Porsche renews plan to make Macan crossover a “fully battery-powered model series”Porsche renews plan to make Macan crossover a “fully battery-powered model series”

Porsche is continuing plans to make the Macan crossover all-electric. It’s a significant move, as the Macan is currently Porsche’s bestselling model.
In a report of its 2019 financial results, Porsche reiterated that the Macan will be the “second, fully battery-powered model series”—after the Taycan.
The automaker previously said the electric Macan would launch in 2022; it will arrive after the upcoming Taycan Cross Turismo wagon.
Porsche has said the electric Macan will replace the gasoline model entirely, but it has left the door open for the current-generation Macan to be sold alongside the all-electric next-generation model. Porsche’s wording likely signals that the company doesn’t intend for that transition to last long.
By the middle of this decade, Porsche expects half of its lineup to be all-electric or plug-in hybrid, although the automaker isn’t discussing specific sales targets.
Porsche Taycan production
The Macan was listed as the top vehicle for global deliveries from Porsche in 2019, so this is not exactly a niche move.
Porsche is also considering charging infrastructure, building a network of stations in the United States and Europe that can charge at up to 350 kilowatts.
The automaker was also an early adopter of plug-in hybrids, most dramatically with the 918 Spyder supercar, and it’s now making sure that plug-in hybrids slot above other variants in each model lineup.
The most powerful, fastest version of the Porsche Cayenne is the Turbo S E-Hybrid plug-in, for example. Granted, that model still has a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8, and is more about performance than efficiency.
The competing priorities of performance and efficiency also pose a problem for Porsche’s all-electric models. The highest-performance version of the Taycan also has the lowest EPA range. Performance is an important aspect of Porsche’s identity, but if it doesn’t change those priorities somewhat in the Macan the low range may also slow the economies of scale for the brand—and the adoption of electric cars.

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