Porsche Macan E: how software hitches have delayed its launch
Porsche’s electric Macan reboot is taking longer than expected, but it should be great when it arrives.
TURN IT OFF AND ON AGAIN
The Taycan got Porsche’s electric journey off to the smoothest of starts. It impresses just about everyone who drives it, looks fantastic on the road and hasn’t caused any significant backlash among the faithful. The Taycan, in its many forms, looks like a natural part of the Porsche line-up, as do the SUVs and the hybrids, both of which had the potential to be divisive and damaging.
But Porsche’s post-Taycan plans have been going anything but smoothly, hampered by persistent software issues.
The hybridised 911, originally due in September 2023, has been pushed back to the middle of 2024, at the same time as the 922 undergoes a facelift – a facelift that was not even on the cards a couple of years ago. The arrival of the 992.2 delays the start of production of the heavily revised 994 – not too long ago earmarked as a 2024 model – by a full four years, to 2028. The official reason given is the heavy backlog of orders and last-minute changes to the EU7 emissions regulations, but what that omits to say is that the persistent lack of semiconductors is dictating the launch timetable.
In the case of the fully electric 983 – that’s the Boxster E and Cayman E – software issues have postponed the launch to early 2025, rather than the planned February 2023 for the roadster and March 2024 for the coupe. This means the current combustion-engined versions must soldier on for two more years.
Back in 2019, the product plan showed electric Macan production starting in June 2022. This date has obviously passed, and so have two more tentative intro dates. Right now, we’re told, Porsche intends to launch the zero-emissions SUV at the 2024 LA show. Its sister model, the new Audi Q6 e-Tron, is due to see the light two months earlier at the IAA in Munich. Neither car will, however, arrive at dealers before the end of the first quarter of 2024.
When it does arrive, expect the Leipzig-built Macan E’s 800-volt system to support two battery sizes rated at an expected 96 and 115kWh. Insiders predict three performance stages: around 400bhp for the Macan E, 500bhp for the 4S and 600bhp for the Turbo; there are rumours of a 750bhp Turbo S GT. Driving range, depending on version, will be from 300 to 425 miles. Charging the energy packs from five to 80 per cent is claimed to take only 18 minutes.
As far as conventional technologies go, the biggest surprise is perhaps the option of air suspension – rare in this segment. Inside, expect a less busy cockpit with only three instead of five round gauges. Gone are the cluttered switchgear and the crammed centre stack; there’s a big new multi-functional centre display.
So the product is well defined, and there’s has been extensive simulation and real-life testing. The hold-up is because Macan and Q6 are the first two products based on the new PPE (Premium Platform Electric) architecture co-developed by Audi and Porsche. While both brands completed the hardware just in time, the software is still not running smoothly. Insiders blame Cariad, the in-house software division founded by Herbert Diess which was first masterminded by Audi, then by VW, and is now under the personal supervision of the new CEO Oliver Blume.
‘Writing your own software completely changes the way a car is developed,’ explains a Cariad founding manager. ‘It’s a totally different and much faster process, which introduces challenging new parameters like perception, awareness, signal processing and failure behaviour.’ One must-have quality of PPE is Level 3 autonomous driving – the so-called ‘autobahnpilot’ feature – which allows variable- length hands-off and eyes-off sequences at speeds of up to 80mph. It is this new attribute that keeps delaying the platform and the vehicles derived from it.
‘Writing, checking, improving, adapting, integrating, checking again under more extreme conditions, then finally certifying the programme is a multi-tasking effort intrinsically linked to key hardware components like steering and brakes. Together, the two factions control and execute all safety-relevant functions. Think of the self-driving car as a code which employs neuronal networks – artificial intelligence mimicking the human brain – to administer the virtual world of the real vehicle by dialling in the appropriate actions according to the real-time driving situation,’ according to our insider. And what does Porsche CEO Blume say? ‘I can confirm that the Macan E is visually, dynamically and digitally already a very complete car. Only in terms of software, we are not quite there yet.’
NEED TO KNOW
- What is it? All-electric version of Porsche’s biggest seller
- Tech? Twin electric motors, all-wheel drive, three degrees of powerful
- Aimed at? Current Macan owners when they’re ready for EV
- When can I have one? Now looking like the spring of 2024
The execution will banish any doubts
Part of you is glad the plan to replace engined Porsches with EVs is going slowly. It’s the part of you that hopes ‘something will turn up’, and we don’t have to go electric after all. Hydrogen fuels, maybe? But no; this part of you is kidding itself. However, a more rational part of you can draw hope from the fact that the Taycan is so good, and Porsche is on a sustained roll. Its execution is always so thorough that you can be sure these cars will be good. Colin Overland, managing editor
Audi’s version likely to be revealed first.
Expect Macan E to stick very closely to the winning formula. It’s the Porsche way.