BEST EV SPORTS SUV PORSCHE MACAN

Larger, heavier, more expensive – the new Macan has gone exclusively electric. Does the Porsche magic remain?

WORDS TOM FORD

PHOTOGRAPHY ALEX TAPLEY

New Macan might feel languid around town, but on the open roads...

Triple the screens, triple the potential to smear with fingerprints

Now go and watch the video on topgear.com

Looks nice, but you’d get the same experience around Milton Keynes’ roundabouts

PORSCHE MACAN TURBO

Price: £95,000 Powertrain: two e-motors, 635bhp, 833lb ft Transmission: 1spd auto, AWD Performance: 0–62mph in 3.3secs, 162mph Battery/range: 100kWh/367 miles Weight: 2,405kg

The crowds are promenading, dressed in the kind of nautical stripes, pastel linens and yacht tans that only make sense down here on the French Riviera, and you can almost smell the heady scent of rich. The traffic is much more proletarian, beaten Fiat 500s, Smart cars and the odd fancy bit of metal, all local traffic sporting the bumps and bruises of French street parking. The scars are normal – these urban backroads were designed before cars got big, and they’re only just wide enough for two medium-sized cars to pass as long as everyone breathes in and grits their teeth. The new Porsche Macan Turbo feels wide. It isn’t – it’s still just a medium-sized SUV – but here it feels like a Cayenne, half an inch and a twitch from milling the shiny 22-inch wheels on emotionless granite kerbs. The Macan might be Porsche’s smallest sporty SUV, but it feels hemmed. Obviously there’s time to appreciate the new, bigger interior, featuring a dashboard full of screens (including a pointless, optional, Netflix enabled passenger screen), the massive head-up display and ultra-quick Android-based operating system. There’s time to note the excellent quality, fit and finish, the 28mm lower seating position than the ICE car, but to be honest, after an hour, the traffic is making me want to chew my nails off.