Porsche Macan EV to deliver 450kW

German sports car powerhouse Porsche has revealed a prototype of the second-generation 2024 Porsche Macan and confirmed the all-new mid-size electric SUV will lead its future EV charge.

The big-selling Porsche Macan has had two major upgrades since its global launch in 2014 and will continue alongside its all-electric successor at least initially.

However, when it enters production in 2024, the first Porsche Macan EV promises to be faster, heavier and the first model based on the Porsche/Audi-developed Premium Platform Electric (PPE) chassis architecture.

But, Porsche teased, there will be more to come, including an unnamed Porsche electric SUV flagship to sit above the Cayenne, and a new high-performance EV platform called SSP Sports. Its first Audi model is likely to be the Audi A6 e-tron.

The new Porsche Macan will move the game forward even from the trio of Taycan EVs by using the latest 800-volt electrical system combined with a big 100kWh of battery capacity.

It is promised by Porsche to be the sportiest car in the popular medium luxury SUV segment, whether EV or combustion powered.

It will also change the game by ditching the Taycan’s Magneti Marelli electric motors in favour of in-house e-motors delivering up to 450kW of power and more than 1000Nm of torque.

And, Porsche development engineer Dominik Hartmann said during a technology day at the car-maker’s Driving Experience Centre in Franciacorta, Italy this week that those will be the performance figures “initially”, so it is already expecting more.

Porsche is known to be displeased with some of the details of the Taycan’s e-motor performance, and the famously exacting engineering arm of the German company has been pushing its Italian-based supplier for better results when the motors get hot.

The 2024 Porsche Macan’s batteries have been engineered to charge at up to 350kW, with Porsche targeting a five to 80 per cent charge time of less than 25 minutes.

Like Hyundai, Porsche will give the Macan the ability to split its battery pack from a single 800-volt system into two 400-volt batteries to equalise before charging at maximum capacity.

“Our goal is to be able to charge from five to 80 per cent in less than 25 minutes,” Hartmann said.

“We can divide the cells into two 400V batteries to equalise them and then charge them together. The battery is split left to right, because you don’t need the converter then.”

There are other major upgrades within the battery and power electronics, too, giving customers greater range without adding heavier and more expensive batteries to their cars.

“We use more of the capacity of the battery than before. The Macan will have a net battery capacity of 96 to 98 per cent of the gross 100kWh,” Hartmann confirmed. “That’s much more than the Taycan.”

The Taycan, Porsche’s first attempt at a production EV, uses around 10kWh of its batteries (either 79.2kWh or 93.4kWh) as a buffer, so that’s dropping its buffer from 12 per cent to just two.

Porsche has found fewer issues with DC fast-charging in Taycans than its engineers budgeted for, which is why the buffer has shrunk.

The batteries themselves run an 8.1:1 ratio of nickel, cobalt and manganese, which pushes the energy density up to compared to the 7.1:2 ratio of the Taycan.

“There’s an integrated power box with an on-board alternating current (AC) charger, DC/DC converter and an on-board, high-voltage heater.”

The PPE platform will power as many Porsches as possible, and is designed to be for both low- and high-riding vehicles to back up Porsche’s ambition to have 80 per cent of its sales coming from EVs by 2030.

Where the longest-range Taycan uses 33 lithium-ion modules and the shorter-range Taycan and Taycan 4S use 28 modules, the Macan has switched to just 12 modules and the cells are now prismatic, rather than the Taycan’s pouch cells.

Instead of buying e-motors from Magneti Marelli, Porsche is bringing its motor development and manufacture in-house, though they will remain permanent magnet synchronous motors like the Taycan’s, but with the magnets arranged differently and they are now liquid-cooled.

Rival BMW has environmental issues with this type of motor due to the need for rare-earth minerals for the magnets, and it has switched to electronically-excited synchronous motors that require none of them.

“We use permanently excited synchronous motors, because the permanent magnets are the only type that gives us higher power and higher torque density,” Hartmann said.

“The Macan will have up to 450kW output initially and the maximum torque of more than 1000Nm, and you can only do that with PSM [permanent synchronous motors] motors.

“We use permanent magnets because of their robustness. We need to have the magnets,” he defended.

Porsche has also ditched the Taycan’s two-speed transmission in favour of single-speed units at both ends.

In true Porsche tradition, it hangs the rear motor behind the rear axle, giving the 2024 Porsche Macan a 52 per cent rear weight bias, which Porsche insists gives it better handling poise.

The other reasons for moving the motor behind the rear axle was to give the engineers enough clearance to add in up to five degrees of rear wheel steering, making the Macan theoretically more stable at high speed and easier to live with in the city.

The core PPE platform will be used by Porsche for B-, C- and D-segment models, in both “high and low stance”, according to Hartmann, all but confirming its use for the next Panamera and Cayenne and smaller models.

But not, pointedly, the next Cayman or the next 911.

“The 911 will be the last car of all we convert to electromobility and it will be the last Porsche to be converted to a BEV,” Hartmann insisted.

PPE gives Porsche the choice of rear- or all-wheel drive for each model, although the Macan is likely to stay all-wheel drive. It has limitations, though, as it won’t allow hub motors or more than two electric motors.

Porsche and Audi went their own way on an EV platform rather than relying on the Volkswagen Group’s ubiquitous MEB platform in order to prioritise handling performance.

The 2024 Macan will employ multi-link rear suspension, a double-wishbone front-end and, as standard in top performing variants, an electronically controlled rear differential lock.

It has even developed its own steering system (implying it won’t be on Audi versions of the PPE) and its air suspension system can be lowered and raised.

Like the current Macan, its all-electric successor will ride on staggered-width front/rear wheels and tyres, this time up to 22-inch in diameter.

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