The head of Porsche, Oliver Blume, recently confirmed to Automobilwoche: “the market launch will be in 2024”. We expected 2023 as the marketing year for the electric Porsche Macan or e-Macan, which will be based on the current platform model. For a time, the electric model and the gasoline versions were going to coexist, until the end of the current generation.
And what is the problem? Doesn’t Porsche get enough batteries? Are prototypes a disaster? No, it is a software development problem that the car needs, the development of which is not following the planned plan. When this happens in software engineering, there are two basic ways out: the first is to release a product that has not been tested and is full of bugs, and the second is to delay delivery times.
Prototypes of the electric Porsche Macan have been on the roads for more than a year. When it comes to the car itself, powertrain, batteries, and recharging systems… we can assume that Porsche has the most advanced work, neither is it a novice manufacturer nor is it in terms of electrification. Now, the software is essential in a modern car.
That the electric Macan is delayed has a collateral consequence, that the commercial life of the gasoline Macan will last a little longer. The last update to the range came last year, when the second restyling and a range trimmed down to the Macan, Macan S, and Macan GTS, without the Turbo model, went on sale. They do not have hybridization, digital instrumentation, or certain modern driving aids.
The electric Macan will be a “bridge” model between the current generation of the Macan, which is the first, only, and last with gasoline engines (there was some Diesel), and the second, totally electric. It has been the fastest Porsche to reach a million units and there is still demand it. On the other hand, it represents a type of car that will never return to the market, ergo as long as they continue to be sold, “nothing happens”. The gasoline and electric Macan will coexist for up to a year and a half.
As for the Audi Q6 e-Tron, based on the PPE platform, in theory, it will start the pre-production phase at the end of this year, we do not know if it will be delayed as well. And returning to Porsche, we remind you that a high-end electric SUV model will appear in the middle of the decade, surely with the dimensions of the Panamera and larger than the Cayenne, for the highest part of the market.
