Porsche Macan Electric – ride and handling

Before you get excited by the Macan’s rear-mounted drive unit, it doesn’t drive like a 911. But that’s not to say it doesn’t feel like a Porsche. It starts with the steering; the responses are calm, clean and precise, and as you wind on lock, the speed of the rack gradually quickens to pivot the car into corners. There isn’t much feel, but the Macan has a sense of accuracy far beyond that of its Q6 e-tron relative. The brakes, meanwhile, are firm and easy to modulate, and have a more positive initial response than even Porsche’s own Taycan. There’s real finesse to every touch point. 

Somehow, despite weighing a faintly ridiculous 2405kg in Turbo form, the Macan carries through that sense of athleticism when you up the pace on smooth roads. You’re aware of the huge forces involved, but it changes direction like a lighter car, quickly settling on its springs and leaning into the available grip from the tyres. You can cover ground extremely quickly, and the limiting factor tends to be how long your stomach can cope as 630bhp squeezes your insides between corners (we lasted about 15 minutes).

If you don’t bleed off enough speed into corners the Macan’s front-end doesn’t stay completely locked on line, but take a slow-in-fast-out approach and it gives you more options. With its locking rear diff, the Turbo allows you to get on the power really early out of tight corners, taking a neutral attitude where you’d normally expect the front end to push. Work through this and the balance neatly transitions to oversteer, the rear tyres continuing to dig in and find drive but requiring a flick of corrective lock. Not very crossover-like, and quite entertaining.  

The trade-off for controlling all this mass, however, is a low speed ride that can be lumpy, particularly with the dampers set to Sport or Sport Plus. There’s a sense of tension to the car as the suspension resists body movements, and while Normal mode for the dampers does let the Macan flow and relax more, it also gives up some control and amplifies the sense of weight. Sport is better suited when you start leaning on the chassis.

If the road is slippery, disable the ESC at your peril. It’s only when you do so that you realise how effective the electronics are at subtly metering out the power without overwhelming the tyres. The PTV-equipped Turbo will light up its rears instantaneously if you get on the power too hard, and gathering up slides can feel scrappy as the weight jostles from side to side. It’s more exploitable in ESC Sport, which allows enough slip to overdrive the rear tyres but softens your inputs with a light hand.

On the motorway, the Macan settles into a calm cruise and is painless to cover miles in. The occasionally choppy low speed ride becomes more settled at speed, and noise isolation is excellent. The BMW iX is more impressive in its ability to cushion its occupants from the road, but then it doesn’t have the same ability to drop sports cars on a tight back road.