New RWD base-model electric crossover posts respectable economy
2025 Porsche Macan rear-drive range
The big news in the new base Macan is its simplified rear-wheel-drive powertrain. Slimming back from dual-motor all-wheel drive to a single motor powering just the rear wheels, the sans-suffix Macan runs less weight than the Macan 4, 4S, or Turbo — and a little less energy-drawing hardware.
From this capacity and lighter single-motor load, Porsche claims a European WLTP range figure of up to 641 km. These Euro figures tend to read longer than North American test cycles, but assuming they’re usually some 22% optimistic, this calculates to an estimated maximum range of ~525 kilometres. Take the same calculation to WLTP consumption estimates of 17-19.8 kWh/100 km, that should look like ~20-24 km/100 km on the NRCan spreadsheets.
This calculated figure aligns with observations on the road. Running a mix of 120 km/h highway, quiet 80 km/h rural routes, and slow 30 km/h in-town stretches, consumption from reset indicated an average of 20.9 kWh/100 km.
The 800-volt architecture is important to more than just the outright high-voltage peak here, for it also enables the Macan’s battery to make more even of lower-strung 400-volt chargers through ‘bank charging.’ Depending on input, the battery’s controllers can effectively manage the battery pack like a series of two 400-volt blocks to charge at 800V, or can feed it like a pair of parallel 400V units. In short, this means the electrons still run at the same speed but in twice the volume. Secondhand buyers down the line may have to navigate bank-charged packs’ risk of uneven aging and mismatched internal resistances, but that’s not the initial lessee’s problem.
Tech in the 2025 Porsche Macan
One of the new Macan EV’s most notable updates is imperceptible from almost any angle, yet hits you in the face the moment you hit the driver’s seat. Porsche has leaned into augmented reality (AR) with a properly impressive head-up display (HUD) that superimposes live graphics over your view of the road. Distances from other vehicles, twisting lane shape and bounds, and navigation directions project between your eyes and their positions outside, with pointers growing as you approach as though you’re driving with real-life floating Mario Kart arrows.
The specifics are neat, but what’s most important about all of this AR tech is how effectively it communicates the way that the vehicle understands the world around it. By so clearly overlaying what the car sees onto what you actually see, the Macan deepens driver trust in its advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).
Mechanically, those ADAS systems largely follow what we’ve grown used to from Porsche. Steady and comfortable, Porsche’s adaptive cruise and follow-distance controls, lane-keeping and lane-follow assistance, and camera-based speed-limit detection (and cruise adjustment) were already good. Driven in Germany, where unmarked speed cameras may hide mere metres beyond a sudden speed-limit drop, this automatic limit detection and adjustment was well worth switching on for extra peace of mind. That Euro exchange rate makes any fines hurt on a writer’s salary, after all.
Below the highlight HUD, a curved cluster display stretches pixels to the edges of a rounded bezel. Digital displays often feel cheap, so trading a typical rectangle for this complex shape brings a welcome premium air to the interface. More than this, while not yet OLED, black pixels are almost entirely black for a near-seamless fade into the bezel. Porsche has achieved impressive contrast through its choice of supplier, a welcome boon to night drivers sensitive to bright-black LCD light bleed.
In a welcome departure from Porsche’s lacklustre earlier systems, central infotainment joins the increasing number of manufacturers shifting to Android Automotive OS. Equipped for wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto projection, this system also integrates the usual gamut of native Android-based apps into the car’s primary gauge cluster and HUD.
Unfortunately Porsche has also thrown the option of its silly new passenger-side screens onto the new Macan’s purchase sheet. This option probably won’t find its way into too many of these base-trim Macan EVs, but if you’re thinking about it: these secondary-screen redundant controls generally mirror their centre-screen primaries, albeit often with reduced functionality. Unless your passenger absolutely needs their own map display in search of some perverse topographical titillation, you’d quite surely be better off putting that money elsewhere.
Cruising comfort, not a sporting model
In power’s place is a focus on ride and suspension, with a little sway-bar leeway for aggressive cornering thrown in for the sake of brand identity. The base Macan rides straightforward coil-sprung, hydraulically damped multi-link suspension with dual wishbones up front. Whereas higher trims offer the option of active air suspension to specifically address different sorts of driving and conditions, even this basic jack-of-all-trades crossover setup affords a forgiving ride that holds confidently planted at speed.
Cruising at over 210 km/h on derestricted Autobahn feels normal and entirely uneventful — which is also to say unexciting. Cruise set at that maximum figure, the Macan EV damps rebounds with grace. Steering is relaxed at this pace, made even more so by Porsche’s continually improving lane-keep assistance. Energy consumption is of course sub-optimal under such extreme load, but we don’t have the opportunity for that sort of 30 kWh/100 km cruising in Canada anyway.
Those looking to indulge in some enthusiastic cornering will benefit from the usual EV-transition lower centre of gravity, wide track with staggered tires, and available thin sporting rubber. Electric power steering is well executed here as on other Porsches, still feeling somewhat connected and enjoyable in significant contrast to peers such as BMW.
Applying those 335 horsepower and 415 pound-feet of torque to only two wheels, acceleration to 100 km/h is rated at 5.7 seconds. These power figures leave the Macan well behind Genesis’ electric GV70, but still ultimately suit a premium crossover needing to pull a little quicker than average without encroaching on higher models in the product matrix.
Note that power isn’t just a matter of software limitations on the same bits, however. Motors’ inverter throughputs, gearing, and rotor lengths vary across the model line: at 480 amps, the rear-drive Macan’s motor digests barely over half the juice that the 900-amp Macan Turbo puts through its main drive unit.
Costlier way to buy in to a badge
To buy a base-trim Macan is still very much to buy into a badge, but the 800-volt PPE architecture has more going for it as a premium EV powertrain than the gas cars’ standard ‘EA888’ Volkswagen engine could claim. Still, to buy even a base Macan EV is to spend effectively as much as a gas-powered 2025 Macan GTS.
Porsche is still building old-gen gas-powered Macans for the foreseeable future, so for all its impressive comforts, my pointer would still be toward a more dynamic gas-PDK sport-trim Macan for the same money. And if Taycan is any indication, you’ll thank me come depreciation.
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