Article: Macan 4S vs. Taycan 4 Cross Turismo compared: Which is the Better Electric Car? [Downtown Magazine]

[Mavshyn]

Porsche Macan 4S vs. Taycan 4 Cross Turismo compared: Which is the Better Electric Car? - DOWNTOWN Magazine

A relax nice read.

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[TurboSpain]

Thanks so much, @Mavshyn, it's certainly an interesting read.

My macan is arriving next month, and this left me a little terrified.

Is it really that dangerous?

There is a post about it, but I can't imagine how intrusive it can be that you might crash. "Luckily" in this case it was the Taycan that crashed.

 

[ColdCase]

Dangerous, I dunno. Confidence inspiring on anything but well marked roads, not so much. NA models can be set to turn off permanently and enabled only when you want it (long drives, well marked open roads). Having to turn EU models off every time you start up is unfortunate.

Mine has a tendency to hug the right side of the lane, I don't trust it in traffic.

Pushing the Macan on winding roads can be unnerving. This is spot on for my POV:

"Porsche Active Suspension Management (PASM) in the Macan is far from bad – but it’s nowhere near as quick or responsive as the Active Ride Suspension. The SUV’s weight and higher centre of gravity are hard to ignore on demanding Alpine roads. Push it hard into a corner, and you’ll feel it – understeer sets in, and the Macan drifts wide, struggling to match the precision of the Taycan."

 

[SteveInKirkland]

Porsche Macan 4S vs. Taycan 4 Cross Turismo compared: Which is the Better Electric Car? - DOWNTOWN Magazine

A relax nice read.

I enjoyed the article because I've been thinking about buying a 2025 Taycan to replace my sports car. I intended to buy an electric Boxster this year but it won't be available. Now I think I'm likely to wait a bit -- love the Taycan charging and driving experience but I don't like the reported problems.

I will note that I constantly see weird problems with my Macan EV after it is charged. For instance, last night, I charged it at an Electrify America station and the navigation system lost my home address. It's just weird that stuff like that happens. The problem caused by the DC fast charger in the article was obviously much worse than my small problems.

 

[Warren]

Having now had both, the Taycan is a sports car (with sports car foibles). That's all you need to know. The drive, road handling is world class.

 

[SteveInKirkland]

Having now had both, the Taycan is a sports car (with sports car foibles). That's all you need to know. The drive, road handling is world class.

I'm stuck with which set of foibles I want to live with. Part of my interest in the Boxster is that I think it will be much higher volume than the Taycan and easier to get serviced ... because I'm not buying a garage queen ... I'm going to drive it within an inch of its useful life.

On the other hand, the Taycan easily fit 2 sets of golf clubs.

 

[DTaxman]

A great read and comes to a conclusion I would expect. The price difference of a new Taycan was just too much for me to stomach, as well as the outdated software. And, while the Turismo silhouette has grown on me, my initial impression was that it looked ridiculous in comparison to the standard Taycan sedan. Seems like it's generally a love it or hate it styling.

 

[cometguy]

Porsche Macan 4S vs. Taycan 4 Cross Turismo compared: Which is the Better Electric Car? - DOWNTOWN Magazine

A relax nice read.

"a faulty charging station that sent a brief voltage spike to the Taycan, triggering an overvoltage protection fuse" ... wow... that's disconcerting.

Also, as for going into the guardrail because of using LKA: I would never, ever use LKA (or Innodrive), period. Just steer the car yourself!

Hearing that the Taycan has many more computer-contol units to fail than the Macan has is news to me. Also, I don't understand this comment: "Since the Macan’s rear is slightly flatter, the Taycan’s cargo area is actually a bit more practical to use."

I agree with much of the rest of the comparisons, as a 2021 Taycan CT4 owner who has special-ordered a Macan 4 and spent a lot of time test-driving several Macan 4s and spending a lot of parked time going over every inch of the Macan 4 and its computer menus. I'll add my considerable comparison knowledge to this article:

Where the Taycan CT4 is better than the Macan 4:
(1) exterior appearance
(2) driving dynamics
(3) better acceleration (note: I have not driven a Macan 4S, nor am I interested in doing so)
(4) more robust underbody battery cover (steel/aluminum, vs. fiberglass in the Macan 4)
(5) non-opening glass that is more prone to leak (and have motors break)
(6) can get 19-inch wheels (which I prefer for better sidewalls and for better range)
(7) better spoiler situation (Turismo) -- no moving spoiler, and the rear looks much better; the Macan BEV looks much worse than the Macan ICEV, as the latter has a cool-looking non-moving over-the-rear-window spoiler, whereas the Macan BEV lacks any spoiler over the rear window and instead has a moving rear spoiler below the rear window that can and will break (and just looks corny and embarrassing on an SUV)
(8) has second diamond button (Macan 4 has only one, but it's not so bad because the steering wheel on the Macan 4 has a button for changing track/station in place of the now-needless regen button that the Taycan needs)

Where the Macan 4 is better than the CT4:
(1) better ground clearance
(2) can get heated windshield (far superior to blown air, and saves range on a BEV)
(3) has regular, normal door handles (vs. the electronic ones in the Taycan)
(4) has much better storage layout, including center storage bin, front center cupholders, and place for phone and phone cables
(5) 2025 Macan 4 is better than 2025 Taycan because you can get manual charge-port covers in the Macan but not in the Taycan (at least in the USA). But my 2021 CT4 has manual covers (vastly preferred because of the propensity for them to not work properly).
(6) easier to get and out of, as the article says
(7) better visibility, as the article says
(8) faster route planning, as the article says
(9) can cut down on light from the glass roof with an electronic closing cloth under-covering (translucent)
(10) no side air vents like in the Taycan to shower dirt/rocks along the sides of the car
(11) "regen" ("1.5-pedal") driving stays on once you set it (in the Taycan, you have to press a button on the steering wheel every time you start the car)
(12) frunk opens all the way with a single swipe or touch of the key fob (in the Taycan, it's a 2-step process, ending with manually moving the finicky latch under the hood)
(13) much cheaper to buy in new form with the same features; consequently, also much cheaper to insure and own (via excise taxes, for those like me who has to pay annual taxes based on car value)

Another big difference is that the Macan 4 has the charge ports in the rear sides, vs. the CT4 having them in the front sides. Also, you can spec the night-vision infrared camera in the Taycan but not in the Macan -- which is something that I like for seeing pedestrians/cyclists and animals at night, especially with headlight glare; but the camera is placed way too low on the Taycan and its lens is very narrow-angle (needs to be mounted behind the rear-view mirror instead of low on the front of the car, and it needs to have a top-notch wide-angle lens). I'm surprised that the Macan doesn't even offer the infrared camera as an option, because I'd order it (much more important to me than air suspension, having glass in the roof, having auto-dimming mirrors, etc.).

Things that are huge negatives for me, personally, with both the Taycan CT4 and the Macan 4: (1) inability (in the USA) to get an all-metal roof; (2) frameless doors with windows that have to move electronically every time the door is open or closed (fingerprints constantly on the door window sides because it's natural to grab the door side frame to open/close the door, and electronically moving windows to open/close the door has been known to be a breakable function); (3) no dedicated space in the frunk for a spare wheel/tire; (4) no dual sun visors for both front passengers, like are present in the Cayenne (these should be standard on all cars). And the single sun visors in both the Taycan CT4 and Macan 4 do not go back far enough -- only about half-way across the large driver-side window, leaving huge areas of the glass exposed to sunlight coming in from the side (they should at least slide back, like on other cars, but do not; just badly designed sun visors all around -- cheap on Porsche's part and inexcusable, considering that lots of accidents happen because of solar glare).

For me, another huge negative with both is standard air suspension (in USA), vs. steel suspension. Air suspension in Porsches is notorious for breaking (and I've had it happen to me); it's not a question of "if", but "when", and it's very expensive to replace outside of warranty (and even under warranty, it's a pain to get fixed). In the Taycan, its ground clearance is so low that I really want the ability to get more ground clearance via the air suspension, unfortunately, but there's no need for air suspension in the Macan, to be honest.

 

[TeslaHater]

This was a very good read - and spot on observations!

In all honesty, I wouldn't want to spend north of $1k/month on a car that can leave me stranded on the side of the road or one which could sit at the dealer for months - and that rules out the previous gen and current gen Taycan's for me. No matter how great a car is to drive, it has to be reliable - that's just the P0 for any car and I feel like Taycan is failing that test right now.

 

[cometguy]

This was a very good read - and spot on observations!

In all honesty, I wouldn't want to spend north of $1k/month on a car that can leave me stranded on the side of the road or one which could sit at the dealer for months - and that rules out the previous gen and current gen Taycan's for me. No matter how great a car is to drive, it has to be reliable - that's just the P0 for any car and I feel like Taycan is failing that test right now.

I totally understand that, and it was an issue when I bought my CPO Taycan with 43k miles on it. But I got all the maintenance records (one-owner, single dealership servicing) and read them carefully; they showed that there was no big issue in my specific 2021 CT4 -- just the recalls that were all dealt with (and the usual replacement of tires, etc.). I test-drove the car and had it put up on a rack in the service department to look closely at the plate protecting the battery pack -- no dents or punctures. Strangely, the 43k miles of uneventful driving for the first owner gave me more solace than did some of the low-mileage Taycans on the market. The dealership even threw in an extra year of CPO warranty. So I bought it after thinking for a couple of months (during which time it didn't sell and went down in price), and I have had no problems in a half a year. About to do my first big trip in it, 1600 miles roundtrip. I'm curious to see how things go

As for the Macan EV, I see (from polling) on FB forums that about 75-80% of owners report no problems, but those that do give me pause -- mostly software issues, but also some hardware issues like door latches/locks. I'm wondering if I should wait 2-3 years before buying my planned Macan 4, and hope that the kinks get sorted out there, also (the first-year Taycan had lots of problems; my Taycan was built two years after the first production cars started coming off the assembly line). Here in the USA, there's the issue of the 25% tariff (and whether that'll be long-term or not), and Porsche prices will only continue to go up annually ... so there's that. And just as I was buying my Taycan, the word went out that Porsche was issuing recalls on all 2020-2024 Taycan battery packs due to a potential short-circuit that could cause a runaway fire; that did not make me a happy camper, especially with the temporary Porsche software "fix" of holding maximum charging to 80% SoC (which I haven't had done yet). That also has made me think that trading it in now for a Macan 4 might be wise, since the Macan EV has different batteries and layout (presumably "solving" whatever problem occurred in the production of the Taycan battery packs); but there have not been reports of lots of Taycans catching on fire, so it's hard to get overly concerned about that.

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