Porsche Macan Electric is more like a sports car than an EV

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Porsche Macan Electric is more like a sports car than an EV

Published: 18 Mar. 2025, 17:42

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

The Macan Electric, Porsche’s second-ever pure EV and first-ever electric SUV [SARAH CHEA]

[TEST DRIVE]

YANGYANG, Gangwon — With the absence of the charisma of a petrol engine, today’s electric vehicles seem to have lost their sportiness and somewhat wild ride.

For those wistful maniacs who miss the sense of dynamic driving, Porsche has reinvented the Macan, the brand’s top seller, as a fully electric car while preserving its spirit and keeping its edge.

The Macan Electric is Porsche’s second-ever pure EV after the celebrated Taycan, and its first-ever electric SUV, with four variants available in Korea including the most powerful one with the Turbo badge.

The Korea JoongAng Daily recently got behind the wheel of a Macan Electric in a beautiful baby purple, or what the automaker calls Provence, on a 350-kilometer (217-mile) journey from central Seoul to Yangyang County, Gangwon, traversing highways and even some rough and winding roads.

The Macan Electric, Porsche’s second-ever pure EV and first-ever electric SUV [SARAH CHEA]

It’s a Porsche at first glance, with the Macan Electric bearing a close resemblance to the original. But it certainly got bigger, maybe in response to customer complaints that the original was too small to be called an SUV. The EV version has a length of 4,784 millimeters (188 inches) — slightly longer than its rival, the electrified Genesis GV70.

Despite the extension, the Macan Electric maybe is not the best family car. The rear seats seem a bit tight for fully grown passengers, especially when spending hours on the road.

The interior of the Macan Electric. [SARAH CHEA]

Again, it’s a Porsche, a byword for "sports car," and the EV did not give up on the sporty vibe. The seating position is up to 28 millimeters lower for the front seats compared to the outgoing Macan, giving it the feeling of sitting in a sports car.

Driving on curvy winding courses, the Macan EV delivered smooth driving with no lurching despite its SUV size and 2.5-plus tons of weight. Turning on the Sport mode, the car automatically lowers the suspension and makes an artificial engine sound as if it were a regular Porsche-badged sports car.

The best part of driving, in this reporter's personal opinion, was that the car was not jerky, the most-hated aspect of EVs that sometimes gives passengers motion sickness. This reporter also normally feels terribly carsick in most EVs, but the Macan Electric was comfortable for the entire six-hour test drive.

But, perhaps, the Macan EV is not an optimal option for tech-savvy buyers. Porsche heavily promoted its augmented reality heads-up display, but what this reporter actually saw was just a few virtual arrows indicating where to make turns that got bigger as the car approached the junction.

The Macan Electric, Porsche’s second-ever pure EV and first-ever electric SUV [SARAH CHEA]

The Macan Electric, Porsche’s second-ever pure EV and first-ever electric SUV [PORSCHE KOREA]

The in-car navigation was so terrible that even a specific address input was returned incorrectly. This reporter ultimately had to take out a smartphone and connect it to the car to use the navigation app. But honestly, who would expect good navigation from foreign auto brands? That said, Porsche should comprehend that drivers in Korea, a densely populated country with a large number of registered vehicles, need proper navigation.

Thankfully, the driving range and charging are not an issue here. The Macan Electric can travel up to 474 kilometers on a single charge. The test drive proved that the car can go even longer than that, as this reporter could literally see the remaining driving range increase while driving at slow speeds that activated the regenerative braking, recharging the vehicle while driving.

The EV needs only 21 minutes to be charged from zero to 80 percent using an ultrafast charger.

In the case of the Macan Electric Turbo, it only needs 3.3 seconds to reach 100 kilometers per hour of speed from zero, generating a maximum of 639 horsepower and 115.2-kilogram-meters (833-pound-feet) of torque.

The Macan is the cheapest Porsche you can get, but that doesn’t mean it is an economical option. You must be sure to save some cash — its sticker price begins at 99.1 million won ($68,000), with the Turbo version starting at 104 million won in Korea.

But still, it's a Porsche.