It’s a big era of change for Porsche. Dipping its toes into the world of battery electric vehicles with the Taycan, the brand has since pledged to offer battery-powered options for everything in its lineup save for the Panamera and 911, and the electric Macan is the first fruit of this accelerated direction.
A two-row electric crossover makes loads of sense, because just about every other brand under the sun offers one. What’s more, the Macan is Porsche’s entry level car, so taking it electric is a great way of reducing the tailpipe emissions of a massive part of the sales mix. However, the electric era has provided an opportunity for rulebooks to be reset, old hierarchies to fall, and new champions to rise. For instance, it seems that Lamborghini is benchmarking a Hyundai, something that would’ve been unimaginable even a decade ago. So where does the new Macan fit in? Let’s find out.
Welcome to Two Takes, a new thing we’re trying here at The Autopian. Two writers, two environments, two examples of the same car, one thorough review. In this case, it turned out that David and Thomas both ended up in electric Macan press units, so why not take the opportunity to do something different?Â
David’s First Impressions
As soon as Porsche kindly dropped the Macan off on my street, I wasted little time and hopped right now. Right away, upon taking a seat in the new EV Macan, I dropped farther than I expected. The seating position is low; this is an aerodynamic, sleek machine, and not so much a tall, upright-feeling SUV. I was curious if this was even worth noting or if it was in my head, but Eric Tingwall at Motor Trend noted the same thing, writing in his review:
Thanks to standard air springs and the beefy 95.0-kWh battery pack under the floor, the Macan EV counters its extra heft with a center of gravity that can hunker as much as 5.5 inches lower than the gas Macan.
The cabin is, from an aesthetics and quality standpoint, lovely. The Porsche three-spoke steering wheel is pretty much perfect (and features the classic hidden heated-steering-wheel button and in the middle of the bottom spoke); the hoodless gauge cluster is crisp even on the sunniest day; the passenger’s screen is actually kinda fun (my wife enjoyed using it; I couldn’t see it from the driver’s seat); overall material quality is superb; and the dash-mounted shifter next to the steering wheel is awesome.
The great thing about that tiny shifter on the dashboard is that it opens up space on the center tunnel — space that Porsche…largely wastes. There are two cupholders, sure, but then there’s this odd flying buttress-looking storage bin that’s really not that useful.
Porsche has packaged something between the driver and passenger floorboard, as there’s clearly a center tunnel, which I think is a shame because I love the airy-ness of an open bit of floor there for my lunch.
Then again, I can see how Porsche might think some kind of center console is more appropriate than open space in a sporty car like this. Still, I’d just like that console to be a bit more useful. And it’d be nice if one could actually see the USB-C ports in the back of that center bin; as it stands, plugging in is tricky. Also tricky? Driving when the sun is on your left, as the Macan EV doesn’t have an extending visor — this is not acceptable, as I wrote recently.
Porsche put the HVAC controls on the center tunnel, with some functions being rocker switches and others clickable haptics (basically, you hit the button and push down, and the whole panel “clicks”). There’s also a volume knob. For the most part, these switches work OK, but I’d still prefer all physical switches, and I’d like them to be out of the way up the dash and not taking up valuable real-estate that could be used for storage.
The car’s cameras are excellent and make parking a breeze, forward visibility is nice while the view out of the back is just OK. As for space, there’s good legroom in the second row for 5’8″ me, the cargo area has plenty of room for junk, and the frunk is actually really usable, especially for dirty things that you don’t want to miss up your carpet.
I put my tools up front.
Thomas’ First Impressions
To spec up or keep light, that is the question. See, while David’s Macan came with extended leather, the passenger screen, and various other luxurious sundries, mine was equipped much closer to base. Did I miss the leather dashboard? A little bit, but the plastics do all feel quality, so it’s not exactly a hardship. Did I miss anything else? Not really. Actually, I prefer the simplicity of no passenger screen even if that places a slab of shiny black plastic on the dashboard, and the absence of the Sport Chrono clock wasn’t felt much either. Instead, I was presented with a usable, functional, sturdy cabin that seems fairly well-designed.
What tech there is operates mostly beautifully. Porsche’s current infotainment system is fast, reliable and fluid, and although I’d prefer physical controls for my heated seats, a separate illuminated capacitive touch panel with clicky haptic feedback beats having to go through a screen. The gauge cluster also gets a nod of approval, partly because of its fantastic screen quality and partly because it’s so easily configurable. Press one steering wheel button, scroll with the wheel on the right spoke, and you can set the cluster how you like. Then again, the Bose audio system is a bit disappointing as it could use a bit more dynamic range. Surround sound processing on it also fails to pass the sniff test, requiring reversion to stereo in order to restore acceptable quality. Sure, the optional Burmester system costs big bucks, but I reckon it’s probably worth it if you’re playing at this level.
It’s interesting how annoyances aren’t the same across the board. Visibility of the USB-C ports might be a driver size thing as I could easily see the USB-C ports through the aperture in the side of the console, and my five-foot-ten frame was always close enough to the dashboard to not want for sliding visors. However, that’s not to say that my Macan was perfect. I like a low seating position, but that meant the steering column always seemed high if I wanted to keep the gauges visible. Telescopic adjustment of the column could also be greater, as the wheel just felt a little far away, even at full extension. In addition, my Macan had a weird one-time glitch that cut all audio, including the simulated clicks for the turn signals. Cycling power fixed that and it never returned, but it’s a bit of a confidence-shaker.
That being said, the Macan Electric really grew into Porsche’s styling language well, didn’t it? I know raked rear glass on crossovers is a controversial thing, but with a visual theme this historic, it just works here. Furthermore, the soft contours of the fenders and minimal use of sharp creases feels delightfully restrained, especially in a world where most cars are becoming cartoonishly aggressive.
Generally, you should never buy a car as a fashion statement, but the electric Macan has to be the Birkin of small electric luxury crossovers. It’s stylish and reasonably practical, yet should still look sleek and modern a decade into the future. When you’re spending this much on an electric crossover ($122,400 Canadian as-tested including freight), visual longevity counts.
The Macan 4 In The Canyons
The best thing about the Porsche Macan EV is how it drives, though that wasn’t perfect, either. When I U-turned out of the parking spot in which Porsche had dropped the car off, I heard chirping from the rear tires. This was the case multiple times at low speeds with the wheel cranked — it seems that, despite the rear-steering, Porsche’s torque-control software just isn’t dialed in well enough to allow for the right differential speeds for tight turns, and the result was what some people call “crow hop.”
With that U-Turn over, I headed to the canyons, put the Macan in its sportiest drive-mode, and grinned from ear to ear as those Pirelli P Zero Corsas gripped for absolute eternities as I forced the 5,000+ pound EV through the canyons. Despite its heft, the vehicle felt small and nimble, and was a downright joy to drive harder and harder because, as I said, those tires held on for dear life and wouldn’t let go. The torque delivery is a bit different than that of an all-wheel drive gas car, and on the Macan when I stepped on it coming out of a corner I noticed the nose had a tendency to dart into the turn. I also noticed some understeer in certain situations, but the car seemed to brake that inside rear wheel to rotate the car just where I wanted it.
It’s not a fast car by EV standards, with a zero to 60 mph time somewhere in the four-to-five second range. The vehicle doesn’t really feel that quick despite the cool noise it makes when you accelerate in sport mode (which activates the cool spoiler out back), but it’s definitely quick enough.
On the highway and in casual around-town driving, the Macan rides really well, and that’s always impressed me about Porsche. To build a stiff, well-handling car is not that impressive, but to engineer something that offers both genuine comfort and sporty handling is a triumph, and something Porsche does better than almost anyone.
The Macan 4S In The City
Alright, so a regular Porsche Macan 4 isn’t massively quick by electric vehicle standards, but I didn’t end up in a Macan 4. Porsche loaned me a Macan 4S for a week, and that one little letter makes a big difference. Peak output in launch control mode jumps from 402 horsepower to 509 horsepower, and the claimed zero-to-60 mph time tumbles from 4.9 seconds to 3.9 seconds. While that still isn’t mega-quick in a world where an electric Hyundai will do the dash in the low threes, it makes a world of difference when you really need to get on it. However, that’s not the impressive part of the Macan 4S.
See, most fast electric cars are so responsive, they can have a hard time chilling out. If you press the accelerator pedal a fraction of an inch more, suddenly you have all the torque in the world available to you, because that’s what most calibration engineers tend to do. Not Porsche’s calibration engineers. Instead, all this power becomes tractable, usable, precisely doled out in infinitesimally small increments, so even someone wearing Butterball turkeys as shoes can have masterful control of pace. The result is a fast electric car that’s happy to waft along, so long as the inherent wind noise compromise of frameless windows doesn’t bother you.
The two-chamber air suspension feels worlds away from the air suspension of old, soaking up potholes like they’re oil and it’s baguette, without feeling nautical by way of secondary body motions. The brake pedal doesn’t have any of the obvious springiness you get in the Taycan, instead offering a natural blend between regenerative and friction braking. The Macan 4S is happy to be laid-back, until you grab the dial on the steering wheel and twist it all the way to the right.
With such a wide array of gadgets aboard, dialing up sport mode just makes everything more aggressive. The suspension drops down and firms up, the accelerator pedal pulls any slack in the mapping taut, and as you enter an on-ramp at Mach Jesus, you suddenly become aware that you’re driving a cohesive performance crossover. Thanks in part to the four-wheel steering, the grip and stability in high-speed corners is tremendous, even on winter tires. You’ll be making the most of the optional 18-way adjustable seats as you realize that this family crossover can hang with substantially lighter machinery, and through tighter corners, you can even get some perfectly predictable, easily controllable rotation on corner exit. It all sounds brilliant, but there’s something holding me back.
Even with everything set to its firmest and most aggressive, the steering’s just too light on both weight and communication to make that front end grip instinctual. Even compared to a Cayenne on winter tires, you end up having to almost blindly trust the front axle, and not only is that a bit unnerving, it makes me wonder how much Audi is in the Macan’s Premium Platform Electric architecture. Porsche’s always been a company of engineering optimization, but it seems that the steering weight and feedback on the Macan 4S could be optimized further.
David’s Note On Depreciation
I really hope you don’t spend $110,000 on a new Porsche Macan. That’s the most important bit of consumer advice I can give you after spending a few days behind the wheel of Porsche’s mid-size electric SUV, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it! Actually, I liked the Macan EV quite a bit; it’s a beautifully engineered machine. And yet, I can’t recommend it for 110 grand.
We’re at a strange point in automotive history right now. Brands that once distinguished themselves by offering state-of-the-art engines with unique torque curves; finely-engineered lightweight bodies with a precise weight distribution; beautifully-shifting transmissions; and aurally satisfying exhausts, are finding themselves building vehicles to which many of those characteristics do not apply: EVs.
All EVs have essentially the same torque curve, all of them are heavy, all have their weight is primarily between the axles (where batteries are packaged), none of them make noise that isn’t piped in through speakers, and very few of them have more than one gear in their “transmission.” It’s for these reasons that true EV-nuts tend to geek out more over things like charging speed, mi/kWh efficiency, and clever packaging than over 0-60 times and precise handling. It’s why — along with a dramatic improvement in interior materials, the proliferation of Apple Carplay/Android Auto leveling the infotainment playing field, and excellent exterior designers working for budget brands — that many will recommend Hyundais over Mercedes-Benzes, Kias over BMWs, Fords over Lexuses.
And it’s why, when I saw the $110,000 pricetag on my Macan EV press-loaner, I thought: “Well damn, this is going to have to be basically twice the car of the significantly more powerful Kia EV6 GT.” I’ll tell you right now: It is not. Yes, I realize that I just compared a Kia to a Porsche, but like I said before, in terms of what makes EVs appealing in 2025, the playing field has never been more level.
But it’s not the competitive set that has me saying buying a Macan EV for $110 grand isn’t the move, because let’s be honest: Sometimes people want a Porsche over a Kia (brand equity is brand equity). No, I’m saying that because I can think of few cars that are likely to depreciate harder than a $110,000 fully-loaded mid-size electric Porsche EV that makes 402 horsepower and has a a range of 308 miles. Those aren’t bad figures, to be clear, but for an EV, they’re not earth-shattering.
The Porsche Macan is priced like a world-beater, but while it might out most U.S. market mid-size EV SUV in certain metrics, the gap isn’t big enough to command $110 big ones. And everyone kinda knows it; just check out the Macan EV owner’s forum, and you’ll see threads like “Expected depreciation?” Here’s a quote from that thread:
My Taycan Turbo S (I bought as a CPO) sold for 45% MSRP (inc 8k of tax credit, 39% without taxes) at just over 3 years old and 18k miles. The worst part is Porsche dealerships wouldn’t touch it.
I’ve come to the conclusion that leasing, even with mileage overage, is superior to purchasing EVs. Even with Porsche’s horrible lease rates I think it’s the way to go.
I’ve always been anti-Porsche lease but the EV market is dreadful and I think the Macan will follow a similar route to the Taycan.
And here’s another thread from the Macan EV owner’s forum titled “Macan EV Prices Falling – Depreciation.” From that thread:
This forumgoer, by the way, is referencing what has to be one of the most absurd Bring a Trailer auctions ever.
This brand new Macan EV, which Bring a Trailer says had a total price of $121,000 when it was purchased in October of 2024, was driven only 86 miles and sold for $88,500! That’s over $30,000 to drive from DC to Baltimore and back. Once.
[Writer’s Note: It’s worth noting that rapid depreciation is an issue across the board with electric luxury cars. Early Taycans are now $50,000 cars, and early Model S Plaids are worth as much as used Trojans, which is insane for such an expensive car. This Lucid Air lost 52.6 percent of its value in just 1,720 miles. If you’re looking at any upmarket electric vehicle, depreciation is going to hit like a mother, but that’s just the nature of the game right now. —TH]
David’s Verdict On The Macan 4
Overall I quite liked the Macan. It’s not perfect — the lane keep assist function is too aggressive, the price is absurd, the center tunnel packaging could be better, I’d like a telescoping sun visor, those haptic buttons aren’t my favorite, the car doesn’t really feel crazy quick, and that crow-hop thing was a bit odd. But it’s a beautifully riding, nicely handling car with top-notch interior quality and a Porsche badge up front. I’m not sure if it’ll outrun the cheaper Hyundai (the Ioniq 5 N), which is a crazy statement to make, but that’s where we are in 2025.
So it’s a lovely car, but is the badge, the interior quality, and that Porsche handling enough to take that huge depreciation risk? If it were me, no. But then again, lots of folks buy expensive German cars and take a bath on depreciation, so you do you. As for me: I’m looking forward to this thing becoming a deal and a half on the used market in a couple of years.
Thomas’ Verdict On The Macan 4S
The electric Porsche Macan feels like a tale of upsides and downsides. On the one hand, the chassis isn’t quite as talkative as you’d expect from a Porsche, and the car itself is properly expensive. At the same time, if you want an electric luxury crossover that isn’t enormous, few options out there do everything quite like the electric Macan does. The Mercedes-Benz EQB isn’t even in the same league, the cabin of the Audi Q6 e-tron doesn’t have this level of elegant simplicity, the Genesis GV60 doesn’t grip as tight, and while the Polestar 3 seems fabulous, its service network is quite small.
Depreciation on any of the vehicles I mentioned is likely going to be brutal, but if you have the cash and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N isn’t refined enough for your tastes, is there anything better in this form factor? I’ll have to drive the Polestar 3 to find out, but judging by that brand’s aversion to physical controls, I’m leaning toward a ‘no’. So, if you’re coming from something like a Tesla Model S, want to stay all-electric while downsizing, and want a luxury machine that isn’t a Tesla, the electric Porsche Macan might be the one to buy. Just go for the highest trim you can afford without compromising on spec, and you should find a solid balance of luxury and performance.
Oh, and if you don’t want to go all-electric just yet but still want a greener Porsche SUV, how about a Cayenne E-Hybrid? Sure, it’s a lot more money than a Macan, but if you’re leasing, its monthly payment might be closer than you think.
Top graphic credit: Thomas Hundal
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I actually think these are really well styled, and the interior is tasteful, but damn I have a hard time seeing 100 big ones.
Luxury carmakers are going to need to figure something out quickly to differentiate their EVs from well-specced midlevel alternatives. Nobody would have even mentioned a Hyundai in a Porsche review in the ICE days- But here we are, and that should be setting off some alarm bells. While obvious differences remain, many of this car’s positive attributes are subjective design choices, not cost-prohibitive physical features that sit behind a manufacturing moat.
For the conspicuous consumption crowd, wasting money will always be in style. But those folks aren’t the taste makers who set the cultural equity of a brand. A significant sub-set of luxury buyers are quite discerning, and expect a unique value for their expense. Porsche in particular has always occupied a sort of ‘rational’ supercar space, plus leveraging their unique engineering to define the experience. This puts the brand in an awkward place as EVs democratize performance and driving dynamics.
Nice article!
If you factor in depreciation the Cayenne hybrid will probably actually wind up being cheaper, at least if you keep one on the low end of the options list.
What an insane world we live in now that this comment makes sense: “It’s not a fast car by EV standards, with a zero to 60 mph time somewhere in the four-to-five second range. “
That was not a one-time glitch. The Porsche software for the whole-ass gauge cluster, infotainment, and HVAC is the damn glitchiest thing I’ve ever seen. Also, whole vital systems can fail (high voltage heater) and not trigger an on-dash warning. It is truly a masterpiece of looking expensive while being absolutely dismal.
Counterpoint – FAST S/CUVs are the dumbest things on wheels no matter the method of propelling them. Because nothing about going fast on pavement is improved by jacking a car up in the air and making it heavier. And unless you are racing in a desert, going fast is NOT advantageous in any way off-road. Not that any of the fast versions of these things have the slightest off-road ability to start with.
Fools and their money.
I completely disagree. They’re perfect “jack of all trades” cars that enable you to have one car that does it all.
When you can only daily one car, this is a great way to ensure you aren’t driving something exceedingly dull every day.
Macans are comfortable and luxurious but have the surprising ability to put a smile on your face when your road trip throws a curvy road at you. They have just enough room for your stuff and the AWD handles winters beautifully.
It’s a compromise, sure, but there is no better compromise than a fast SUV.
I have no interest in “one car that does it all” – that just means it does everything badly. I have driven these things – in exchange for decent handling, they ride like buckboard wagons. In exchange for being quick, they cost a fortune to buy and run. They have VERY little space inside. The compromises are terrible. There is no winter where I live now, and when I lived where there was real winter, they are too low to make much difference yet jacked up enough to ruin the ride/handling balance. Completely pointless. For the same money, buy something fun for nice days and something practical for when you need that.
You guys need to identify when you’re switching voices in a two-authored story (and also adjust that byline). It feels like the voice changes throughout the article, without identification, and the crow hop comment proves the case.
I’m glad I was not the only one! I kept wondering who was writing at various times in the article so it felt very, very disjointed.
Disorienting.
It could even be that they had tags that somehow didn’t make it thru the html/css/whatever process. But for next time, it would be a much appreciated improvement if it were fixed. I like the concept of the double review.
Weirdly enough none of you talked about the missing one pedal driving feature that EVERY electric vehicle should have as standard.
German cars are so weird for not offering that. It’s the only way I drive my ioniq 5
It’s even stranger considering David owns an i3 which comes with one pedal driving.
FYI, by driving the one pedal mode in the Ioniq 5 you are actually losing a LOT of range. One pedal mode permanently locks AWD on no matter what speed you are driving. (The other regen modes will drop to RWD at 30km/h to save electricity during slower acceleration.) So highway range suffers a lot as the front motors never turn off. So definitely turn off one pedal driving when highway driving to maximize range.
Sport mode also locks the car permanently into AWD. But that seems a fair tradeoff for the performance it provides.
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the tip!
Glad to help. I accidentally learned this on a youtube video about a guys experience hypermiling his Ioniq 5. He mentioned how he did not use one pedal mode due to it always staying in AWD.
Personally, I don’t ever use one pedal mode since my brain has trouble adjusting to not using the brakes. It just does not work for me. But to each their own for that.
But once you are on a highway, switching off one pedal mode definitely helps with range. I am unsure if this is an issue with the 2025 refresh, but 2024 and older definitely behave this way in one pedal mode.
To be honest, I hate one-pedal modes with a burning passion, so I laud Porsche for throwing it out the penthouse window. One-pedal’s only good for making Uber passengers queasy and throwing inexperienced drivers into Jersey barriers in icy conditions (data suggests it’s horrendously inefficient compared to coasting in highway operation), and considering inconsistent one-pedal brake light applications under partial throttle, it’s the first thing I turn off in any EV.
Thank you for being brave enough to say this. Good regen/friction integration makes 1-pedal obsolete.
THANK YOU for mentioning the brake light applications, or really there lack of. This drives me nuts being behind Teslas and whoever else has an electric car and they all of a sudden are rapidly slowing down without warning. I wonder how that would hold up to an insurance adjuster if you rear ended somebody who had no indication that they were braking…
Tesla brake lights activate in one-pedal deceleration. It even shows you the brakes lighting up in the infotainment avatar.
Really? I have been behind countless Tesla’s that have gone from 40-50 to almost a complete stop coming up to a red light (so not that long of a distance) before a brake light turns on. Is their rolling resistance really that bad then?
As someone in the industry, there’s both good and bad methods/calibrations of one pedal driving. Seems like you’ve mostly had bad drivers and poor experiences driving.
Perhaps the tunnel is there to make a gas-powered variant possible? I’ve been hearing that Porsche is backing off quite a bit on their EV strategy.
What I’ve learned from this article is that a gently used Lucid Air will likely be my first EV.
I am shocked, SHOCKED that David “what do you mean no rust and not from a junkyard” Tracy does not think the sticker price of a Macan EV is worth it.
He right about depreciation though
Cool idea with the review format, but it was hard to figure out at first who wrote about the canyons and who wrote about the city. I think the writer’s name should be in headline of each section.
Eww. Seems like an awful lot of coin for mediocre specs. I’m surprised they couldn’t be a bit closer to Taycan level numbers.
Agreed. I’m not seeing a $100k+ car here. Not even close. $75k seems more appropriate.
Those are pretty much base Taycan numbers. I imagine the driving experience is similar, and quite good. It’s smoke-and-mirrors, though. That light, numb steering and surprise understeer are the symptoms of disguising the weight with steering assist. The electric Porsches do a good job of mimicking the Porsche experience in regular-driving circumstances, but pushed even a bit the mask drops, and they’re like every other massive EV. I also agree with David on the breathtaking inefficiency of the center console.
Macans of no sort are worth the coin. It’s a frustrating CUV with a fancy badge for people into such things. I’m a Porsche guy, I guess, but I’d take an Equinox over one of these any day. I don’t mind CUVs aiming for cheap and cheerful. I do mind basically the same CUV aiming for 6 figures.
Macan pricing on all specs has gotten out of hand as of late. A few years back I found a nice CPO Macan S for $46K. Seemed ok, value wise, (although you definitely do have to budget for maintenance)..
My CPO coverage was about to end and it seemed prudent to part ways while the resale was still decent.
Hey, I can say I owned a Parsh. Purists would disagree, of course.
A Parsh is a Parsh. I’m personally torn between liking the cars and kind of loathing the company. For normal money a Macan is just fine.