Back in February 2019, Porsche announced that the following generation of the immensely popular Macan crossover, one of its best sellers, would only be available with electric power. The EV launched in early 2024, and by then, the world's view of how quickly all-electric mobility would be adopted changed, and Porsche's former CEO has now admitted that it was a mistake. In an interview with German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, published in his final month at the reins of the automaker, Oliver Blume admitted the blunder: "Our strategy was to offer combustion engines, hybrids, and electric sports cars in each of our three segments — but not for every product. We were wrong about the Macan." This is the second time in recent weeks that Blume has admitted a misjudgment on Porsche's part.
Porsche Plans to Rectify the Mistake, But Sticks By the Bad Call
Porsche
The former CEO (who has now been replaced by former Ferrari and McLaren man Dr. Michael Leiters as of January 1) justified the decision to cull the combustion-powered Macan back then but added that things would be different if the call were made in today's climate. "Based on the data available at the time and our assessment of our markets, we would make the same decision again," said Blume. "Today, the situation is different. We have responded and are adding combustion engines and hybrids." This miscalculation has been mirrored by Stellantis with the Dodge Charger.
Related: Is Porsche’s Slowest New Car Still Worth Buying?
After poor sales of the all-electric Daytona, a twin-turbo Hurricane engine was hastily added, but Porsche knows that this has its own pitfalls. While the combustion Charger has compromises that cause it to suffer (such as a high floor that was not initially designed for gas engines), Porsche is reviving a gas vehicle for the compact luxury crossover segment, but instead of trying to reengineer the Macan EV for combustion, it's starting with a blank slate.
The New Macan Won't Be a Macan at All
Martin Leissl/Bloomberg via Getty Images
While Blume may have been at the helm while Porsche made some mistakes, he also readily worked to resolve these problems, announcing in the middle of last year that a new model would join the lineup where the gas Macan left a void, and that this new luxury crossover would arrive no later than 2028. Because Porsche invested so much into associating the Macan name with an EV, it now makes more sense for Porsche's gas-powered return to compact luxury to bear a new name. This new nomenclature has not yet been made public, but Blume described the new crossover as "very, very typical Porsche for this segment and also differentiated from the BEV Macan." Since the old gas Macan's platform could no longer meet European cybersecurity laws, the newcomer is likely to be based on the Premium Platform Combustion architecture that underpins the Audi Q5.
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Interestingly, the next Porsche 718, which was set to be EV-only too, is being reengineered to accept gas engines. Hopefully, Porsche does a better job than Dodge, but that should go without saying. Porsche's new CEO has a lot of work to oversee; let's hope the man responsible for cars like the SF90 Stradale, 296 GTB, and Purosangue - not to mention an improvement in McLaren's build quality and financial stability - can turn Porsche around.
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