Porsche Macan EV Review: A Good EV, And A Decent Porsche

Let’s set aside, for a moment, all the current uncertainty around sales of EVs, and the bitter division they cause on the internet among people who forget that it’s okay to like more than one thing. Is the new electric Porsche Macan actually any good?

We’re really going to have to disregard our own preconceptions about the Porsche badge when it’s on the nose of a 2.3-tonne, battery-powered crossover. After all, SUVs are the cars that make Porsche most of its money, and it presumably thought electric ones were going to be doing a lot of that heavy lifting before the world decided it wasn’t quite ready for EVs yet.

So we’re going to clear the Württemburg coat of arms from our minds for a minute, and look at the new Macan from several different perspectives: is it a good car, is it a good EV, and only once we’ve dealt with those, is it a good Porsche?

So, a good car? Yes. It’s well-made, like most modern Porsches are, with an interior that gives off an immediate air of quality. Even in the smallest of Porsche’s SUV offerings, the materials feel great, the infotainment is fairly intuitive to navigate, and there’s the welcome presence of that little panel on the centre console, with actual physical controls for everything you might want to fiddle with while driving.

You can adopt a reasonably low driving position in the Macan’s deeply comfy seats, and it whisks you about in impressive refinement. The absence of engine noise in EVs can sometimes exacerbate wind noise, but not so here, even with the Macan’s pillarless doors.

The ride, too, is buttery smooth, especially with our test car’s optional Active Suspension Management, which does a stellar job of dampening broken surfaces and smoothing out bumps and compressions. Together with the usual serenity and effortless drive afforded by an electric powertrain, it really is a lovely car to waft about in.

Space in the back is decent if not mind-blowing, and the sloping roof and high boot floor appear to compromise luggage space a bit. Despite that, it has an official luggage capacity of 540 litres – greater than less fastback-ish rivals like its Audi Q6 E-Tron platform-mate and the BMW iX. There's a fairly tiny 'frunk', too.

The biggest dent in the Macan’s day-to-day credentials is that the software’s quality doesn’t appear to match the hardware. When I first picked our test car up, I got straight on the motorway and tried to stick the cruise control on, only for the car to tell me it wasn’t available because my seatbelt wasn’t buckled (it very much was). Then, on a bitterly frosty morning, I opened up Porsche’s companion app to prewarm the cabin, only to be told that both front windows were open and the car was unlocked. A chilly, panicked dash outside confirmed that neither of these things was the case.

That said, once the adaptive cruise did decide to work, it worked well, and all the irritating ADAS systems were only a couple of screen jabs away. These occasional glitches aside, the Macan is a very pleasant, relaxing thing to use daily. Seriously, as long as they work with your living situation, EVs are really good for this stuff.

This brings us to the second question: is the Macan a good EV? We drove the Macan 4, the least powerful of all the dual-motor Macans (only the single-motor, rear-drive base model sits below it). A 100kWh battery feeds a motor on each axle, providing 382bhp (402bhp if you use the Launch Control setting) and 479lb ft of torque.

As specced, our car’s quoted range was 368 miles (Porsche quotes 380 for the most efficient spec possible), and efficiency was reckoned at 3.36mi/kWh. That range figure is up there with the leccy SUV standard-bearers. A dual-motor Polestar 4, for instance, does a quoted 367 miles, and a similar Tesla Model Y manages 373 miles.

Of course, reality is never anywhere close to these numbers. When I collected the car with a 98 per cent full battery, it reckoned on 280 miles of range, and never really driving with utmost efficiency in mind, I was usually managing between 2.5 and 2.7mi/kWh. This was, though, in the sort of weather that would make even people from Newcastle consider popping a big jacket on. As always, expect better performance in warmer months.

The range it was displaying was pretty grounded in reality, and a couple of longer journeys never resulted in any range anxiety. Charging, too, was painless: Porsche quotes 21 minutes for the industry standard 10 to 80 per cent on a 270kWh rapid charger, but even on a slower 180kWh plug, that range figure was going up reassuringly quickly.

Porsche also doesn’t include a one-pedal mode in its EVs. It reckons it’s more efficient to disengage the motors entirely and let the car conserve energy by coasting. Is this true? What do we look like, physicists? The lack of heavy regen didn’t seem to hamper range much, but it might be a disappointment to those used to it in other EVs.

We’ve established it’s good at being a car generally and at being electric – how’s the Macan as a Porsche? Well, go into it expecting it to feel like a 911 S/T and you’re obviously going to be disappointed. That’s your fault.

Porsche’s figures put the Macan 4’s 0-62mph time at 5.2 seconds and top speed at 137mph. That acceleration number feels pretty spot on, the Macan delivering its power, unsurprisingly, like a reasonably grunty EV. It’s a smooth, consistent swell, never feeling like it wants to tail off at road speeds.

Obviously, it’s quiet – Sport and Sport Plus modes introduce a fairly unconvincing, sci-fi-ish whine, a £353 option we wouldn’t bother with – and obviously, there are no gears, nor are there any attempts to replicate them. It’s not that sort of EV.

However, as these things go, it’s not half bad to drive. The steering is nicely weighted and the car responds crisply and predictably. The Active Suspension Management that makes the Macan ride so well also counteracts body roll to an impressive degree, so you can carry big speed through corners. It feels lighter than its porky kerbweight suggests.

The brakes inspire confidence, too, operated by a firm, well-calibrated pedal. It doesn’t really have a playful side like some EVs with more explicit performance briefs (yes, we’re going to mention the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N again), but in the context of other biggish electric SUVs, you can enjoy hustling it.

So to answer the three questions we posed at the start: yes, yes, and yes with a bit of an asterisk. Having established with the Taycan it can do a very good EV, Porsche’s proved it again with the Macan, and it’s a shame the apparent turning of the tide against EVs might make it struggle – Porsche is reportedly looking at reversing its previous plans and developing a second-gen petrol Macan to sit alongside it.

There’s the question of cost, too: the Macan 4 starts at £71,200 and ours, as tested, was a shade over £83,000. You can, and probably should, save a few grand by getting the £68,500 rear-wheel drive car – it’s lighter, only half a second slower to 62mph, and has an identical top speed and more range. Even that, though, is around £8,000 more than a basic Audi Q6 E-Tron or Polestar 4. With its equally sporty mission statement, the Polestar’s probably the biggest thorn in the Macan’s side, so it comes down to the value you – yes, you – place on the Porsche badge.