Porsche: Introducing the 2013 Porsche Macan

Remember when Porsche released the Cayenne? Remember all the people in their Porsche Owner’s Club shirts sitting around and telling you about how this new SUV was a disgrace to the marque and that all the company should design and produce are 911 variants?

While they might have had a point, the Cayenne has sold like bottled water and – like water in plastic – it’s completely pointless. People don’t need this much power from something that will be used to haul around families. Yet, it became the auto maker’s best-selling model, despite its looks.
Porsche owners don’t NEED Porsches – they WANT Porsches.

Now, to consign the Owner’s Club collegiate into life-long therapy, Porsche has created a smaller SUV, the Macan (formerly Cajun). It’s intended for people who found the Cayenne to be a bit too large and fancied something a bit more crossover-like.

Porsche originally confirmed the small SUV in an official statement detailing their hopes for the vehicle: “Under the working name ‘Cajun’, this efficient and sporty model will further expand the world’s most successful Porsche segment in the SUV sector. In addition to the new Cayenne, which has clearly consolidated its market position as the most successful sporty SUV in the premium segment, the ‘Cajun’ will also have a very positive impact with its typical Porsche features such as light weight, ease of handling and agility. As an attractive entry model in the Porsche world, the ‘Cajun’ will attract new and even younger customers to the premium brand along with the Boxster, the market leader in the segment of two-seater, mid-size sports cars.”

This week, Porsche confirmed that its new SUV will in fact be called the Macan,
a name derived from the Indonesian word for tiger. The name “combines suppleness, power, fascination and dynamics”. The new Macan will be the fifth model in Porsche’s line-up and will be produced in Leipzig starting 2013.

Porsche will fit the Macan Turbo with a new 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine that produces 370 horsepower and 400 lb/ft of torque. Likewise, the Macan will also be mated to a standard seven-speed manual transmission or an optional seven-speed, dual-clutch PDK automatic transmission.

In addition to the top-of-the-line Macan Turbo, Porsche will also offer less powerful engines for other variants of the Macan. Look for a four-cylinder engine to be offered, one that produces around 220 horsepower. Similarly, Porsche will likely offer a Macan S variant that comes with a 3.6-liter V6 engine that develops 295 horsepower.

A diesel engine is also in the pipeline in the form of a 2.0-liter turbo diesel with 190 horsepower and last but certainly not least, a hybrid model that could carry a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder engine with an electric motor, producing an output of 241 horsepower.
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TEASER VIDEO: The New Porsche SUV “Macan” Coming 2013 (dedeporsche.wordpress.com)
Macan: A smaller, sexier sports ‘ute’ in the works from Porsche (digitaltrends.com)
Macan: The New Porsche SUV (buzfairy.com)
Porsche Expands its Leipzig Plant to Prepare for Macan Production (abauerporsche.wordpress.com)
Porsche’s New Baby Crossover Uncovered; Targets Younger Buyers (nolnblog.net)
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