The CEO of Porsche Cars Australia is keen to get its hands on the successor to the discontinued petrol-powered Macan, which will sit alongside the new all-electric SUV when it goes on sale in a few years.
Speaking to the media at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, Daniel Schmollinger, managing director and CEO of the Porsche branch, said he saw a “very good opportunity” in a mid-size SUV with a combustion engine and possibly even a plug-in hybrid.
“We’ve done very, very well with the Macan petrol engine. It’s been a great success story over the last more than 10 years.”
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“Is it an opportunity for Australia? It certainly is – if we look at the segments, if we look at VFACTS, what’s selling, it would definitely be a very good opportunity.”
His comments come after Porsche’s global boss Oliver Blume told investors in 2025 that Porsche is “developing a compact SUV with combustion engine and hybrid versions” to complement the Macan EV.
Mr Blume also said the company is “accelerating the process there with very short development times” and expects the new mid-size SUV to be introduced in key markets “no later than 2028”.
Additionally, Porsche’s global CEO said the new vehicle is “very, very typically Porsche for this segment and also different from the BEV Macan,” suggesting that the new SUV will have a different name.
However, Porsche’s decision to sell the all-new fourth-generation Cayenne Electric alongside the petrol and plug-in hybrid third-generation Cayenne and Cayenne Coupe means that the new model sold alongside the Macan Electric may be called the Macan after all.
The original Macan shared the same underpinnings as previous generations of the Audi Q5, so it’s almost certain that Porsche will use the latest generation of Audi’s midsize SUV as the basis for its successor.
While the old Macan was based on Volkswagen Group’s MLB Evo platform, it’s likely that the petrol and hybrid-powered Macan successor will use the newer Premium Platform Combustion (PPC) toolkit that underpins the latest Audi A5 and Q5 – which itself is an evolution of the MLB architecture.
This would make the new Macan and Macan Electric similar to the Audi Q5 and Q6 e-tron, as they simultaneously use VW Group’s PPC and Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architectures.
It also means the petrol-powered replacement for Porsche’s popular smaller SUV could feature a fully electric-assisted engine range – including 48V mild hybrid (MHEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrains.
The Audi Q5 currently offers a range of four- and six-cylinder turbocharged petrol and diesel engines, as well as four-cylinder turbo-petrol plug-in hybrids.
Since the predecessor Macan’s engine range had similar cylinder numbers, it would make sense for Porsche to use versions of Audi’s petrol engines, as the Stuttgart brand has an aversion to turbodiesels following the VW Group’s “Dieselgate” emissions scandal.
This means we could see the new Macan with a 200kW 2.0-litre EA888 turbo-petrol engine, as well as a version of the SQ5’s 270kW 3.0-litre V6 turbo-petrol engine – both of which could also feature 48V MHEV support, like the Audi, which would enable EV driving at very low speeds.
Additionally, the more powerful 270kW 2.0-litre E-Hybrid PHEV powertrain could be a logical candidate for the ‘Macan E-Hybrid’ as it offers similar performance to the V6 TFSI, while the RS5’s new 470kW 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 PHEV powertrain could be a potential starter for a high-performance ‘Macan Turbo E-Hybrid’ – but we’re just speculating.
Since we may not see this mysterious new Porsche SUV for almost two years, we’ll just have to wait and see what comes of it.
In 2025, Porsche sales in Australia fell 27 percent to 5133 units (versus 7029 in 2024).
This was due in part to a 34 percent decline in Macan sales as the lineup transitioned to pure electric vehicles, as well as sales declines across nearly all of the company’s brand names, except for the low-volume Panamera sedan.
Mr Schmollinger told the media that the decline in sales volume was “no surprise” as the overall market had slowed after successive record years and the penetration of fully electric vehicles had also declined – which is significant for Porsche given its Taycan, Macan Electric and soon Cayenne Electric.
In addition to the new 911 Turbo S and Cayenne Electric unveiled at the Melbourne GP event, the local Porsche boss said “more (new models) will follow”.
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