Porsche to build new petrol SUV as EV sales stall

Brand’s U-turn heads off gap in portfolio blown open by slowing EV transition

- Phil McNamara

PORSCHE is developing a new SUV powered by combustion and hybrid engines, as its electric-only Macan ambitions stall.

The firm launched the Macan last year, and delivered 18,274 electric SUVs in the final few months of 2024. But sales of the long-standing petrol and hybrid versions will continue in some markets, including the UK, until production ceases within a couple of years.

Afterwards, Porsche will stick to its plan to sell the Macan purely as an electric SUV. But that leaves a gap in the firm’s line-up for a mid-sized SUV running combustion engines, and CEO Oliver Blume has announced a new model to fill that hole.

“We will be developing an SUV, a typical Porsche SUV,” Blume said. “The first drawings and concepts are being developed and they’re being enthusiastically received. Of course it will cost us money, but for the future it gives us extra flexibility.”

This SUV will not use the Macan badge and will be positioned as an “independent model line” with a “new design”, although one true to Porsche’s sporty character.

With shared parts and scale critical in the car industry, the SUV will use Volkswagen Group platforms. It can still be a true Porsche “working with synergies that we have from other models,” said Blume, who is also CEO of the VW Group.

The outgoing Macan is twinned with Audi’s Q5, for example, sharing the PPC (Premium Platform Combustion) architecture, and the new Porsche is likely to tap into an updated version of that module.

The timeline for the upcoming SUV is not yet public, with Porsche only saying the four-wheel-drive car would arrive by the end of the decade. That would leave a hiatus when Porsche does not have a combustion and hybrid mid-sized SUV, so the firm will strive to keep downtime to a minimum.