Porsche Macan Electric Review 2025

We’re living through an unusual period in the transition to electric cars. It was always going to be difficult to unpick more than a century of combustion-engined personal transport, but lately it seems that manufacturers are hedging their bets. Porsche is one such example. As our Porsche Macan Electric review will explain. 

Porsche's first full electric model, the Porsche Taycan, is a phenomenal feat of engineering but it hasn’t performed as well as expected - neither for Porsche itself, nor for the customers who discovered the harsh reality of depreciation at trade-in time. It's an amazing second hand buy now, though.

So Porsche has scaled back its original EV plans, stating that its target for 80% of all sales to be electric by 2030 was too ambitious and deciding to keep producing petrol and hybrid cars for longer. 

So, to the new Porsche Macan Electric, which is on sale alongside the original petrol-powered Porsche Macan. Weird? Well, not really. It’s the same thing that Fiat is doing with the Fiat 500.

You could look at this as a display of fragile confidence from Porsche in its new product. But really, it’s just good economics. The petrol Porsche Macan is Porsche’s best-selling product, still going strong more than a decade after its launch, and still one of the best SUVs on the market at any price. Why pull the rug on that?

But this electric SUV is even better. Mostly. To cut to the (silent) chase, the only thing lacking is the sound of an engine, which is a huge part of the charm of any performance car, of course - but especially a Porsche. And especially a six-cylinder Porsche. Diesel and four-cylinder Macans are less of a loss, to be honest..

In mitigation, what the electric Porsche Macan loses in aural excitement, it more than makes up for by being sharper, quicker, more refined, more comfortable, more practical, more modern and almost certainly more reliable. It’s the best mid-sized electric SUV on the market and one of the best electric cars ever made, full stop.

At this price there are plenty of alternatives and many of the Macan's rivals are brilliant in their own ways. The Polestar 4 is stunning, a little cheaper and has a much more interesting interior while the Audi Q6 e-tron (which shares a lot of parts with the Macan) is also cheaper, a little more practical and feels more tech-laden without hammering an options list. The Tesla Model Y is the most practical of the lot, as well as being idiosyncratic, interesting and easy to live with in the way all Teslas are. 

But for us, the Porsche Macan Electric is the best all-rounder. Why? Because it’s so good at being a comfy day-to-day car, while being the most rewarding to drive by some distance. Somehow, Porsche has managed to dial that elusive "Porsche feel” into a Volkswagen Group family SUV that, at some point, one of your least funny mates will call "just an Audi in a posh suit".

Of course, it doesn’t feel anything like, say, a 993 Porsche 911. That probably goes without saying. But in the context of a cutting-edge zero emissions SUV, this is about as “Porsche-y” as you could hope for. Lovely, weighty steering, razor-sharp changes of direction, wonderful body control, sublime driving position.

It does look a bit boring though, Subjective, obviously, but where the Porsche Taycan is all low, wide and visually cutting-edge, the Porsche Macan Electric can look quite blobby from certain angles. Again, this is subjective, but it's not the most interesting of designs.

You might justifiably get mad at the options list, though. Our test car, for example, was a Porsche Macan 4S Electric bumped up to near enough £95,000 with options.

It’s a well-trodden path to cherry pick the worst excesses of the Porsche options list and begin the mockery, so we won’t do that, but it is vexing that things like adaptive air suspension (£1167), rear LED lights (£764), adaptive cruise control (£509) and keyless entry (£722) don’t feature as standard on a car with a £77,000 list price. They would elsewhere.

You have five Porsche Macan Electric versions to choose from, starting with the basic Porsche Macan Electric with a single 360PS motor driving the rear wheels, going through the 4 (twin motor, four-wheel drive, 402PS), the 4S (509PS), the GTS (571PS) and the stupidly quick 630PS Porsche Macan Turbo Electric.

For us, the Porsche Macan 4S Electric is the sweet spot because it has reassuring four-wheel drive traction and the sort of pace you’ll want from your Porsche (0-62mph in 4.1 seconds.) But, really, any Porsche Macan Electric will do the same job of providing a fantastic blend of family practicality, comfort and high-riding fun behind the wheel. A brilliant car. 

Porsche Macan Electric: Range and charging times

The Porsche Macan Electric is a cutting-edge electric car and charging is an area where that’s very apparent. It’s not built on the same platform as the Porsche Taycan, as you might assume, although everything that Porsche has learned from that car is applied here. The platform is entirely new, developed by Porsche and Audi, it is also used for the Audi Q6 e-tron.

Every Porsche Macan Electric has the same 100kWh battery (95kWh usable for driving the wheels), with the WLTP quoted range "up to 399 miles" for the rear-wheel drive base car, reduced to 333 miles for the twin-motor Turbo.

That's more than you’ll usually need, although if you do go on a proper long journey in your Porsche Macan Electric, the cutting-edge charging tech will help you out. By separating the 800V battery into two 400V banks, rapid charging speed is more stable and can support higher speeds for longer. The upshot is, it’s possible to get the battery from 10% to 80% in about 20 minutes.

11kW on-board charging and a heat pump are both standard, meaning a workplace or public fast charger will fill the battery from zero in around 10 hours.

As with many electric cars, we found the Porsche Macan Electric extremely efficient at town speed, but not so much on the motorway, with the battery dropping to around 2.2 miles per kWh. Logically, that results in 209 miles of range.

The Porsche Macan Electric's balance between sporty feel on a B-road and comfort in all circumstances is the car’s best quality.

These things are all relative though. If you get straight out of driving a higher-end petrol Porsche Macan (a GTS or Turbo), you probably will find the Porsche Macan Electric a little anodyne. A bit quiet. But in the electric car’s favour is just how much sharper it feels.

And, if you want to, you can pay £400-odd to have a weird fake engine sound piped into the cabin. We wouldn’t bother, but to each their own.

Fundamentally, the Porsche Macan Electric is beautifully set up, with ride quality that’s on the firm side - firm enough to control body movement very well and give you some feel through the wheels - but never too harsh.

It’s actually a lesson in how to do these things properly. How to manage the literal weight of an electric car (2.3 tonnes, in this case) and the non-literal weight of expectation of a Porsche badge. And make an SUV that feels like it's cornering flat and purposefully. But also with enough give to smooth out crappy British roads.

Similarly the steering setup, which has that familiar Porsche weight and sharpness, but doesn’t feel over-assisted.

Of course, this being a Porsche, you can augment the experience by spending more money. Our car had a grand’s worth of adaptive air suspension. It’s a worthwhile expense because it really does soften the car significantly, making daily driving that bit more comfortable, but it’s not essential. Similarly rear axle steering (£1445), which is more noticeable as an aid to low-speed manoeuvring than b-road handling. 

You can additionally spend £204 on Power Steering Plus, which adds bandwidth to the steering settings - lighter feel for low speed manoeuvring, or more heft and directness in Sport mode. We’d say that’s a more useful feature than the rear axle option, especially given the cost difference.

The entry-level Macan Electric is rear-wheel drive, with a 360PS (265kW) electric motor pushing the car to  62mph in 5.7 seconds. You’ll probably want your Porsche to be a bit quicker than that, really, although this is the only Porsche Macan Electric that nudges 400 miles of range. Officially at least.

The Porsche Macan 4 Electric is all-wheel drive by virtue of putting another electric motor on the front axle, basically. That bumps power to 408PS (300kW) and knocks the 0-62mph time down to 5.2 seconds.

The Porsche Macan 4S Electric, no surprise, is more powerful again (and our pick of the range), boosting things to 448PS (330kW) and taking another 1.1 seconds off the 0-62mph time.

The top of the range Porsche Macan Turbo Electric - which doesn’t feature a turbo at all, obviously - has 584PS (430kW) and will knock 62mph out in 3.3 seconds. Hilariously quick. Unnecessarily quick? Probably. And once you've added paint that isn't basic black or white, a six-figure car... 

Yep, it’s safe. Euro NCAP thinks so, anyway, giving it a five-star safety rating, including 90% scores for both adult and child occupant protection. It scored 83% for vulnerable road user protection and 78% for safety assist features.

Thankfully, safety kit is largely kept off the options list - albeit, safety features that cross into the realm of ‘convenience’ do cost extra. Like the £1200 Matrix LED headlights, £830 worth of parking cameras and £500 for adaptive cruse control.

Mandated safety equipment like emergency automatic braking, lane keeping assistant and speed limit warnings are, of course, included. And you’ll be pleased to note that Porsche has made these relatively unobtrusive.

The Porsche Macan Electric’s lane keeping assist system does quite aggressively steer the car away from lane markings, but it can be easily switched off while the car’s driver monitor system isn’t always screaming at you to pay attention.

EVs have a reputation for being bad tow cars - in fairness, early ones were - but the Porsche Macan Electric has towing capability that you might describe as “robust”. That’s right. The Macan 4, 4S and Turbo have a maximum braked towing capacity of 2000kg, which is more than enough for a caravan and only beaten by a small number of EVs, like the BMW iX (2500kg), the Kia EV9 (same) and the Tesla Model X (2250kg).

However, to achieve this number, you must head to… you’ve guessed it… the options list. You'll need to fork out £945 for the extending towbar system. It’s cool though, hidden behind the bumper, operated using a button on the boot wall and fully integrated into the car’s stability management systems to counter swaying.

Despite looking altogether sleeker than its petrol-powered namesake, the Porsche Macan Electric is arguably the most practical car of the two. The boot is bigger by volume, with the rear seats up - 540 litres, compared to 490 in the petrol model - albeit the Turbo loses 60 litres because the rear motor is bigger. All Porsche Macan Electric models have an 84-litre frunk too.

The Porsche Macan Electric has a longer wheelbase than the petrol morel (+86mm), meaning it has more legroom, although headroom feels a little tighter.

Ultimately, the Porsche Macan Electric never feels like a ‘big SUV’, but that’s largely a trick of both the design and the way it feels to drive - compact and sporty. The driving position is set low for an SUV (exactly 28mm lower than in the petrol Macan's, as it happens), sinking you into the car, rather than perching you up. 

By numbers, the Porsche Macan Electric compares well to most family-sized SUVs that you might look at and assume are much more practical. The boot is bigger than a BMW iX (500 litres) and the Audi Q6 e-tron (526 litres) plus there’s a decent amount of in-cabin storage while the rear seats split-fold 40/20/40 as standard. Yep, some things actually are standard in the Macan.

Outstanding. As compared to the petrol Porsche Macan, the sense of quality has gone up significantly. Albeit - and you won’t be surprised to learn this - the overall cabin feel is quite determined by what you’ve spent on options.

A very 'basic' Porsche Macan Electric is quite a bland thing inside, although every one of the surfaces feels and looks high quality - a padded dashboard in the leather style, gloss black trim, twin digital displays, a haptic air con panel. It’s all good.

Adding any sort of colour or additional texture will cost a lot. Contrasting stitching for the dash, wood or brushed aluminium panels, lighter coloured leather… all cost options that add to both the cabin ambience and your monthly payment.

Porsche has removed the enormous array of buttons you’ll find on pre-facelift petrol Porsche Macans and replaced them with a very intuitive but deceptively simple setup. It's not quite as intuitive as having a button for absolutely everything, as was the case, but compared to many screen-centric modern dashboards, this is one of the better ones.

The curved 12-inch digital instrument display is graphically superb - sharp and designed clearly - and the haptic panel in the centre console used for air con controls has a satisfying ‘clack’.

An (optional) third screen for the passenger allows them to have a little entertainment setup all of their own, but we’d suggest that your money is better spent on the Bose stereo upgrade. It's got more bass than Professor Brian Cox when he was in that band that sang about things getting better. 

The Android-based touchscreen software is easy to get to grips with. Mainly because it uses up most of the pixels with large, simple tiles that are easy to fathom. So many touchscreen systems have loads of dead space on the screen.

The steering wheel buttons have been designed with ease-of-use at the forefront, too (take note, Mercedes), and we like that the driving modes are selected with a toggle on the wheel. Much nicer than doing it on a screen - and much more ‘Porsche’.

Criticising a Porsche for being expensive is like criticising an Australian for loving a barbecue. It’s just part of the deal. Especially this particular Porsche, which is genuinely cutting-edge and sits on a brand-new platform. 

That said, spending £68,000 upwards for a mid-sized SUV for which it’s essential to hit the options list… that’s going to hurt. Again, our Porsche Macan 4S Electric test car (starting price £77,000) was optioned to nigh on £100,000. Frankly, it just didn’t feel THAT expensive. Especially in the context of low-mileage used Porsche Taycan models now costing a third of that.

The competition provides more context. The Ford Mustang Mach E and Tesla Model Y both cost from £44,000 and nd a Polestar 4 from £60,000. None of these drive as well as the Porsche, nor have the badge, but all are better equipped as standard. Again, though, that’s probably not the point.

Cheap. Cheap for a fast Porsche, anyway. As ever with electric, get this electric car as a company vehicle and the tax breaks will be substantial. You’ll spend literally hundreds of pounds less per month in BiK if you get one of these as your company wheels instead of a petrol Porsche Macan.

Charge it mostly at home and you’ll be paying pennies per mile too, even if it doesn’t match its 3-4p per mile official efficiency claim.

That said, this is still going to cost a lot overall. Depreciation will be heavy, based on Porsche Taycan depreciation, meaning monthly finance rates won’t be that appealing.

Insurance costs are high (groups 44-50 on the 1-50 scale) and even though it should in theory cost less to service than a petrol Porsche because of the relative simplicity, Porsche main dealer servicing is notoriously expensive.

While EVs previously qualified for zero car tax, that changed in April 2025, meaning now you'll pay the same £195 a year as you would for a combustion-engined car. More of a punch in the gut is that EVs are no longer exempt from the £40,000 expensive car supplement. So any Porsche Macan Electric registered from April 1st 2025 will have to pay extra tax of £425 a year for five years. This applies from its first birthday.

Porsche doesn’t do trim levels, as such, just performance variants and the good old options list. Here’s a breakdown of the highlights:

The standard Porsche Macan Electric includes:

• 20-inch alloy wheels
• 12.4-inch touchscreen
• Two-zone climate control
• Wireless smartphone charging
• Wireless smartphone mirroring
• 8-way electrically adjustable front seats
• Heated front seats
• Auto-dimming mirrors
• Powered tailgate
• ISOFIX for outer rear seats
• LED headlights
• Black high-gloss interior trim
• Multifunction steering wheel
• F&R parking sensors
• Reversing camera
• Cruise control
• Lane keeping assist
• Heat pump
• White or black paint

The Porsche Macan 4 Electric adds

• Twin electric motors
• All-wheel drive

Moving up to the Porsche Macan 4S Electric gets you:

• Increased power
• Air suspension
• Porsche Active Suspension Management

The top of the range Porsche Macan Turbo Electric comes with:

• Increased power
• Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus
• LED Matrix headlights
• Turbo exterior accents
• 18-way adaptive sports seats
• GT Sport steering wheel, heated
• Bose surround sound
• Electric steering column
• Carbon fibre interior trim

The Porsche Macan GTS Electric joined the range in late 2025 and gets:

• 571PS 
• Performance Battery Plus
• Sports air suspension
• Porsche Sport Chrono Package
• Bose Surround Sound system
• Matrix LED headlights
• 21-inch Anthracite Grey alloy wheels