Porsche Macan 2026 review: 4S long-term | Part 3

How am I already saying goodbye to the new Porsche Macan 4S?

After three months of ‘ownership’, I am seriously going to miss this fully electric, second-generation mid-size SUV.

This long-term review of the Macan 4S will explain why. It is broken up into three parts, with the first covering its pricing, features, safety and ownership credentials, while the second deep-dived its design and practicality. You can check those two out directly below – if you haven’t already.

Read More About Porsche Macan

• Porsche Macan 2026 review: 4S long-term | Part 1
• Porsche Macan 2026 review: 4S long-term | Part 2
• Huge Australian electric car myth busted: What we learnt driving from Melbourne to Sydney in a 2026 Porsche Macan electric SUV | Opinion

But for this third and final instalment, I’m going to finally share my driving impressions and overall verdict.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

The perfect driver’s electric SUV?

I had very high hopes for how well the Macan Electric would drive.

Why? Firstly, it’s a Porsche, so it has no choice but to be a phenomenal driver’s car, such is the legacy of the German sports car specialist.

Porsche also has form with driver’s EVs with the Taycan large sedan and wagon. It was the first car I drove that was a phenomenal sports car that just happened to be all-electric.

Point being, the Macan Electric is in very good company, so it has a lot to live up to.

Thankfully, it has done exactly that. The 4S, in particular, strikes the best balance between everyday liveability and staggering performance – at least for me.

Yes, its dual-motor, all-wheel-drive set-up produces 352kW of power and a heady 820Nm of instantaneous torque. And that’s before you engage launch control, at which point overboost kicks in to temporarily raise the former to an even handier 380kW.

This all means the ‘mid-range’ Macan 4S can sprint from 0-100km/h in just 4.1 seconds. In reality it feels like a sub-four-second proposition – Porsche is known to underquote its acceleration claims.

Either way, it’s that level of fully electric acceleration that will send you into the second row – or the boot, depending on where you’re sitting, and that’s even without the Sport drive mode active.

That also extends to rolling acceleration, making overtaking as confidence-inducing as highway merging.

Curiously, all of this straight-line performance isn’t accompanied by an electric soundtrack, as Porsche provides in the Taycan. The purist in me appreciates the Macan’s unashamed ‘silence’, but the fake noises can be a bit of fun when done well.

But there’s more to performance than just what you can do in a straight line, because let’s face it: nearly all AWD EVs can accelerate quickly.

The good news is the Macan 4S can also attack a corner with the level of vigour you’d expect from a two-door sports car.

Yes, physics cannot be fully denied as the Macan 4S does have a higher centre of gravity owing to its SUV nature. But its body control is very strong, so much so that you’ll find yourself happily tipping it into any corner at speed without concern.

Handling performance can be taken to the next level with the adaptive dampers in the Macan 4S’ steel suspension, which have Normal, Sport and Sport Plus modes.

But the reality is Normal is so accomplished to begin with that you’ll find yourself sticking with the default setting in 99.9 per cent of situations.

Sport and Sport Plus also progressively diminish the Macan 4S’ well-balanced ride comfort. Some will say Normal is itself on the firmer side, but it is damn-near perfect in my humble opinion, with road imperfections dealt with confidently.

The standard 20-inch wheel and tyre package also helps here, with its high-profile rubber providing better ride comfort over its larger alternatives.

It also helps that the Macan 4S benefits from Porsche’s market-leading steering, which is just about as good as electrically assisted systems get.

The steering is well-weighted and direct, offering the driver a genuine connection with the road, one which will lead them to looking for excuses to go for a drive.

As a result, parking is a breeze, with the Macan 4S able to be slotted into a space with ease. And if you need reassurance, its surround-view cameras have a high resolution, which is rarer than it should be.

Visibility, in general, is pretty good all around, with even the steeply raked rear window providing an acceptable level of vision. The B-pillars are on the thick side, but not devastatingly so.

When it comes to the real-world performance of the Macan 4S’ other advanced driver-assist safety systems, they fare very well. Mercifully, you don’t get any consistent beeps and bongs to annoy you to no end, like so many new cars these days.

And when the lane-keep assist does spring into action, it does its steering wheel nudges progressively, while haptic feedback replaces any incessant audible alerts.

The speed limit warning can also be turned off. Better yet, it will stay off until you decide to turn it back on again. That’s right; it will not default to active when the ignition is switched.

Being an EV, the Macan 4S' NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) levels are another strong suit due to its lack of an internal-combustion engine. That said, wind noise can be heard at highway speeds, although it can be easily drowned out by the Bose sound system.

So, what don’t I like about the Macan 4S’ drive experience? Well, there is one thing: its lack of convenient one-pedal driving, which most EVs offer as part of their regenerative braking systems.

It helps to decrease energy consumption while improving driveability by allowing the driver to modulate the accelerator to come to a full stop – no second pedal required.

I love one-pedal driving, but Porsche forges its own path by only offering regenerative braking with an optional level of deceleration that’s the equivalent of engine braking in an internal-combustion car. Point being, it won’t even come close to getting the Macan 4S to a standstill without engaging the brake pedal.

Predictably, its actual friction brakes offer a strong level of performance considering the weight at play, with the seamless blending between them and the regenerative braking some of the best I’ve sampled.

Another relatively efficient month

In my third and final month behind the wheel of the Macan 4S, I averaged 18.6kWh/100km over 841km of driving, which mostly took place in city traffic. That’s slightly better than the 18.8kWh/100km and 18.7kWh/100km I achieved in months one and two, respectively.

My month-three effort equates to a real-world driving range of 514km, based on the Macan 4S battery’s useable capacity of 96kWh. Again, that is a confidence-inspiring number.

Acquired: October 13, 2025

Distance travelled this month: 841km

Odometer: 6891km

Average energy consumption this month: 18.6kWh/100km