Porsche will follow the Taycan with an all-electric Macan 'E-SUV'

The next generation of the Porsche Macan will be electric, as the German automaker enters the booming 'E-SUV' market in the wake of Tesla, Audi and Jaguar.

The compact crossover is currently Porsche’s most popular vehicle, and will follow the groundbreaking electric Taycan which is due for release later this year – although the production on the electric Macan won’t begin until early next decade.

In the meantime, the Taycan will be the one to watch to gauge Porsche’s electric capabilities, with the company planning to invest more than €6 billion in electric mobility by 2022.

By 2025 half of its new vehicles will likely have an electric drive system, according to Porsche chairman Oliver Blume.

“Our aim is to take a pioneering role in technology,” Blume says. “Over the next 10 years we will focus on a drive mix consisting of even further optimized petrol engines, plug-in hybrid models, and purely electrically operated sports cars.”

Porsche is hardly the first luxury carmaker to put an electric sport utility vehicle on the road.

Audi and Jaguar both sell pure-electric SUVs; Audi recently announced a new crossover that will also be electric. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and even Polestar have plans for full-electric SUVs nearing development and/or completion. Tesla, of course, started the push with its all-electric Model X in 2015.

But there’s no glory in being early in the pool and getting it wrong, and the 70-year-old German automaker is known for its tactical approach in launching products.

Porsche has clearly bided its time developing something its customers will cling to. It introduced a hybrid Cayenne SUV in 2010 and a hybrid Panamera in 2013, obvious test beds for electric technologies. A hybrid 911 is expected in the next few years as well.

Hannah Elliott

Hannah Elliott is the resident motoring writer at Bloomberg.