Porsche has just announced that the next generation of the Macan will be fully electric, making it the first all-electric compact SUV from Porsche. The first of them are due to roll off the assembly line at the start of 2020, just behind the Taycan—the first purely electrically driven sports car from Porsche—which will be launched at the end of 2019, followed shortly by the Taycan Cross Turismo. But Porsche insists that it remains committed to the petrol engine as well.
“Electromobility and Porsche go together perfectly; not just because they share a high-efficiency approach, but especially because of their sporty character,” says Oliver Blume, chairman of the board of management of Porsche AG. “By 2022 we will be investing more than six billion euros in electric mobility, and by 2025 50% of all new Porsche vehicles could have an electric drive system. Nevertheless, 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. Our aim is to take a pioneering role in technology, and for this reason we will continue to consistently align the company with the mobility of the future.”
The Taycan will be made at Porsche’s Leipzig factory (above), which was opened in 2002 for series production of the Cayenne SUV in 2002. The current-generation Macan and Panamera are now also made there, bringing employee numbers up to today’s figure of more than 4000. The next-generation Macan will use 800-volt technology, based on the Porsche PPE architecture (Premium Platform Electric) that was developed with Audi AG; new investment at the Leipzig site will allow these fully electric vehicles to be built on the existing production line in future.
Images courtesy of Porsche
