Porsche Bets Hard on The Future

Porsche announced today that the next generation Macan, due “at the start of the next decade,” will be an EV based on the same Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture that will undermine the upcoming Porsche Taycan, Taycan Cross Turismo, and Audi e-tron GT. Other vehicles will presumably follow. Substantive articles on this include one at Car and Driver by Daniel Golson and Slashgear’s take by Chris Davies.

Consider the EV landscape where this announcement is taking place. Mercedes has made an EV-specific sub-brand, EQ, to market their electric vehicles. Audi and BMW have done the same thing with the e-tron and i sub-brands respectively. The message here seems to be that electric vehicles are not the core business of the company, they are some special thing done on the side. Suppose in twenty years 90% of Mercedes’ vehicles are electric, will they all be branded EQ?

Other manufacturers are taking a slightly different approach. Some, like Jaguar and Ford, are building unique pure EV models such as the I-Pace, while companies like Hyundai and Kia are building electrified versions of combustion vehicles such as the Kona EV.

However, what we’re seeing at Porsche is new. They’re taking an existing model, with strong sales and brand image, and transitioning it completely from combustion to EV. Conceptually, this is a bit like Chevrolet saying that the Camaro will become an EV with the next redesign. Nobody has done this before.

This is significant because it shows true all-in commitment on Porsche’s part that electric vehicles are the future, not some side gig to appease some environmentalists. It’s appropriate that this is coming the VW Group in that they have made huge investments and commitments in this direction. Given what we know about global warming this transition has to happen and it has to happen as soon as possible. Companies without bold EV strategies are looking increasingly poor with regards to their long term prospects.