Electric cars - page 36

Porsche’s highly anticipated Macan EV is finally hitting U.S. dealerships on September 30th. This electric stallion promises to be a triple threat: blending blistering performance, luxurious comfort, and eco-conscious efficiency in one sleek package. Before Porsche’s official announcement, eagle-eyed members of the Macan EV Owners forum discovered window stickers for two of the four available trims, the Macan 4 and Macan Turbo, revealing their EPA-estimated ranges. The 402-horsepower Macan 4 offers a solid 308 miles, while the more powerful 630-hp Macan Turbo still manages a respectable 288 miles. These figures solidify the Macan EV’s position as a top contender in the electric SUV market.

Porsche’s second top model for the Taycan EV, the Turbo S, is nothing short of a performance powerhouse. We’re talking 938 horsepower and 818 pound-feet of max torque, along with loads of sportier touches, including standard carbon ceramic brakes (you need these beefier brakes to tame this beast), standard 21-inch wheels, rear-axle steering, and a boatload of carbon fiber trim.

If you’ve been keeping tabs and following the story on the upcoming all-electric Boxster, by this point, you’ve already seen extensive coverage of camouflaged prototypes on tests. They’ve been spotted across a number of locations from the Nürburging in Germany, and winter weather runs up in the Arctic circle to more recently, the streets of San Fransisco. But have you ever wondered what lies under the heavy cladding of the 718 EV? Well, a rendering based on the spy shots we’ve seen so far, could be a great way to decipher these details and that’s exactly what we have here.

Porsche’s Macan, the brand’s popular compact SUV, underwent a major transformation in 2024. We’re not talking about a simple nip and tuck here; this is a whole new animal, ditching the internal combustion engine for a fully electric powertrain (you can still get the old Macan ICE versions before 2026). Porsche initially rolled out the all-wheel-drive Macan 4 and the range-topping Macan Turbo EVs, but the carmaker quickly realized it needed to expand the lineup to cater to a wider range of buyers.

Back in 2019, Porsche finally took a leap into the electric future with the Taycan, a sleek and powerful EV that proved sports sedans could be both thrilling and eco-conscious. Seeing an opportunity to carve its own path in the electric performance sedan market, sister-brand Audi followed suit with the e-tron GT, its second electric offering after the fat e-tron SUV, built on the same J1 platform developed by Porsche.

Spy shots of the upcoming all-electric 718 Porsche Boxster EV (983) are nothing around, and we’ve seen test mules doing the rounds around the Nordschleife and down in the Alps for a while now. However, with the launch date closing in, I felt now would be a good time to take a closer look and do a run-down about everything that we can see on the car, with the help of some close-up shots from Instagrammar and spy shot photographer: Stéphan Barral.

So, remember when we at Motorheads were all abuzz about Porsche possibly adding a simulated shifter to their electric cars? I’d said earlier that if there’s one thing missing in EVs, it’s driver engagement, and while Dodge has had a go with it on its fake sounds in its latest Charger, it is Hyundai that got execution right on the Ioniq 5 N, where the fake engine sound does not only sound good, but it also perfectly sync’s in with the gear shifts that simulate an eight-speed transmission. But it’s not just me though, top auto journalists from renowned publications, and even influencers like Doug DeMuro and MKBHD a.k.a, Marques Brownlee have praised Hyundai for it. I personally feel that this could become a trend that automakers will start to cash in on. However, seeing such a thing on Porsche is unlikely to happen, as the German automaker has officially put those rumors to bed.

Remember that whole "fully electric by 2030" strategy that Porsche implied a few years back? Yeah, they’ve already backtracked on that, with the slowdown in the EV market. It turns out that convincing everyone to ditch gasoline is harder than Porsche had anticipated. Shocking, right? In yet another development, Michael Steiner, Porsche’s R&D head honcho, told Autocar that the Panamera isn’t ditching gas and fancy gasoline-electric combos anytime soon. An electric Panamera is still coming, but those hoping for an all-electric future for the four-door Sportback might need to adjust their expectations. Frankly, I saw this one coming, given the growing popularity of hybrids off-late and how they’re now considered cool.

Like it or not, electrification is coming and Porsche like every other automaker out there, will need to adopt. But despite its expanding electric model lineup, (think electric Macan and the upcoming Cayman/Boxster EV and Panamera EV), the brand recently backtracked on its over-optimistic electric vehicle sales targets, and it appears that Porsche is once again committed to internal combustion engines for the foreseeable future. The Cayenne, for example, is expected to retain an internal combustion option until at least 2030. As for the 911, the T-Hybrid system introduced on the 992.2 Carrera 4 GTS, combines a gasoline engine with an electric motor and seems like a strategic move to extend the life of internal combustion engines for Porsche. But to me, it appears to be an excuse to delay the 911 EV. We all know that it will be the last model in Porsche’s lineup to go fully electric. Having said that, here’s why a compact 911, could serve as the base for both a smaller displacement combustion engine and an all-electric powertrain.

Not everyone is a die-hard E.V. enthusiast, like myself, and I have to admit the Porsche Taycan is very convincing. It looks unmistakably like a Porsche, and more importantly, it drives like one, too. But it’s not like it got off to a bad start. The Taycan, a practical four-door sedan that offers excellent luxury and driving experience, had its limitations when it came to the driving range.

Porsche has announced a strategic partnership with Varta AG, a German battery manufacturer. Even as the broader EV industry faces headwinds, this counterintuitive strategy reflects Porsche’s long-term vision of dominating the high-performance electric vehicle segment. I say counterintuitive, because Porsche backtracked on its statement from 2020, that it wanted 80% of its sales to come from EVs by the end of the decade. Regardless, this move could shake things up for Tesla and other EV players.

Jeremy Snow, who runs the ‘Electric Supercar channel’ on YouTube is all about, as you may have guessed from the name, EVs. Because Elon is taking his time with delivering the Roadster (seven years and counting), Jeremy built one for himself. He has previously also built a Hummer H1 EV. One of his latest project cars taking the EV route is a 2014 Porsche Cayman, which will soon be dubbed the GT-E.