LA MOTOR SHOW: Macan fours on backburner
Four-cylinder Porsche SUVs are on the way for China but the West will waitPorsche’s Macan medium SUV will get four-cylinder engines, but not yet. That’s the word from the brand’s development and engineering boss, Wolfgang Hatz.
Speaking at tonight’s launch of the new entry-level Porsche on the eve of its public debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Porsche’s head boffin stated China would drive production of four-cylinder versions of the new SUV. For the moment, however, Hatz says Porsche will concentrate its limited production capacity on higher yielding high-spec V6 versions of the vehicle.
Although Porsche has spent Euro500m upgrading its Leipzig production facility, it will still be limited to building just 50,000 Macans each year – about half the number of Cayennes it builds.
Given this constraint, Hatz says, it’s smart to concentrate on higher-yielding, more profitable variants.
“We have limited production possibilities and I think it might be quite difficult to feed every demand for this car [Macan]… So we keep the car in the high [end] of the segment,” he told motoring.com.au.
“I think it’s a good strategy. Top down and then we’ll see. [Then] We have possibilities to go down [in engine size],” he explained.
Hatz stated the Chinese market would drive the production and launch of four-cylinder Macan models and he placed on them a time frame of “around two years”.
Given performance targets and China’s barriers to diesel engine passenger cars, it’s likely the four-cylinder Macan range will be limited to petrol powertrains – at least initially.
“It’s possible with a [four-cylinder] petrol engine to deliver performance similar to the [Macan S-] Diesel,” one Porsche source stated.
The latest 3.0-litre turbo-diesel fitted to the Macan S-Diesel is rated at 190kW and an impressive 580Nm. Porsche claims a 0-100km/h sprint time of 6.3sec, reduced a further 0.2sec when the optional Sports Chrono Package is fitted.
Although fettled by Porsche, unlike the petrol V6s fitted to Macan, the diesel V6 is essentially an Audi engine.
Porsche would likely wish to make significant changes to any four-cylinder petrol engine it fitted to the Macan. Although the V6s Macans are no lightweights, outputs in the region of 220kW and 430Nm would likely meet Porsche’s performance targets for a Macan four.
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