GENERATION NEXT

After more than a decade in production, Porsche has produced an entirely new Macan SUV only this time it's electric powered. Prestige drives it.

- JON WALL

Can it really be 12 years since I was being shown around the Porsche factory in Leipzig, when our guides were diligently herding us away from one part of the facility where a new SUV was in later stages of pre-production, access to which was strictly verboten to interlopers such as myself? By that time it was already common knowledge that, eager to capitalise on the remarkable sales success of its first urban tractor, the Cayenne, the company was set on repeating the trick by launching a second, slightly smaller contender in the premium segment. Not only that, but the newcomer had already been given a name: Macan. Little did we know at the time, but the new car we were hastily being prevented from seeing would soon become Porsche's best-selling model.

Since its eventual first official appearance early in 2014, when it was available with a choice of petrol and diesel engines, that first-generation Macan has soldiered on, tweaked here and massaged there by way of new powertrain options and a couple of facelifts, for more than 10 years.

In that time it's not only sold in the many hundreds of thousands, but also become the yardstick by which other driver-oriented compact SUVs are measured, both in terms of dynamic abilities, in which it excels (and I'm thinking here of the exceptional highperformance variant, the GTS), and key considerations such as build quality. You could even say that, with its pleasingly understated styling, which resembles an only mildly steroidal hatchback, the Macan represents the acceptable face of the SUV. In fact it remains in production at least until next year, though not for the domestic market, as its platform, which is based on that of an earlier Audi Q5, no longer complies with the latest European regulations.