2025 Porsche Macan and Macan 4S First Drive: Balanced Base, and Fun-for-Us Model

Porsche has enjoyed already having the all-wheel drive Macan 4 and highest-performance (for now) Macan Turbo on sale for the 2024 model year, and now it’s catching up and rounding out its Macan EV lineup for the 2025 year with the new base rear-wheel drive version and third-up-the-trim-ladder (and more powerful) all-wheel drive 4S performance model. Do these new EVs stack up to what we expect from a Porsche? Well, that depends on which Porsches you’ve driven lately.

Macan EV Design

Luckily for all Macan EV shoppers, the design remains mostly unchanged across the entire lineup, minus a few extra vent additions on the top Turbo trim. If you like the design, that’s a good thing, but we must admit it does sit and photograph awkwardly, with bulgy tall proportions and lights that seem like they might be too small for the car they’re on.

This feels like a Macan redo stretched over a platform that it doesn’t quite fit over, and it does ride on a new shared PPE Platform with Audi. That tracks, as this Macan EV is bigger than the gas-fed Macan models it will eventually replace completely, growing 3.4 inches longer in the body and 3.9 inches longer overall than its gas sibling. All Macan EVs share a 100 kWh (around 95 kWh net) battery pack under the floor, and all U.S. models get air suspension standard.

Macan EV Power Lineup

The base Macan EV only gets the rear axle motor from the existing dual-motor Macan 4 all-wheel drive model, and is, as you probably guessed, rear-wheel drive. The motor has an output of 250 kW, or 335 hp (with no overboost, uh, boost), and scoots the EV from 0 to 60 mph in a claimed 5.7 seconds (5.4 seconds with launch control, according to the website now). Porsche claims the base EV saves 242 pounds over the Macan 4, which generates 382 hp (402 hp with overboost) and gets to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds with launch control. The Macan 4S makes 442 hp (509 hp with overboost) and gets to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, and the Turbo tops out at 576 hp (630 hp with overboost) and 3.1 seconds to 60 mph when launching. Macan and Macan 4 have a top track speed of 136 mph, the 4S tops out at 149 mph, and the Turbo can hit 161 mph.

Macan EV EPA Range

Also new for 2025 is a full slate of EPA figures for the new Macan EV lineup that’s now complete with all four trims. The base Macan claims 99 MPGe combined with up to 315 miles of range, the most of the range; the Macan 4 drops to 98 MPGe and 308 miles of range, the Macan 4S delivers 91 MPGe and 288 miles of range, and the Turbo keeps the 288-mile claim with slightly better MPGe but still 91 combined (thanks to inverter calculus, 1-speed gearing, and lower drag coefficient).

Macan EV Interior

The new Macan is a lovely place to be inside, with a large central digital display, a few key switches, and the rest a sea of haptic buttons laid out between the seats. In the cockpit is another nice screen and an optional augmented reality head up display that is visually impressive, with yet another screen now placed in front of the passenger on the dashboard, which isn’t visible from the driver’s perspective. The two forward charge ports are difficult to access, and there’s also a 12-volt outlet tucked away with them under a Qi wireless phone charger pad. Seats, even in the base model, do enough to hug the passengers and feel sporty without being too tight and uncomfortable with the bolstering, and are available heated and ventilated.

The Mainstream Macan?

Before us journalists even arrived in Germany to test drive the new base Macan and 4S models introduced for 2025, Porsche reps were hedging our drive in a base model, tempering our expectations by insisting this would be one of the “mainstream” Porsche models designed for comfort and efficiency, not outright performance or driver experience. So, a Taycan Turbo this new base SUV is clearly not. Keep in mind the base gas Macan this model will replace is a bit of a slouch itself in four-cylinder guise, though still decent to drive, so it’s staying true to the positioning of the model in Porsche’s lineup.

This basic Macan exists to get new customers, family customers, and compliment the brand’s other performance products. That it does extremely well. As we said in previous reviews, despite new Google infotainment and a shared platform, the Macan EV still easily presents as pure Porsche, experience-wise. Buttons are tight and clicky, everything is buttoned down and screwed together well, and there’s an easy twenty grand in desirable options to be fitted to any of the trims if you can get away with it.

Driving the New Macan EV

We drove the new base Macan EV and Macan 4S on a route of rural German roads and Autobahn around Stuttgart, where Porsche is headquartered. Off the line, the near six seconds it takes to speed up to 60 mph is far from the head-snapping acceleration you may have come to expect from luxury EVs that, so far, have tended to throw overwhelming performance in for surprise and marketing, but at the cost of higher prices. This entry level model is hardly pokey, but once you’re up to speed, you really notice the lack of snap, say, when the Autobahn goes unrestricted and suddenly there are Golf wagons passing you and you need to catch and keep up.

Once you’re up to speed (acceleration is not bad; it’s linear and predictable), the Macan is comfortable and smooth, with a nicely weighted steering feel and Porsche’s now typical light EV throttle mapping, where there’s only regenerative braking when you depress the actual brake pedal—not, say, as you lift off the accelerator pedal, like in most other EVs—and therefore you coast off throttle (Porsche says this setup is more efficient). We'd prefer a little more torque in the power mix, with heavier or at least optional off-throttle regen, but apparently Porsche customers like this setup, as it's been retained in the recently overhauled Taycan lineup. Sport mode on the base model showed little improvement in dynamics, we must admit, but the solid fundamentals were still there—it just didn’t feel justified enough to be its own drive mode on the base model. The lack of choice, or even a “B” driving mode as is typical of most EVs, from Porsche is disappointing. The rear-drive setup of the base Macan EV had no issue on wet paved roads, but we didn’t have a chance to take it far beyond that, or push its limits of traction in our testing so far. More of that is to come for sure, so stay tuned to what our test team delivers soon.

Driving the new Macan 4S EV was much more fun, as it boasts significantly more power delivered to all four tires. The normal and sport drive modes were much more differentiated here with a clear shift in dynamics, and the “switch” to a performance model shows just how capable the new Macan is, even if the base model keeps some of it quiet. Handling through corners is communicative, the available rear-steering (which also can come on rear-drive models!) helps with city driving and parking, but otherwise this Macan EV feels a little big on its feet, with us and our co-driver finding the edge of the road a handful of times, with a feeling of disconnect between where we perceived to be and where the wheels actually landed. This wasn’t a tuning issue, just that the wheels are pushed far out, and this model is some three inches longer than what it replaces; still, we did get it to fit in tight European city parking spots on the street, so size is not really an issue once you adjust to the driving feel.

2025 Porsche Macan EV MSRP and Pricing

The base Macan starts at $77,295 including destination and handling fees, the 4 jumps to $80,795, the 4S now starts at $86,895, and the Turbo tops it out at $107,295 before options. Pick which one works for your budget or sense of urgency, but all four are true Porsches, electric or otherwise.

2025 Porsche Macan EV Specs