If you want a petrol-powered Porsche Macan act quickly. While the German brand’s smaller SUV is expected to stay in production with its four-cylinder turbo and V6 for international markets, Australia has ordered its last one.
A Porsche Australia spokesperson confirmed that there will be “no more” Macan petrol variants built for our market, so the only ones left to buy new are what’s already in stock at dealerships around the country. The spokesperson indicated the company expects that supply to be exhausted by the middle of 2025.
READ MORE: Unplugged – why we may not go all-electric after all
Instead, the new-generation all-electric Macan will carry the brand’s hopes for the future. Despite recent comments from Porsche’s chief financial officer, Lutz Meschke, that the company was seeing a “clear trend” towards combustion-engined cars and was open to scrapping its all-electric future, the Macan is locked in to stay battery-powered.
Jörg Kerner Macan product line vice president said in an interview with Australian media, including Torquecafe, that there are no plans to retro-fit the new Macan with a petrol engine.
“In the Macan at the moment it’s not possible and it’s not planned,” Kerner confirmed.
“At the moment it’s not planned, combustion Macan, because we think we can do with the electric Macan everything better.”
However, he did leave the door open for other models to have an each-way bet, by offering both all-electric and petrol-powered variants – a move that is now expected for the next-gen Cayenne in the wake of Meschke’s comments.
“This was developed [as an] electric car from scratch, of course,” Kerner said. “We don’t see the necessity for [petrol and electric],” said Kerner.
“I mean, there are more models, for example, like Cayenne… where we said, ‘Okay, customers should be able to choose between combustion, hybrid and electric versions.’”
The new smaller SUV is set to launch with two variants, the Macan 4 and Macan Turbo, before the new entry-level Macan and sportier Macan 4S arrive in 2025.
The Macan 4 is equipped with 300kW of power and 650Nm of torque, enough for this five-seat mid-size SUV to run 0-100km/h in just 5.2 seconds. The Macan Turbo ups the ante with 470kW and 1130Nm and a 0-100km/h claim of just 3.3 seconds.
While Kerner was adamant the new electric version does everything better to the out-going petrol Macan in terms of driving dynamics and performance, one area where it cannot match the old model is entry price. The Macan with the 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine is priced from $95,100, while its electric replacement is more than $33k more expensive, starting from $128,400.
Discussion about this post