LEIPZIG, Germany — Fully electric, and electric only, the next-generation Porsche Macan will make its debut in 2024. Details in regards to the model are trickling out: the Stuttgart-based brand unveiled the EV’s interior, provided additional powertrain details, and gave Autoblog a high-speed ride in a prototype.
Inside, the Macan EV looks familiar if you happen to’ve seen other recent additions to the Porsche range, just like the recent versions of the Panamera and the Cayenne. The motive force faces a 12.6-inch digital instrument cluster that could be configured to display a big choice of data. There is a round start button on the left side of the instrument cluster and the increasingly familiar razor-shaped shifter positioned on the fitting side of it.
The center a part of the dashboard houses a ten.9-inch touchscreen that displays a brand new, Android-powered infotainment system. The software boots up as soon because it detects that the driving force is approaching the automobile with the important thing, so it’s able to go by the point you are buckled up, and it’s compatible with third-party applications comparable to Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube. Users can download apps like on a smartphone. This function will come in useful while charging, and the front passenger can stream videos on-the-move via an optional 10.9-inch touchscreen integrated into the fitting side of the dashboard. I attempted this feature within the Cayenne and couldn’t tell the screen was on from the driving force’s seat.
Android Auto and Apple CarPlay compatibility come standard, though Miriam Mohamad, the manager of infotainment and connectivity for the Macan line, tells me over 85% of Porsche owners are Apple users. Smartphone integration goes beyond merely overlaying the touchscreen with a brand new interface: when using Google Maps or Apple Maps, the driving force can send the third-party map to the Macan’s instrument cluster.
When it goes on sale in just a few months, the Macan EV will stand out as the primary Porsche model offered with an augmented-reality head-up display. The system uses interactive color-coded symbols, comparable to arrows, to supply navigation directions and other information. Porsche notes its recent head-up display projects data roughly 33 feet ahead of the driving force on what corresponds to a huge 87-inch display.
As we have previously reported, the Macan EV will ride on the modular Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture developed jointly by Audi and Porsche. It can ship with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain configured to deliver rear-biased handling, and engineers dialed in a 48-percent front and 52-percent rear weight distribution. It shouldn’t feel like a 911, however it likely won’t feel like a front-heavy SUV, either.
Porsche hasn’t released technical specifications yet. All we all know at this stage is that the highest variant offered at launch will put about 603 horsepower and greater than 737 pound-feet of torque under the driving force’s right foot. While these figures will make it way more powerful than any version of the current-generation Macan, which tops out at 434 horsepower in GTS trim, have in mind that going electric adds an amazing amount of weight. Driving range stays up within the air as well, though the 800-volt electrical architecture unlocks as much as 270-kilowatt charging.
From the passenger’s seat of a pre-production prototype, the Macan EV appears like a sports automobile. We’re on the test track next to the Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany, and one among the brand’s development drivers is on the wheel. He floors it to exit the pit lane and the acceleration punches me within the gut because it pins me to the seat. It doesn’t stop, either: there are not any gears for the driving force to undergo, so the Macan builds up speed without pausing for a shift until the driving force hits the brakes. Once we’re on the track, which incorporates famous sections of other race tracks comparable to Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew, the one indications that you just’re sitting in an SUV are the relatively spacious interior and the high seating position. Otherwise, you could as well be in a low-slung coupe. It turns (and even four-wheel drifts!) with what appears like surgical precision.
It helps that the 100-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery, which is the heaviest a part of the automobile, lives below the passenger compartment, where it lowers the middle of gravity. Using the PPE platform also allowed Porsche so as to add more technology to the list of normal and optional features. There’s an available rear-wheel steering system (a primary for the Macan) and, on some trims, a height-adjustable air suspension system. Jörg Kerner, the vice chairman of the Macan line, tells me the event team’s goal is to make the EV the sportiest model in its segment. He adds that the performance (including what appears like a three-ish-second sprint from zero to 60 mph) will likely be repeatable.
The brakes bring the Macan to a stop with no fuss, even from triple-digit speeds on a straight a part of the track, but without spending time behind the wheel I am unable to let you know whether the pedal feels artificial like in lots of electric and plug-in hybrid models or natural such as you’d look forward to finding in a Porsche. Kerner explains the electrical motors can recuperate at as much as 240 kilowatts, which represents around 14.1 feet per second.
In-built Leipzig, Germany, the Macan EV will make its debut sooner or later in 2024. It can likely go on sale as a 2025 model. You are not out of luck quite yet if you happen to’re not taken with going electric: the current-generation Macan will likely be sold alongside its successor for a while.
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
