Next Porsche Macan to be an EV

The next-generation Macan, due in 2021, will be the first all-electric SUV manufactured by Porsche.

Based on the Porsche’s ‘Premium Platform Electric’ (PPE) architecture, co-developed with Audi, the second-generation Macan will deploy 800V rapid-charging technology. 

Porsche intends that by 2025, some 50 per cent of its vehicles will be equipped with an electric drive system.

Upcoming electric offerings include the Porsche Taycan sedan, due in late 2019, and the subsequent high-riding Taycan Cross Turismo wagon. 

“By 2022 we will be investing more than six billion Euros [$A9.6 billion] in electric mobility,” said Oliver Blume, chairman of the board of management of Porsche. 

“Over the next ten years we will focus on a drive mix consisting of even further optimised petrol engines, plug-in hybrid models, and purely electrically operated sports cars.”

Few details have been confirmed about the upcoming all-electric Macan but the car will be produced at the company’s Leipzig site.

However, production of the current petrol-only generation of the Macan will continue alongside this new all-electric Macan indefinitely.

In a report published by UK magazine Autocar, Porsche stated this was to avoid issues in countries that were not able to properly support a sudden changeover to electric drivetrains. 

Details of Porsche 911 hybrid emerge

HAVING powered its way to three Le Mans 24 Hour wins with the 919 Hybrid LMP1 car, Porsche is almost ready to put petrol-electric drive into the rump of its latest 911.

Because this is a Porsche and not a Prius, the hybrid model will go straight to the top of the tree and could even replace the mind-bendingly fast Turbo S.

After all, the range-topping Panamera four-door is a plug-in hybrid that trades under the Turbo S nameplate and costs around $500,000 on the road in Australia.

“It is true, we are thinking about a hybrid drivetrain for the 911,” said Porsche chairman Oliver Blume at the recent Geneva motor show. “The platform is already prepared.”

Blume indicated that “in three or four years we’ll be able to offer a hybrid of some sort in the 911,” which suggests it will arrive as part of a mid-life update for the 992-generation car.

However, he stopped short of confirming whether it would be a plug-in hybrid like the Panamera Turbo S that churns out a combined 500kW of power and 850Nm of torque.

Stuttgart-based Australian journalist Greg Kable managed to shed more light on the matter in an interview with Porsche’s head of sports car development, August Achleitner.

“We’ve taken the experience we gained with hybrid versions of the Cayenne and Panamera, as well as the 918 Spyder, and applied it to the new 911,” Achleitner told Kable. “In the future, this will allow us to offer it with pure-electric capability.”

Achleitner said the 992’s new eight-speed dual-clutch PDK transmission – similar to those in the Panamera and Cayenne – is 100mm shorter than the previous seven-speed unit, providing space for a disc-shaped electric motor to be installed.

The higher torque rating of this new transmission (pictured below), coupled with new all-wheel-drive and braking systems, all aid electrification of the new 992.