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A petrol counterpart to the new electric Macan may be back on the table following a seven per cent decline in global Porsche sales.
Porsche is reportedly considering adding a petrol counterpart to the new Macan – now sold in Europe and Australia as an electric car only – following a decline in the brand's global sales.
Amid conflicting comments from Porsche executives in recent months on plans to add petrol engines to its electric vehicles, a new report from UK publication Autocar has claimed a new internal combustion-engined (ICE) Macan is under strong consideration.
It follows a seven per cent drop in global Porsche sales last year, spearheaded by a 50 per cent slump in Taycan deliveries – the marque's first all-electric model – amid cooling global demand for battery-powered vehicles.
Unnamed key leadership figures told the UK publication the brand is considering a petrol-powered counterpart to the new Macan to sit alongside the Cayenne SUV as part of a “range of product scenarios”.
“The reception to the new Macan [electric] has been positive, but we are yet to see its long-term performance, given uncertain market conditions,” an anonymous senior Porsche insider told Autocar.
“The downturn in Taycan highlights new market dynamics. We cannot rely solely on traditional assumptions about consumer behaviour,” they added.
Autocar reports a new petrol Macan would be based on the underpinnings of the latest Audi Q5, known as Premium Platform Combustion (PPC), rather than simply bolting a petrol engine to the electric model's battery-only PPE architecture.
Porsche first opened the door to adding petrol engines to its EV line-up in October 2024, before days later appearing to shut down the possibility of introducing a fuel nozzle to the electric-only Macan.
Jörg Kerner, Vice President of the Macan product line, told Australian media in November 2024 the second-generation model was designed as an electric-only vehicle, and that "at the moment [an ICE Macan is] not planned."
"You can do with an electric Macan… everything's better than the combustion [predecessor] and we [made the decision]. ... This was developed [as an] electric car from scratch, of course. We don't see the necessity for [electric and petrol power].
"I mean, there are more models, for example, like Cayenne… where we said, 'Okay, customers should be able to choose between combustion, hybrid and electric versions.'
"But Macan was actually designed as an EV and [we decided] that this, let's say, more compact SUV version… it's the right way to go electric. And that's what we have at the moment. There are no discussions about [an ICE variant]."
While Porsche initially planned to have electric cars account for 80 per cent of its global sales by 2030, the German car maker watered down its projected targets and will instead place a renewed focus on petrol and hybrid power based on customer demand.
A Porsche spokesperson previously told Drive, “Close to 60 per cent of orders are currently repeat buyers, with the majority of those coming from the ICE [petrol] Macan.”
Any revival of the petrol Macan would need to be an all-new model, as the first generation of the SUV would no longer meet the latest safety regulations in force in Europe and Australia.
The Macan SUV was Porsche's best-selling model in Australia in 2024, with the German luxury marque accruing 3323 sales in 2024, outselling the Cayenne (1829) and the 911 sports car (783).
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
