap, the Macan E range currently consists of four models. There’s the rear-wheel-drive Macan with 360hp and 415lb/ft of torque that’s capable of 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds, that has a range of 398 miles and that also weighs 2,220kg. Then there’s the 408hp Macan 4 (479lb/ft, 5.2 seconds, 380 miles, 2,330kg), the 516hp 4S model (605lb/ft, 4.1 seconds, 377 miles, 2,345kg) and finally the Turbo with a wild 639hp and 833lb/ft of torque. It reaches 62mph from rest in just 3.3 seconds, has a range of 367 miles and weighs a substantial 2,405kg. In every sense, it’s a heavy hitter.

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It’s the Turbo that I drive first. The individual specification of this particular example, as with every modern car, is crucial to appreciate before we start. As a Turbo, it features air suspension with PASM and the PTV+ rear differential, and it also has the option of 22” alloy wheels and rear-wheel steering that is available on a Macan for the first time, along with a long list of options that also includes the new augmented reality HUD set-up and the passenger side display screen. The Turbo starts at £96,900, and this one has a retail price with options of a not-inconsiderable £118,761.
 
My first impressions are that the new car is a looker – a blend of trad Macan cues, Porsche design language and a little dose of sci-fi make it look both familiar and futuristic. That’s entirely subjective, of course, but the Turbo in particular manages to pull off that clever visual sleight of hand whereby it’s hunkered down over wheels so large, the proportions overpower the scale. It almost looks like a hot hatchback at first glance and it’s only when you see it alongside a more conventional car that you realise this is a big, 2.5-ton SUV (it’s a trick successfully pioneered by the Hyundai Ioniq 5N, the world’s first all-electric ‘hot hatch’). It’s an appealing place to be on the inside too in a logical, predictably Porsche style, with a sporty, comfortable environment up front and an unfortunate lack of headroom (for someone over six foot) in the rear. The optional passenger screen feels like a real gimmick, but I quickly get used to the augmented reality HUD, which reminds me of the scenes in Iron Man where he moves elements around in 3D. Apparently, it’s like having an 87” screen in front of you…
 
Of course, there is no necessary pause to experiencing what the Turbo can do; no engine to warm up. When traffic clears, you simply plant your right foot like a caveman and hold on tight. Wow. You’ll certainly be glad you left a little room before uncorking it, because the sheer acceleration the Macan Turbo unleashes sucks the horizon towards you with such violence it almost feels vaguely unpleasant. It wouldn’t really matter what ICE sports car you were driving; in that typical ring-road lunge that characterises how so many now experience performance cars on our busy roads, the Macan Turbo has no equal. It is ferociously fast.

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Naturally, when you’re not trying to compress your eyeballs, it’s hushed and easy. I spend the next while turning off driver assistance tech and experimenting with different driver modes (Normal, Sport, Sport Plus and Off Road) and getting a handle on all the other tech and options contained within the two large screens that constitute the ‘dashboard’. There is plenty to learn, but it’s certainly well integrated and attractively implemented.
 
The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire lanes are more challenging than their cosy Home Counties reputation might suggest. National Speed Limit sections are brief, but those that do open up serve a bewildering mix of road surfaces, from week-old fresh to hopelessly cratered. All told, the Turbo certainly has to work hard at times to deal with them convincingly.
 
It’s asking a lot of the Macan’s chassis to handle the dumbbells that are a 22” alloy wheel at each corner on such roads. The air suspension does a manful job but, on a poor surface, the thump, bang and obvious discomfort are constant reminders and there’s that familiar impact-then-wobble that characterises air-sprung cars regardless of the manufacturer in question. Some of the hits thunk home so hard I wince at the battering the shell is having to cope with. Of course, the flip side is that the Turbo has a soft, pillowy ride in Normal mode when the road is smooth, and I’ve no doubt that in Germany, where the roads are often perfect, it isn’t an issue at all. Up the ante with the modes and it goes hyper-aggressive, a feeling exaggerated by the supreme sense of agility the rear-wheel steering imparts. You really can destroy a testing road in the Macan Turbo, although ‘destroy’ sometimes feels uncomfortably like the key word considering 2.5 tons on the rampage at savage speeds. Plant the throttle in a corner and the rear of the car steps out instantly, which is an unexpected element to the Macan’s handling repertoire. In fact, the instant deployment of 833lb/ft of torque to all four wheels (five times faster in shuffling the torque than a conventional four-wheel-drive system) is not to be taken lightly. On an uneven surface, it’s necessary to really hang on to the Turbo because it can ‘torque steer’ out of your lane relatively easily. In such situations, it needs a firm hand at all times: driving the Turbo quickly never leads to a dull moment. Without the traditional cues to speed in an EV, it takes high levels of concentration to stay 100 per cent focused on road speed and braking distances. The Turbo is so fast and, frankly, capable of miracles, but there’s always the thought you can cheat physics only to a finite point.

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The Macan 4, on the other hand… now, that’s a very different car again. After the onslaught of the Turbo, it doesn’t take long behind the wheel to feel a sense of calm in the 4. Its steel spring and conventional damper suspension, here with optional PASM, is firm riding but entirely capable of keeping the 20” wheels in check and makes a much better attempt at riding the worst roads on offer. The acceleration is immediate and very brisk, but there isn’t a feeling that you’re trying to wind back the earth on its axis. The steering is calmer and the whole car seems to execute curves in more of a traditional, organic manner, yet it’ll still unstick the rear under power in an amusing fashion. The more I drive it, the more I feel at home with it, and I’m reminded of Andrew English’s words in the June issue of Porsche Post when he drove the Macan E overseas; less is somehow more.
 
That’s not to say the Turbo won’t have its converts, and I willingly concede it is a spectacular device. Yet with everything turned up to maximum, I also find it slightly unsatisfying to my own personal taste. It’s a car trying very hard to be a real Porsche, but there are occasions when it feels too much.
 
‘Too much of what?’, you might say, but the Macan 4 shows there is another side to the new car. I can’t say it set my soul on fire, but it does feel like a very well resolved product – enough of a Porsche, but appealingly practical too. Whether an EV is right for you per se is still a question that goes beyond the mere car and encompasses aspects of lifestyle and access to charging networks but, if all those stars align, then a Macan 4 seems like a very desirable option.

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This feature was written by Adam Towler and first appeared in the December 2024 issue of our monthly Club magazine, Porsche Post. Join today to receive your copy, as well as enjoying a host of exclusive member benefits and savings.
 

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