However, the internal-combustion Macan is on Death Row (although some petrol cars are still available, and Porsche plans to bring it back). The new Macan Electric also shares a platform with an Audi SUV – in this case the Q6 e-Tron – but with a typically Porsche emphasis on cornering instead of comfort and a totally different interior. It’s available as the Macan Electric, Macan 4 Electric, Macan 4S Electric and Macan Turbo Electric, and most of the line-up is more potent than the Audi. 

All Macan Electrics get a 95kWh battery, with the entry-level single-motor Macan I’ll be reviewing here giving the greatest driving range.

First impressions are good. The shape is recognisably Porsche Macan, although with a stubbier bonnet than before, and the shorter overhangs that a bespoke electric platform allows. There’s more of a rake to the rear screen too, which in Audi terms means it’s somewhere between the more upright Q6 SUV and rakish Q6 Sportback. 

Solid white or black are the no-cost colours, with our car’s optional £1185 metallic blue paint highlighting the Macan’s curves. Adding to the visual impact are £1629 worth of 21-inch alloy wheels that are both more intricate and sportier looking than the standard 20-inch wheels.  

Details from Porsche’s bigger EV, the Taycan, are cleverly integrated in the Macan, including the shape of the headlights and bonnet, and two charging ports, one for each side. They’re located behind the rear doors instead of on the front wings, and as before only one side can take a CCS rapid charging plug. 

Further inspection reveals the headlights are not in fact the headlights, merely daytime running lights and indicators. The actual headlights are just below, taking up most of the air intakes. At the back is a full-width light bar and the model designation, which can be ‘debadged’ at zero cost if you’d rather hide how much power you’ve got. 

Like a lot of EVs, no rear wiper is fitted. You can pay £269 to get on installed.  

Porsche tends to offer a range of different suspension options with its cars, and the Macan Electric is no exception. The base Macan and Macan 4 come as standard with coil springs and fixed dampers, 4S adds adaptive dampers, and Turbo gets air suspension. You can upgrade to adaptive or air suspension on lesser models. 

Our test car has the optional coils and adaptive dampers, which gives you the ability to engage Comfort for a slightly slacker approach or Sport to tighten it all up. There’s a firmness to the ride that’s present in every mode, and it can be irksome on particularly badly surfaced roads. Most of the time it’s comfortable enough – and that firmness is the price you pay for the fine handling.  

Colleagues who have sampled the Turbo’s air suspension tell me it offers a more supple ride in Comfort, and better control in Sport and Sport Plus. I always felt the old car was at its best with air, so it makes sense that the same applies here, especially with hundreds of kilos of additional weight from the batteries. 

Not that the mass prevents you from having fun, in even a base Macan Electric. The single electric motor produces 335bhp (or 355bhp in short bursts with launch control) and it’s all channelled to the rear wheels. A 0-62mph sprint time of 5.7 seconds with launch control engaged is usefully quicker than the old four-cylinder Macan, and it feels strong on the road up to and beyond motorway speeds. 

You can count on Porsche to deliver feedback from the steering wheel in even its most sensible offerings, and it’s certainly the case here. There’s no four-wheel steering or variable-ratio rack, just a pure, precise and crisp response to inputs that feels satisfying wherever and however you’re driving. 

Our test car also has the £635 optional Sport Chrono package. I’m not too fussed by the dashtop stopwatch or ability to record lap times, but the Sport Plus setting for the adaptive dampers and Sport mode for the stability control (PSM in Porschespeak) are both most welcome parts of the package. 

Having the dampers in Sport Plus setting gives that last degree of pitch and yaw control if the road is smooth enough, while stability control in Sport unlocks lots of entertainment for the keen driver: I’m able to coax the Macan’s rear tyres into losing traction and enjoy a small but satisfying slide, safe in the knowledge the electronics are still there to help if I turn out to be not quite as talented as I like to think.

In these extreme and provoked situations, the traction control does a fine job of keeping the car in your intended direction without feeling intrusive. It’s a lot of fun, and not risky. Do you really need any more Macan than this?

The Macan gets a gold star for practicality before I’ve even got behind the wheel. As well as the usual Isofix mounts on the outer rear seats, allowing straightforward fitting of child seats, this car also has the £140 front mount, meaning it’s simple for me to keep an eye on my son when it’s just us in the car, and easier to get the child seat into the car, as the front doors have a bigger opening that the wheels. 

The EV’s new platform has a longer wheelbase than the old car, giving far more interior space. It’s not exactly palatial in the back, although overall the car can accommodate four six-footers happily enough, and there’s more cabin width than before if you need to travel five-up. There’s also no transmission tunnel getting in the way of your feet, which is nice. 

Boot space is a good at 540 litres, and there’s no loading lip to heave heavy items over. There’s underfloor storage for the charging cable, and there’s enough room for a carry-on suitcase in the frunk. 

That makes it a bit more practical than key rivals even before you’ve considered the 40:20:40 split/folding rear seat. It doesn’t slide or recline though, and the sloped tailgate means some rivals can hold even more cargo with the back seats folded. 

Any cool tech? 

Based on the Q6 it might be, but the interior feels bespoke to Porsche and is all the better for it. Instead of Audi’s sometimes glitchy infotainment system and over-reliance on touch-sensitive controls this has a clearer, easier-to-navigate Porsche system complete with some physical controls for the heating and proper switches for mirror adjustment. 

Next to the 10.9-inch touchscreen is a 12.6-inch curved driver’s display reminiscent of the Taycan’s. It’s highly configurable so you can have traditional dials, full-screen maps or other layouts, with a choice of what information is display. It’s just as sharp-looking and responsive as the main screen and is controlled by the physical buttons and rollers on the steering wheel. 

If that isn’t enough screenage, there’s also an optional 10.9-inch touchscreen for the front passenger to play with. This gives them easier access to the infotainment functions so they can play DJ or route planner, or they can just sit back and stream whatever they fancy. Don’t worry, a special coating means the driver can’t see the screen from behind the steering wheel. 

The overall quality certainly feels suitably Porsche-like. There’s lots of supple plastics, appealing trims and switches that operate with precision, and if that’s not enough you can get various extended leather packages to ramp the car’s list price into the stratosphere. 

Other tech worth mentioning includes an augmented-reality full-colour head-up display that can clearly warn you of hazards, show navigation instructions or display important information such as your speed. Should you opt for the InnoDrive semi-autonomous driving function, it’ll show alerts about that, too. 

Self-parking is available that’ll drive you into your selected space without you having to use hands or feet, and you get a sharp surround-view camera as well. Electric roller blinds for the rear windows are a nice touch, and it’s good to see four-zone climate control is a relatively cheap option. 

My first low-battery warning comes with 20 per cent charge remaining. That’s conveyed to you via a prominent message in yellow that won’t go away until I actively clear it. The normally white battery level indicator is also yellow. But at this point the Macan still drives perfectly normally, with no reduction in power. 

Another battery warning politely asking me to ‘please charge battery now’ appears with 15 miles of range remaining, and once again it’s bright yellow and takes over the right-hand-side digital ‘dial’. A quick prod of the throttle confirms all horsepower to be present and correct. 

But then with nine miles remaining a more serious warning appears, informing me of reduced power. To hammer home the point, there’s a tortoise icon on the dash and the power has been cut significantly. I can still drive it, but acceleration is painfully slow so I certainly wouldn’t want to cover any great distance like this.

I press on and find the range display goes blank at one per cent, by which time I’m a mobile chicane in desperate need of a charger. The moral of this story? Charge at 10 per cent to avoid this annoyance and benefit from a much faster rapid charge speed. 

Find a charger that’s strong enough to push the 800-volt battery tech to its limit and you’ll get a peak speed of 270kW and a 10 to 80 per cent charge time of just 21 minutes. The Macan’s official WLTP range is up to an impressive 399 miles (but 361 miles in this spec), although I averaged only a so-so 3.0 miles per kWh during my time with the car, while enjoying using the performance on occasion. That’s good for a calculated range of 285 miles if you were to use 100 per cent of the battery. But based on this test, I’d be very keen to find a charger every 250 miles. 

Porsche has done an impressive job of capturing the essence of Macan and injecting it into an electric SUV. The steering is sweet and the handling entertaining, and I certainly don’t miss the engine from the old base Macan. I’ll take this smooth, strong and quiet electric power delivery over four-cylinder drone and less urge. 

Inside is a clever blend of physical and touch-sensitive controls, making it a cabin that feels contemporary and very Porsche. The high-quality feel to everything is hard to beat in this class, and that’s without going too mad on the long options list. Space is good, if not the best, and there’s certainly more rear seat space than its combustion predecessor. 

Complaints? I’d be tempted to go for the expense of air suspension to soften off the ride and firm it up again to suit the conditions. The Macan isn’t that efficient, and the purchase price is also higher than most rivals. Bear in mind these negatives could also have been applied to the old car.