Porsche Macan EV One-Year Road Test Wrap-Up: Here’s What We Think
SPEAKER: I mean, at
least it drives great? [MUSIC PLAYING] About a year ago, we bought a
Macan Electric, Porsche’s very first fully electric SUV. We wanted members of our team
to live with it every day, to find out all the little
things you can’t when you’re just at the dealership
on a test drive, just like we do with every
vehicle in our one year road test fleet. If you like the look
and vibe of the Macan, you can find plenty
to here, especially if you appreciate the way a car
feels from behind the wheel. But one thing you’ll hear
us mention a lot is price. We spent just shy of 100
grand on this Macan EV, and we have thoughts. We’ll tell you the good,
the bad, the broken, plus what it’s worth
after a year of ownership. And most importantly, if
you should actually buy one. We’re Edmunds, and we test
hundreds of cars each year on the road and at our
private track so you get the most trusted reviews. If you want to know which car,
truck, or SUV is the best, then stick with us. It all starts with this perfect
three spoke steering wheel. Like any good Porsche, the
Macan EV is excellent to drive. CAMERON ROGERS: I mean,
yeah, the Macan EV feels great from behind the wheel. It has great throttle response
and low to medium speeds. It has tight, accurate
steering, and even though it has all season tires,
it has no problem on the tight, hilly
roads near my home that can give
other cars trouble. JONATHAN ELFALAN: So Porsche
does driving dynamics so well that the Macan EV
essentially feels and handles exactly the way you would
think a Porsche should. So the driving experience is
by far the strongest selling point of Macan EV, though
the seats are fantastic too. SPEAKER: But the Macan is also
great at the everyday stuff too, even for those that
don’t really care about steering and handling. WILL KAUFMAN: We have rear
steering on our Macan EV, and the turning circle
on this thing is insane. I mean, it is just
so maneuverable. I also really like
that the Macan EV doesn’t mess around
with one pedal mode in its default settings. You don’t have a really
strong drag brake when you lift off the gas. It’s just a really
nicely tuned throttle and a really nicely
tuned set of brakes. It’s so smooth and
easy to drive around. BRENT ROMANS: I really like the
way our Macan rides over bumps. It’s smooth, but
still pretty stable, and that’s when it’s in its
default comfort drive mode. And actually, you can switch to
the sport mode, which firms up the suspension, makes it feel
a little bit sportier around turns, but it’s still smooth. And in fact, I’d drive
around town all the time with the sport mode engaged. It feels like a proper Porsche
while still being comfortable. JONATHAN ELFALAN: The driver
assists are actually quite good, smooth acceleration and braking
even in stop and go traffic, and it sees cars early enough
so it doesn’t freak out if someone cuts you off. And the lane centering
is strong as well, which really helps to reduce
fatigue on a long drive. SPEAKER: If your car doesn’t
do those things very well and it’s time to
get out of it, we have a quick and easy free
appraisal tool on our site. Link in the description. Another strong point
on the Macan EV, something you really
care about in pretty much every electric car, range. We put the Macan EV through
the Edmunds EV range test, just like we do with
nearly every EV on sale, and the results were impressive. 352 miles on a single charge is
a great outcome for a modern EV, and it’s well in excess of the
Macan’s 308 mile EPA estimate. But it’s not just the
range that’s impressive. NICK YEKIKIAN: The
Macan is also really good at adjusting your
estimated miles remaining based on how you’re driving. I’ve driven plenty
of EVs that have more quoted range that give
me more range anxiety, and it’s really nice to be able
to trust the system like that. SPEAKER: The Macan can
also charge super fast at public charging stations, and
it comes with a free adapter, so owners can actually charge
at most Tesla superchargers too. Another thing we like about
the Macan EV, cargo space. BRENT ROMANS: The Macan
electric sloping roof line had me concerned about
how much space there’d be in the trunk area,
but it’s actually pretty roomy for
everyday use, and you can fold down the rear seats
to open it up even more. One time I did that so
I’d throw in my son’s bike without even having to take
off the front wheel, which was an unexpected and
pleasant surprise. SPEAKER: Bad news for
Macan fans, that’s where the good stuff ends. One thing that came up
frequently among staffers was packaging. For a car that’s relatively
big on the outside, why isn’t there
more space inside? WILL KAUFMAN: Why is the Macan
EV’s interior so compromised? It’s wider and longer than
a Model Y or an Ioniq 5, but the backseat
just feels smaller. And when I’m in my
normal seating position, even my kid in his booster
seat is complaining about legroom in the back. I mean, it’s just not going
to meet the needs of a family. SPEAKER: And the Macan’s
greatest strength, that being how it drives,
actually, not everyone agrees. BRIAN WONG: Our
Macan feels pretty quick from behind
the wheel, especially if you’re doing a launch
while it’s in sport plus. However, the actual
numbers that it puts up, they are not quite
as impressive. We brought it to the test track,
just like we do everything else, and it actually loses
out from 0 to 60 to the Hyundai Ioniq 5, the Kia
EV6, the Tesla Model Y, and even a Ford F-150 Lightning. Now, I don’t street race, but
knowing that if you pull up in your $100,000 Porsche next to
a $50,000 Kia and you’re going to lose the drag race,
that’s a bad feeling. SPEAKER: If you’re curious
how the Macan EV stacks up against its
competitors, or you want to see rankings and reviews
for just about every vehicle on sale, we’ve got it
all over on the site. We’ll even show
you the best price. Another thing we don’t like? There’s no one
pedal driving here. Porsche doesn’t offer that in
any of their current EVs as of this filming, and it’s
a philosophical decision on their end. And sure, I can
understand maybe it feels more natural
to some of them to use the brake
and the throttle to slow yourself down and
whatnot, but give me the choice. Everything else on this
car is a choosable option, from the paint to the
wheels to the interior, to all these accessories. And to have no ability to use
a true one pedal drive mode is frustrating for a lot
of members on our team who enjoy that in other EVs. OK, mini rant over. Time for a new rant. I mentioned up front that
there’s an issue with value here. There’s a lot of
aspects of the Macan EV that just don’t feel
befitting of a luxury car, and that’s before we even
get into the matter of price. KEITH BUGLEWICZ: There’s
no 360 degree camera. The tiny sun visors
don’t extend. There’s not even a rear
wiper unless you’re willing to pay extra for
it, and stuff like that shouldn’t be extra on
a luxury EV like this. The piano black on the
interior, after a year, it’s all scratched up. It’s just really disappointing. DUNCAN BRADY: It’s
a small thing, but the seat belt buckle is
constantly rattling and banging against the b-pillar. I know a lot of other cars have
a clip to hold that in place. And another thing
that drives me crazy is the buttons in
the center stack. They’re not real buttons. Like, you press on one, and
this whole plastic panel moves. And I don’t know, I
guess I’m glad it’s not all through the touchscreen,
but little things like this, it just feels out of place on a
premium vehicle like the Macan EV. SPEAKER: All that
would be disappointing even if the Macan EV worked all
the time, which it mostly did, but only mostly. We had issues with the tire
pressure monitoring system, where it would think that a
tire change had taken place when, in fact, no tire change
had taken place at all. But you’d have to reset the
system to make it go away. We also had issues
where it thought that all the tires were low,
even though they were fine. We also had at
least three drivers encounter issues with
the driver assist systems, which would randomly
fail even in clear weather. One person even had the
steering wheel fully lock up when they were
backing out of the driveway. The last two issues
fixed themselves by turning the car on
and off, but frankly, you shouldn’t have to do that
on any car, let alone one this expensive. And at one point, the charge
port door got completely stuck. BRENT ROMANS: Yeah, I had a
problem with our Macan EV. The charge flap door on the
driver’s side would not open. It’s a little bit
like on a gas car, you’re supposed to press
on it, it pops open. Wouldn’t do that, even
though the car was unlocked. I got frustrated with it. I couldn’t figure out any
solution why it wouldn’t open. I eventually took it to my
local Porsche dealership, talked to the advisor there, and he was
actually able to help me out. He knew a special
trick where he was able to– he would put his
pressure on the flap that wouldn’t open, but then
he’d cycle with the key fob, he’d cycle the car lock and
unlock a bunch of times, and eventually that would
reset it and it would pop open. So he fixed it, which was great. We never really had
that problem again. But at the same
time, it was pretty annoying and frustrating
to deal with that with a brand new luxury EV. SPEAKER: Thankfully, that
didn’t cost us anything. The dealership took care
of it free of charge. But still, you shouldn’t have
to deal with a brand new luxury car. Like our BMW iX. That’s a comparable
luxury EV that we had in our fleet for over a year. We even put a few thousand
extra miles on it, and it cost less
than this Macan EV. 0 issues. None. And what makes those
maintenance issues and those disappointments
so hard to swallow is what we paid for the thing. Nearly $100,000. So what’s this thing worth
after a year and 13,000 miles? So glad you asked. How about $52,000? Because that’s the
offer we just got. That’s a steep
depreciation curve. It’s worse than both
the BMW I5 and Kia EV9. Now, we do know that EVs tend
to depreciate a bit more, but still, that one stings. And if you want to get a
quick offer for your car, we’ve got a free tool
for that on the site. And for us, the amount
we spent on this Macan really feels like a
stretch for what we got. STEVEN EWING: Every single
time I got into the Macan, it felt less and less like a
vehicle worthy of a six figure price tag. There’s the cheap buttons,
the hard plastics, or the fact that this thing lacks basic
features like a 360 degree camera or a rear wiper. I mean, there’s a lot of
good in this car for 60, 70, maybe even 80 grand,
but $100,000 for this? SPEAKER: Before we wrap
up, if you like the way we buy our own test cars to
get real ownership experience, or if our videos are
helpful to you in any way, a like and subscribe
go a long way. And if we missed anything or you
have ideas for future videos, tell us down below
in the comments. We read them all. Here’s the thing. Edmunds has actually
owned a Macan before. Way back in 2015, we
bought a first generation gas powered Macan and everyone
on our staff loved it. In fact, one person
loved it so much that when it was time
to sell, they actually plunked down their own
money and bought it and drove it as their
personal vehicle. Speaking of, I actually own
a first gen Macan myself, and I can confirm
firsthand it does a much better job at the luxury
performance vehicle mission. Now, remember, there’s still
a lot to about the Macan EV. We love the way it
drives, the way it feels, and the efficiency is superb. If we had this kind of money
to plunk down on an EV, sure, we might buy it
over some competitors, but we’d make sure to check
the option boxes for a 360 camera and a rear wiper. It’s a great car to drive and a
great EV, but as a luxury car, we hoped for better.
A year ago, we bought this Porsche Macan 4 EV, the brand’s first electric SUV, to find out what it’s like to live with on a daily basis. Well, one year later, we have thoughts — lots of them. From the good to the bad to the expensive, Edmunds’ Ryan Greger and our content team tell you all our thoughts on the Macan EV after a year of ownership.
00:00 Intro
01:06 What We Liked
03:09 Edmunds’ EV Range & Charging Tests
04:14 What We Didn’t Like
07:20 Maintenance & Repairs
09:07 Value
10:26 Edmunds’ Take
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