Electric Porsche Macan styling sketched out, reveal date set

After many delays, the second-generation Porsche Macan will make its debut on January 25, and while the drivetrain promises to be all new, the styling is every bit as evolutionary as you’d expect from the Zuffenhausen brand.

Overnight Porsche released two sketches revealing the design of the new crossover’s front and rear ends.

Up front there’s a single lower air intake bordered by a pair of intakes that house the company’s first disguised main headlight units.

Above these are a prominent pair of daytime running lights featuring the company’s latest driving light pattern with four individual horizontal bars.

At the rear there’s the company’s other corporate lighting signature: a thin, darkened rectangular strip running the entire width of car. Enclosed within is a full-width lighting strip, and the brand’s recognisable wordmark.

Once again the number plate is mounted in the bumper. The surrounding diffuser-style element doesn’t have cut outs for exhaust tips, so it has been dressed up with a set of horizontal bars.

In an interview with Porsche’s media site, Michael Mauer, the company’s head of design, revealed the new Macan will have a “minimalist mode” for the instrumentation display, which will only show elements which are “crucial for driving”.

We presume this will be something similar to the Night Mode offered in the first-generation Saab 9-5, which blacked out everything except the current speed and emergency warnings, but updated to include modern conveniences, such as navigation instructions.

Under the skin, the Macan is the first production car to be based on the Platform Premium Electric (PPE) jointly developed with Audi. PPE will also serve as the basis for the upcoming Audi Q6 e-tron crossover, and A6 e-tron sedan and wagon.

In an earlier series of teasers, Porsche confirmed the Macan will be available with a rear-biased dual-motor electric powertrain with the latest generation of “permanently excited PSM motors”. In the most powerful variant, total system output will be exceed 450kW/1000Nm.

Although a range estimate has yet to be revealed, the Macan EV will be available with a 95kWh (net) lithium-ion battery pack, an 800V electrical architecture, and will support DC fast charging up to 270kW and AC charging speeds up to 11kW.

Thanks to an active aerodynamics system that includes active cooling flaps on the front air intakes, variable elements on the underbody, and an extending rear spoiler, the Macan EV will have a coefficient of drag as low as 0.25.

Although some markets will continue to sell the first-generation Macan, launched way back in 2013, alongside the new electric-only second-generation model, Australia will retire the original version around the time the new crossover becomes available.

MORE: Everything Porsche Macan