Yahoo Finance Porsche reveals its bestselling Macan SUV is going electric
Porsche (PAH3.DE) announced on Tuesday that the next generation of its bestselling Macan compact SUV will be fully electric.
The move represents another expansion in electromobility for the German sportscar brand, which is gearing up to launch its first electric car, the Taycan, at the end of this year. Albrecht Reimold, Porsche’s head of production, recently described the company’s calculation of producing 20,000 Taycans in the first year as “conservative.”
“By 2022, we will be investing more than six billion euros in electric mobility, and by 2025, 50% of all new Porsche vehicles could have an electric drive system,” according to Porsche management board chairman Oliver Blume. Porsche will focus on a mix of petrol engines, plug-in hybrids, and purely-electric sports cars over the next 10 years, Blume said.
Porsche’s parent Volkswagen has also committed to an ambitious electrification ramp-up, earmarking €30bn (£26bn, $34bn) for electrification in the next five years.
The electric Macan will feature 800-volt technology, like the Taycan, and will be based on the PPE architecture — which stands for Premium Platform Electric — developed in collaboration with Audi.
The Porsche Macan was the company’s global best-seller again last year, selling over 86,000 worldwide, with 23,500 of those in the US market.
Production of the electric Macan is expected to begin in the next few years, at the same plant in Leipzig, Germany, where the current petrol-engine version is made. Porsche said that building the next-generation Macan in Leipzig will allow the company to produce electric cars on the existing manufacturing line.
The Leipzig plant began producing the Cayenne SUV in 2002, and has since expanded to include Panamera and Macan production, sending over 90,000 Macans off the line annually for global markets. The facility employs around 4,000 staff.
