Porsche Macan electric review plus why towing with an EV is not good news..

Welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and today's car is the Porsche Macan Electric and I've got this in because it's a new generation from Porsche Electric Architecture, a number of changes on this car and I'm going to go over and obviously do the normal review but I will say now when we were looking around the car just after it arrived I noticed it had a tow bar fitted and I looked up its towing capacity and it was two tons so part of this video I'm going to explore what it's like towing with an electric car. I've never done it before and wow did we find out some things that I think need discussing. Anyway back to this Macan let's go and have a closer look. Now you're not going to miss this version of the Macan when you see it on the road, latest generation, because it looks very different to the previous Macan and with it going electric the designers not only had to give it a fresh look but they also really had to look at the drag factor of the car because efficiency from electric cars is highly dependent on how the car moves through the air and the previous generation Macan ice powered which is still in production weirdly they sit side by side of the price list is 0.37 CD factor this one 0.25 that is a dramatic reduction in drag factor I know you have to times it by it's you know the actual frontal area of the car but that's a big big change just out of interest I did look up Taycan that's 0.22 so it's even slipperier than this new version and you can sort of see the aero tricks they've done with it they smoothed it off it's taller there are side vents down here that you can see the wheel if you look through there and I can't get over this really dramatic front splitter on it I've never seen that really on this sort of SUV type car very dramatic there the other things to get about the headlights there's two sets of these ones up here are indicating daylight running lights and your headlights are actually down here and fog lights and that sort of thing I also ought to mention the front boot that is on the button I can open this on the button and I'll do this and you'll notice it goes straight up that is causing difficulties for our transport boys because they think they're hitting unlock button and they're hitting that and then it's hitting the roof on their lorries but anyway in there there's charging cable in there and there's about 80 something litres of space around the side well the first thing you notice is great big wheels these are actually optional fitted to my test car so these are 255 40 by 22s 21 inch is standard this is the turbo version of Macan and to get these wheels well the wheels alone are £2,741 if I want them painted in this colour that is an additional £926 so £3,700 to have the same wheels as this that seems a lot of money to me besides what's changed here it just struck me as a bigger car but I've looked at all the dimensions the length is minimally different this is 478 four mil previous one four seven as near as damaged so it's just a little bit longer but the big change is in the wheelbase it's got an added 86 mil so three and a bit inches in the wheelbase and that gives you more space in the rear cabin which it needed yeah same size wheels at the back and then come around as this very streamlined look on this car that's what Macan always had and quite interesting how they've treated this rear deck it looks sort of grown up looks quite expensive this is a light bar all the way across through here this sort of raised sort of 3d lettering on here then this area is actually the rear spoiler and that flips up put it into sport you can just see it in the mirror it comes up put sports plus up and it's right up in the air quite ugly in operation but like this when you park up looks very good weirdness going on down here this sort of diffuser and vents and things obviously no exhaust and then there's this camera here and I couldn't quite work out how you open the rear boot on this car turns out there is a button just there and up it goes and yeah reasonably practical this car seats flip down you can put this up and down should you wish to on non-turbo versions of Macan you get space under here on this one you get a great big Bose subwoofer we ought to just give a special mention to force vents who would have thought we'd find force vents on a Porsche but there is on this one and then inside I had a very black hole this one hasn't got a sunroof fitted but all very comfortable all very Porsche right what I'm going to do now take it outside take it for a drive it's funny the first thing you notice well I noticed when I get in this up until now having a Porsche powered by electric only meant a Taycan now it's Macan as well and and I just noticed that it sits higher is my immediate thing I noticed between swapping between Taycan and this other than that in here it's all very Porsche all nicely done feels like a 911 wheel in here and look I've got temperature controls down here I've got a volume control for the radio amazing heated seats all that sort of thing is on there obviously I have this screen but I don't know it just looks neater now I have no idea if I flip this across what I've got yeah so this is the the main screen I go to car normally on here and then there is this normal sort of dash layout as we've got used to that looks like and I've got it on battery cold there's all sorts of configurations you can do on that one big sort of holes here sort of they've cut it away there's no lid over it there's two cup holders down there there's a big space down here I'm not sure what that's for I can see it's a 12 volt thing there I've got got phone wireless charging down there I have a glove box quite a big glove box actually that's quite impressive I understand you can get another screen there if you tick another option sport chromo pack because this is turbo version good seats proper seats grippy good space in the back and I say you do notice that extra leg room you do get with this new extended wheelbase mccarn electric and do I get anything in here yeah I get a deep hole in there as well the weird thing is I've got the key here just yeah keys hiding there but it sort of makes the car live as I get in like Tesla does so to move off I just do that and I we start our journey that isn't very Porsche but that's that's the new way so anyway I'm gonna head out here go find some better roads now it sets off in what it terms normal mode which I choose by this little switch on the steering wheel which is really nice because it's not pressing buttons yeah you've even got an off-road setting I can see it's going up in the air now this has got air suspension being the turbo and it's got adaptive dampers and things which are optional on other models or you can do sport or sports plus which we'll get to on a better bit of road but I did test it on my noisy bit of road as well and it was yeah it was surprising actually you'd think being electric would be super quiet it actually went 79 decibel and I think it's mainly tyre noise it's got those aggressive sports tyres and I think it just comes through in the cabin and it's not done place right here's my little squirt up the hill so we're doing 23 mile an hour here we go and flipping heck yeah it's a an amazing thump ever since this car arrived the performance if you're doing an overtake or you're just doing setup wallop wax you forward and yeah we all know it's a Porsche of course it's quick but the take on never quite felt as fast as the figures suggested it should be and the what I noticed when I went back that had a two-speed gearbox and basically run around in second gear all the time unless you did a launch control or you're in sports plus or something it was select first gear this has a single speed gearbox those electric motors direct to the wheels and they're just instantaneous as they supply the power I mean it's I put it back to sport here we go I mean it it is violent how it steps off as soon as you just you know if you go for an overtake well I just found I had to actually ease off I couldn't just you know do a normal overtake pull out yeah visibly go clear go it was too violent so that's is that a good thing I suppose it is Porsche claim this car is 3.3 seconds 0-62 but there is a proviso there I think it's rated at 630 I should know I'll flash it up now you get an extra 55 horsepower when you select launch control compared to when you just step in it as normal the big number though that really pumps you down the road this thing has 1100 newton meters of torque that's actually what's given it this crazy performance and it's just that's 811 in pound foot or in old money now whoa now yeah just turning around there yeah you just you just notice the weight every now and then I just noticed it there and this car goes 2405 kilos it's around three well it's around 160 kilos heavier than a Taycan I can't quite understand why or previous Taycan I think it's this has got a bigger battery it's a hundred kilowatt hour now gross as against 93.7 but seven kilowatt hour shouldn't make that bigger difference but it's got enough grunt to get over the horsepower now obviously this is my bumpy bit of road I just want to see how it behaves like this and I like the way that I can I've got it in normal but I could turn it up to sport if I wanted that even a super sharp throttle but I can select normal on the suspension just on here and I like that but I it's it's marginally on the sporty side but I think it has an extremely good ride for the type of car the type of performance it offers and down here is really good it doesn't deviate I've just put it into sport it's not super aggressive in sport you also get a sound with sport so you you can hear it so you know a generated sound to add to the sense of performance of this car but yeah well compromised the one thing you've got to do is turn lane assist off because every now and then it down a road like this it was darting all over the place it was like torque steer it wasn't it was lane assist getting in a muddle they might work on a freeway in the USA they certainly do not where I live in the Cotswolds just a disaster fortunately you just turn it off on the cruise control button and Porsche very kindly have set it up one press here and you get rid of the speed warning if you you're one mile an hour over the speed limit now ought to quickly mention towing which was well it was an eye-opener we start the positives with 1100 Nm of torque from the from tick over it had no issue moving the trailer around no problem at all actually hitching up I ought to also mention with the camera you could see the tow ball top of the tow ball so you could line it up back onto the trailer that was all good it's what happened as we were towing that came as a bit of a shock and that was just watching the range disappear and the efficiency that you're used to an electric car just goes out the window I was going to try it around here see what it feels like this I've got it I've got it in normal you know I thought that was in sport it's got rear steer option on this it's a 1480 pound option but once you've tried rear steer and how maneuverable it makes it and parking and things like that you just hit the box it might sound a lot I would always go for it yeah obviously very good down there low center of gravity all good back to the towing and I just watched the the miles per kilometer hour just plummet and I've been getting about 2.5 2.6 for this car once I started towing it went 1.2 average and then I went to charge up just to see if I just a disaster again if you go it's designed at all charging networks seem to be back into the space well I've got a trailer back so I can't do that I have to go nose forward went nose forward cable's not long enough to actually reach the port at the back you could go side on and take up about eight spaces and charge that way but as far as I could see the only way to charge an electric car with a trailer is to actually take the trailer off before you go and charge and I then after that experience I didn't need to charge up I just wanted to see what happened I then went up and down a dual carriageway did about 30 something miles and I thought at 1.2 it'll get better no it didn't it went to 1.1 miles per kilowatt hour and then by the time I got home it was 1.2 that means this car with a supposed range of 320 30 miles I think they quote would actually have a range of just on 100 miles if I was towing the trailer shocking and so you're going to be looking for a charger after about 80 miles and you're going to be having to take the trailer off to go and charge up to do another 800 miles so I'm afraid electric cars right now and towing are out the window and I just see how many caravans there are on the road and how many people tow with their you know Range Rovers or you know normal behaviour there's a lot of people towing trailers and things I have no idea what the numbers is I find it out I'll flash it up here but I just can't see how we can do it with the current crop of electric cars anyway let's get back to Macan. Porsche do some things really well I do like the relationship between the wheel and the seat and it it does feel drivers car visibility is great outside the only things like these small rear window that sloping rear window and the privacy glass it's a bit restrained but it's no big deal genuinely and I also like the design I can see the the front wings as well in my sight line with that new body style out the front yeah is it time to go through some likes and dislikes with this car well starting with dislikes I suppose number one is just the price this car with all its options is £108,000 they do add up as ever with Porsche when you start ticking some options and because of this new gearbox I'm just wondering if actually the pick of the range might be something like a 4S this has got excessive amounts of performance this turbo version I mean ludicrously fast so I wonder what the 4S and you'd save yourself £20,000. The balmy thing is there's also a you know a GTS petrol version of Macan it's weird that you've got both running side by side and they're around £20,000 cheaper the base Macan electric is £68,000 so you can save a lot of money if you just go and that's but that's rear drive single motors are quite a different car to this one two that that weight I just don't like the way the weight has crept up more than Taycan why is this thing heavier than Taycan that's a bigger car so I'm really surprised at that it can't all be just down to the battery but you just notice it every now and then that it it doesn't quite you turn it in it's so sharp on and then the weight just it just slides slightly more and I'm sure that it's just the tyres are getting overworked from just controlling this mass and if you get the petrol version again GTS it's 460 kilos lighter than this this is quite heavy at 205 and then three when I had that cross turismo in for a while I could quite often hit three miles per kilowatt hour I have struggled the best I've done in this is 2.6 kilowatts an hour and I presume it's just bigger front area that weight and if you touched it the performance then it does plummet but you know you don't get something for nothing that inefficiency is not helped by this car having the bigger wheels and tyres on it the 22 inch probably why the road noise is up and it's also probably reduced the range by 10 or 20 miles it'd be that much better if it was on the smaller wheels onto the likes though and I'm just going to go into sports on here yeah around here it's just it just feels Porsche great steering ratio just feels right brakes feel good and boy it's out of there it just feels alive that I want if I've you know that badge that's Porsche stands for something and this definitely feels like a Porsche I also like the lack of regen on the brakes I know some people really like it having tried lots of variations I prefer this sort of coasting feel it just makes for a smoother drive you're not so sensitive on the foot you have to keep your foot so sensitive on the if you're one pedaling I don't like that I much prefer this setup too I think it looks quite sharp from the outside it looks modern it looks fresh so I like that about this new Macan as well and then I just like the layout in here I like the switch gear on here yes it's got a screen but it's not in your face sort of screen and I like how I've still got manual control to all the important bits I don't feel as though I'm alienated and there's this one size sort of fit all type of interior so I like that as well so overall what do I think of this as a conclusion I think I think we're moving towards this age of electric and I find I think Porsche is in a bit of a hard place because as a road tester I'm just finding they're all extremely similar every electric car you test there isn't the variation there isn't the V8 there isn't a front engine there isn't rear engine that quite often all-wheel drive like this one is as you can sort of see on here it's quite interesting how you see how it varies if I put it back to normal it's generally in rear drive and I think that leaves Porsche a problem what they've done is enhanced it because it's it's like joining a Porsche club you're going to go electric well get a Porsche and then you'll like the controls and the graphics and it's all right it's like it's like buying the B&O version of your normal Wi-Fi it there is a finesse and the graphics and the design that I personally find appealing and I can understand other people who want to stay in the Porsche club and go electric it will cost you just like B&O will but I think that's the appeal of this car there are much cheaper and equally good perhaps dynamically cars out there well perhaps not dynamically but very close to this for a lot less money but if you want the Porsche experience Macan does deliver it and that's what I like about this car so there you go that's my review of the new Macan Turbo Electric I hope you enjoyed this if you did well keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming on very soon