Porsche Macan vs Volkswagen Tiguan

What's the difference?

There is no doubting the substance of the Porsche Macan Electric. Its ride, steering and poise make it a joy to drive on twisting roads, and it ticks the practicality boxes, too.

The only lingering question is whether enough people are ready to make the all-electric switch. Only then will we know if Porsche's Macan gamble has paid off.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The new Tiguan is as confident as ever in its identity, even in such a crowded mid-size SUV space where there are so many models worthy of your attention.

No matter which version you choose, this is still the mid-size SUV for a driving enthusiast who doesn’t quite have premium dollars to spend.

While it may not quite expand its appeal as much as the brand hopes precluding a hybrid variant, those who are choosing this as their family hauler for the right reasons won’t be disappointed.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Macan Electric looks sharp, all aerodynamic and swept-back like a range-maximising electric SUV should.

There’s functional method behind all this swoopy styling, too. The headlights look as though they’ve been chiselled into the body work, and at the grille, you’ll find active venting to help with cooling when needed.

There is also a sizeable front splitter that looks very much like the Macan is sticking its jaw out. All of which is to assist with aero and range.

It’s also a dual charging port layout with access left and right, though the latter is AC charging only, while the one on the left does both.

Step inside the Macan and you’ll find a familiar and very welcoming space. I especially like the twin-screen set-up that looks great in the way it's kind of embedded into the dash. Each is big, clear and easy to use.

I also really like the control panel that gives you quick-button access to the climate control, and the haptic feedback is next level, with the whole screen clicking in or out whenever you hit a button.

That said, in Turbo-guise you’re dropping almost $200,000, and some of the materials feel too hard and plasticky at that price point.

The new Tiguan is a bit of a mind-bender. Its new design seems to make it feel smaller than the outgoing vehicle, despite it being both slightly wider and longer.

This, I have decided, is because the design creates a visual effect, where the upper curvier parts seem to shrink it down, and the additional length makes it seem narrower than the more boxy visage of the previous model. Also, it’s 20mm shorter than the previous design, which we’re told combines with the new bodywork to make for a 15 per cent drag reduction.

Either way, it’s nice not to see a mid-size SUV not continually engage in an arms race to get bigger and bigger. Volkswagen will also introduce the dedicated seven-seat Tayron later in 2025. It’s a half-size up and replaces the outgoing Tiguan Allspace, and this time it features a much more distinct design from its Tiguan sibling.

The third-generation Tiguan not only embraces a more curvy design aesthetic than its predecessor, but it also features many more contemporary design elements. The headlights and curvy accents over the wheelarches feel like they more closely associate this SUV with the new ID.4 and ID.5 EVs, while the light bar across the front on some grades combines with the new light bar across the rear to give it a trendy silhouette. It tops things off with the ‘Tiguan’ letterwork on the tailgate, and, as usual, a sporty spoiler fitting giving the rear hatch a bit of depth.

As usual, VW’s array of gloss-black, chrome or plastic garnishes on the outside, depending on grade, offer a subtle and tasteful finish to the exterior appearance.

The inside is revolution rather than evolution, now heavily screen-centri, and featuring an array of lighting features like many of its rivals.

The screens look the part and have fast and mostly straightforward-to-navigate software, while the seat designs are a real highlight, being both aesthetically pleasing and nice to the touch in all grades.

The ambient lighting features add a sense of presence to the cabin, and unlike the outgoing car, the new one feels a bit more driver-centric thanks to the design of the dash and screens effectively pointing their way down the road from the driver’s point of view.

It does away with the sparse feeling of the previous car, elevating things a notch with an increase of nice materials throughout.

While some may find the abundance of gloss-black finishes a bit harder to maintain, it’s hard not to feel like this new Tiguan is a major generational jump from the previous one. Mission accomplished, VW.

There is a little open-sesame magic at play with the Macan, and that starts at the frunk, where, if you lovingly caress the bonnet, it will automatically pop open for you, revealing an 84-litre storage space.

Rubbing the charging port will see it slide open, too, but just in case you’re not the kind of person who likes to fondle their car in public, you can use the key.

The Macan’s boot is a little more traditional, opening to reveal 540 litres (but just 480 litres in the 4S or Turbo) of storage with the rear seats in place, with a wide, flat and very useable area for your goodies.

The back seat of the Macan feels spacious enough, without being outstanding. There’s more than enough space for my 175cm frame, with enough knee and head room, but the way the middle console juts out will definitely eat into leg room for any middle-row passenger.

Elsewhere you get air-con controls with vents, along with bottle storage in each of the doors. There is also a pull-down divider that’s home to two extra cupholders.

Like the previous model, VW hasn’t forgotten its pragmatic touches for the interior, despite its increase in complexity and appointments.

Finding a driving position was easy for me at 182cm tall, with both a healthy adjustment range for the seats and steering wheel. The digital instrument cluster remains one of the best on the market in terms of usability and customisation, while the multi-function steering wheel commits to buttons rather than the widely-disliked haptic feedback panels, which have appeared on various other VW models.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t entirely extend to switchgear for key functions, with the climate control exclusively controlled via touch sliders, a touchscreen menu or the Tiguan’s new voice control suite, none of which are as intuitive as just having a physical dial for temperature and fan speed and buttons for recirculate, auto and on-off.

However, the Tiguan does have a central dial on the console, which can cycle through volume control, drive modes or ambient lighting modes when pressed. A welcome addition.

Moving the shift stalk to the steering column, like the ID.4 and ID.5, has also allowed additional space for the centre console area, which is now quite versatile. It includes a variable-height armrest console box with either dividers or a dual-bottle-holder fitting, which can be interchanged between the two areas, while the dual-charging bays up front have a rubberised cover, which can be pulled down as to not waste the storage space. This has the additional feature of making the cooling system for the wireless charging phones more effective.

There are two large bottle holders and pockets in each door, which have a carpeted finish to reduce vibration, and there’s also a passenger glovebox.

The rear seat offers a healthy amount of space behind my own driving position. I had leagues of knee room and a healthy amount of airspace above me, however the presence of a tall raise for the transmission tunnel eats into the amount of room a centre passenger would have for their feet.

The comfortable seats continue and are on rails if you need to increase the amount of room in the boot, or simply want a more aggressive recline. When it comes to storage, there are bottle holders in each door, a drop-down armrest with dual bottle holders, dual USB-C outlets on the back of the console, as well as dual air vents with a touch control panel for the independent third climate zone. The only thing it seems to be missing is built-in window shades, which are offered on some Skodas and the now-discontinued Passat (RIP).

The boot helpfully features a powered tailgate on all grades, and measures in at 652 litres with the second row up, or 1650L with the seats down. Numbers can be deceptive, but it does seem large for the class, and there’s a space-saver spare wheel under the floor.

Volkswagen is attempting to broaden the appeal of the Tiguan this time around. As such, it hasn’t jacked prices up massively like some recent new-generation versions of rivals, despite a comprehensive cabin tech overhaul and big lift in standard equipment.

As a result, the range is vast, with six variants covering a wide price spectrum and, as the brand says (or hopes), a wide range of potential buyers.

Kicking it off is the base model 110TSI Life, which, at $44,990 plus-road costs, is only $1000 more than the outgoing version. It sports a carryover 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, although it has a new version of VW’s seven-speed wet dual-clutch automatic sending power to the front wheels, replacing the derided dry dual-clutch that marred the base version of the old car.

Standard equipment on the base car is high, including 19-inch alloys, a full array of LED lights both for the headlight clusters and rears, it also includes a 12.9-inch multimedia touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster with the brand’s signature digital cockpit software, tri-zone climate control, ‘comfort’ cloth seats (said to be benchmarked against the best in-class) with manual adjustments, a leather-trimmed multifunction steering wheel, dual wireless phone chargers, ambient dashboard lighting and even an electric tailgate.

The mid-spec Elegance grade can be chosen with either the 110TSI engine in front-wheel drive, or the new 150TSI 2.0-litre engine in all-wheel drive, priced at $50,690 and $60,690 respectively. It increases the equipment to include chrome styling on the exterior with alternate 19-inch wheel designs, rear privacy glass, improved LED headlights with a lit-up centre strip and dynamic cornering functions, leather interior trim, power adjustments with heating, ventilation, and message functions for the front two seats, and a heated steering wheel.

Alternatively, there is the 150TSI R-Line which starts at $55,690, representing a $4600 price reduction compared to the outgoing 162TSI R-Line. It is also all-wheel drive only and features an R-Line styling pack inside and outside, with sporty but manually adjusted cloth bucket seats featuring integrated headrests up front (which miss out on the heating and ventilation of the Elegance grade), black headlining, an R-line steering wheel with additional contouring, 19-inch alloys in a sportier design, a wider wheel and tyre package for enhanced grip, and the VW’s signature progressive steering tune.

Both 150TSI cars also add adaptive chassis control and hill descent control as standard, with an additional off-road and snow driving mode, while the Elegance specifically scores a larger 15-inch multimedia screen.

Finally, topping out the range is the new 195TSI R-Line priced at a massive $70,490. Not only does this grade score its own 195TSI engine sourced from the Golf GTI, but it also adds everything available in the range, swapping out the 150TSI R-Line’s cloth seats for the leather-trimmed, heated, cooled and massaging ones otherwise only available on the Elegance, along with the larger 15-inch screen, sporty steering wheel and R-Line appearance package inside and out, along with its own set of 20-inch alloy wheels.

Option packs include a black styling pack for the R-Line at $1500, a panoramic sunroof available on the Elegance and R-Line grades at $2100, and the Sound and Vision package, which adds premium audio and the larger 15-inch multimedia screen to the 110TSI variants for $2700.

This makes the Tiguan range span from surprisingly good value at the low end, to a real enthusiast-only proposition at the pinnacle, with VW even pitching the 195TSI R-Line at the lower-end BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC buyers.

In reality many of its mainstream rivals should include options like the dominant Toyota RAV4 ($42,260 - $58,360), Subaru Forester ($38,690 - $50,140), Nissan X-Trail ($38,025 - $59,265), Hyundai Tucson ($39,100 - $61,100) and Kia Sportage ($32,995 - $55,420).

The surprise, some will note, is all of the Tiguan’s rivals have at least one hybrid variant, where VW has chosen to stick with combustion only for the time being for its new-generation mid-sizer.

The entry-level Macan is equipped with a single rear-mounted electric motor, and it will make a total 250kW (265kW with launch control activated) and 563Nm, which is enough to push the cheapest Macan to 100km/h in 5.7 seconds.

The 4 then adds a second electric motor for AWD, upping the grunt to 285kW (300kW with the launch function) and 650Nm, and drops the sprint to a brisk 5.2 seconds.

The 4S is probably the performance sweet spot, with its dual-motor set-up generating 330kW (380kW in launch) and 820Nm, and a blistering sprint of just 4.1 seconds.

But the Macan Turbo is a true monster. We’re talking 430kW (470kW with launch control), 1130Nm and a sprint to 100km/h that’s as fast as a Carrera Cup race car – just 3.3 seconds.

It’s twin-motor, all-wheel drive and offers the kind of brutal acceleration that gives you a little facelift every time you step on the accelerator.

There are three engine options in the Tiguan range, and it is notable none are even mild hybrids (MHEVs) in 2025.

The base engine present in 110TSI variants is even a carryover 1.4-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine, providing 110kW/250Nm to the front wheels. The big news for these base cars is the dry-clutch DCT has been swapped out for the better-performing wet-clutch version, which also has various improvements made to it for this iteration. Notably, VW has stripped-out the stop-start system with this engine and transmission combination. 

The brand says it opted not to use the more recent 1.5-litre MHEV version of this engine as it simply didn’t need it to meet Australia’s new emissions standards and it would have added a prohibitive amount to the cost of entry-level variants to justify its inclusion in the range.

Next up is the new 150TSI engine. It is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder unit, which replaces both the 132TSI and 162TSI engines from the previous-generation model. It provides 150kW/320Nm and drives all four wheels via the same seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. This engine also reintroduces stop-start.

At the top of the range, solely available on the R-Line, is the 195TSI engine. VW says this offers buyers of the previous Tiguan R somewhere to go, but also an option for those who wanted more than the previous 162TSI R-Line offered. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged 195TSI engine is sourced from the Golf GTI and produces 195kW/400Nm, driving all four wheels via the same seven-speed dual-clutch. It reduces the 0-100km/h sprint time from 7.1 seconds to 5.9 seconds.

It is a shame in the current environment VW hasn’t chosen to make a splash with the 1.5-litre plug-in hybrid (PHEV) variant, which is available overseas. This Tiguan features a 25kWh battery paired to the 110kW engine to make for an estimated 100km electric-only driving range. It even features both 11kW AC charging and 50kW DC charging for convenient top-ups.

If you want it, tell your dealer. VW tells us they’re working on a business case for the PHEV in the background, but if you want electric driving for now, it’s pointing current customers to the ID.4 (from $59,990 before on-roads).

Every Macan is fitted with a big 100kWh lithium-ion battery, which helps deliver a solid driving range no matter which one you choose.

The entry-level Macan will cover the most distance, at a claimed 654km, while the 4, 4S and Turbo will travel 624km, 619km and 616km, respectively.

The Macan rides on an 800V architecture, and is set up for 270kW DC high-speed charging, which will take 21min to go from 10 to 80 per cent. It will also accept 11kW AC charging, which should take 10 hours to go from empty to full.

Worth noting, though, that most home wall boxes are around 7.0kW, which means a full charge would take more like 13 hours plus.

Efficiency is remarkably even across the Tiguan range, with the new engines and updated transmission helping to make things reasonably straightforward.

The base 110TSI versions have an official/combined fuel consumption of 7.6L/100km, as do the 150TSI versions thar benefit from the stop/start system but have the added heft of all-wheel drive.

The top-of-the-range 195TSI R-Line, meanwhile, is said to consume 8.5L/100km. All versions require 95RON mid-shelf unleaded. And for those who care, the 110TSI and 150TSI produce 173g/km of CO2, while the 195TSI produces 194g/km.

Interestingly, the 110TSI variants have a 55-litre fuel tank, while the 150TSI and 195TSI have a 58-litre fuel tank.

Porsche seemed at pains to prove that, though the all-electric Macan has lost its ICE heart, it's still worthy of the badge, and still very much a Porsche.

First stop, then, was the Norwell race circuit in Queensland, to put the Macan through its paces with 0-100km/h sprints, drifting (well drift attempts... ) on a watered-down skid pan and finally some high-speed running on the circuit.

And two things immediately became very clear. The first, and most obvious, was that, like the first men on the moon, we were likely among only a handful of people that might ever take their all-electric Porsche mid-size SUV to a race track. And second, this is one seriously sorted electric car.

Happily, for the many (read: every) owners who won't be pulling out of a pit garage at their next local track day, the Macan is actually more enjoyable on the road than it is on the track.

On the latter, there's a freedom to push too hard – what with the lack of trees, guard rails or oncoming traffic – and cracks do appear, mostly from the screaming tyres struggling with the two-tonne-plus weight.

But on public roads, where a thick fog of consequence prevents you pushing too hard, the Macan is a gem.

Porsche tends to have a knack for these things, I know, but the Macan is a seriously smooth and satisfying drive.

The ride is bang-on (comfortable enough on rougher surfaces, firm and grippy enough on twisting roads) and the steering is direct and confidence-inspiring.

Body-roll has been largely banished, too, with the Macan staying flat, stable and satisfying, even on the tighter stuff.

In much the same way the ICE Macan defined what it meant to be a driver's SUV, I think this one does the same in the EV space. And the fact that it does it with five seats and a decent boot is a sizeable bonus.

But there's no denying it lacks in the emotion department. That sense of excitement, the sound track, the hard-to-define fizz – as competent its this, and as weaponised as the EV powertrain is – it does feel a little clinical, like a tool doing its job and doing it well.

One important caveat. We've driven the 4 and Turbo to date. The entry-level Macan and the mid-tier 4S are still incoming. And I suspect I wouldn't be dropping my deposit on the Turbo.

Yes, the power is ridiculous, but I don't reckon you need it. For me, the 4 is more than enough, but I suspect the real performance sweet spot will be with the 4S.

The Tiguan range has some significant upgrades from behind the wheel this time around, but there are a handful of areas where I was surprised to find it didn’t quite live up to expectations.

Firstly, the seating position and driver-centric cabin design make the Tiguan feel like more of a driver’s car than ever before. The bucket-style seats and the high beltline combine to make the seating position feel like more of a hatchback than an SUV. Yet visibility out of the cabin is healthy thanks to large windows and mirrors.

As you set off, the Tiguan feels smoother through its drivetrain than its predecessor, thanks to the new dual-clutch automatic being sandpapered when it comes to its initial engagement and shift-mapping. Even the base 110TSI, which can sometimes struggle for initial torque thanks to a dollop of turbo-lag, has a decent roll-on, and with no stop-start system this time, it’s much more friendly when hopping on the accelerator from a standstill.

The steering tune is great in all grades, helping to make this new Tiguan feel light and reactive, despite its slightly expanded dimensions. This lightness is a trait which shines through on this new version, making it feel much less pedestrian than almost all of its rivals.

On the base variant, this can be to its detriment at times, with the 110TSI engine occasionally overcoming the grip of the front tyres when a lot is asked of it, however all-wheel-drive versions are much more confident in their footing, not only delivering power in a more linear fashion, but also putting it to the ground more smoothly.

R-Line variants, with wider and more expensive tyres, are reactive, grippy, and simply outstanding to drive in this mid-size segment, with the 195TSI bringing a strong additional lump of torque and a throatier engine note.

Indeed, this version of the Tiguan leans into the nameplate’s best traits and solidifies its position as the driver’s option in the segment. The 150TSI R-Line in particular stood out as raucous amounts of fun for a mid-sizer for a fair price, as it could be driven significantly harder than the more powerful 195TSI.

However, this new Tiguan was also not without some disappointments. The amount of road noise in all grades was notable, and while VWs are usually known for their balanced ride quality, all Tiguan variants also featured a certain seemingly inherent firm response to sharper blemishes in the road, perhaps a cost for the otherwise superb body control.

These blemishes in driving ambiance were relatively minor in scale, but surprising to find nonetheless.

Every new Tiguan gets the full array of modern active safety kit, including freeway-speed auto emergency braking with vulnerable road-user protections and intersection features, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, both rear and front cross traffic alert, a 360-degree parking camera suite, driver attention alert, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control and exit warning.

It also features an emergency assist feature, and there’s a suite of nine airbags, including a centre airbag. VW is anticipating a maximum five-star ANCAP rating, although at the time we put this review together, the SUV’s score was yet to be released.

The Porsche ownership experience is frankly underwhelming by modern standards, with the brand offering just a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, plus an eight-year/160,000km battery warranty.

The positive, though, is that servicing should only be required every two years or 30,000km. You also buy a prepaid service plan for three, four or five years, priced at $1495, $2795, $2995.

Volkswagen offers the Tiguan with its usual five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty. While this is still the prevailing standard, the warranty wars are back with more manufacturers pushing into the seven-to-10-year category.

The Tiguan requires servicing once every 12 months or 15,000km, although pricing for the service packages was yet to be revealed at the time we put this review together.