Porsche's petrol Macan returns in 2028, and buyers never left it
Porsche Macan buyers kept choosing petrol, and Stuttgart is finally answering them
Porsche will build a petrol Macan again from 2028. Chief executive Michael Leiters confirms the plan in an interview with the Financial Times, saying the combustion car will sit beside the electric Macan rather than replace it. It reverses the decision that made Porsche's best-selling nameplate electric-only, and Porsche's own delivery figures show why.
Michael Leiters confirms a petrol Porsche Macan for 2028
Michael Leiters, Porsche's chief executive since January 2026, says the petrol Macan returns in 2028 and will be sold alongside the electric model. He calls the EV sceptic label unfair and describes the move as recovering Porsche's petrol strategy, with each segment getting the powertrain its customers want. The interview appeared on 30 September. Leiters also repeated that the 911 will not get an electric version, while an electric 718 stays in development.
The petrol Porsche Macan sold 38,961 cars in 2025 without the EU
The combustion Macan delivered 38,961 cars worldwide in 2025, according to Porsche's annual figures, despite being off sale in the European Union since 2024. Its electronics did not meet the UN R155 cybersecurity rules that became mandatory for every new EU registration in July 2024, and rather than re-engineer an outgoing model, Porsche withdrew it. Outside Europe it kept selling. The electric Macan managed 45,367 deliveries in the same year, so a car absent from European showrooms finished within 6,406 units of the one on sale everywhere.
Porsche Cayenne overtook the Macan as petrol production ended in July
The Macan lost its place as Porsche's best seller in 2026. In the first quarter the combustion version still accounted for 10,130 of 18,209 Macan deliveries, while the electric Macan fell 43 percent to 8,079. By the end of June the Cayenne led with 38,141 deliveries against the Macan's 35,315, and the last petrol Macan left the Leipzig line in July. Until 2028, Porsche builds no petrol SUV smaller than the Cayenne.
Audi Q5's PPC platform underpins the 2028 Porsche Macan
The new petrol Macan is being developed on the Volkswagen Group's Premium Platform Combustion, the architecture under the current Audi Q5. Prototypes have been testing under widened Q5 bodywork since March, and Leiters has promised a real Porsche rather than a rebadged Audi. Sharing is the point: he says Porsche must avoid a double investment in petrol and electric technology in the same segment. The electric Macan keeps its own PPE platform, while the petrol car borrows a finished Group architecture instead of a bespoke one.
Porsche's Xpeng emissions pool expires a year before the Macan returns
The petrol Macan arrives in 2028, one year after Porsche's emissions pool with Xpeng expires. Porsche left the Volkswagen Group pool and joined Xpeng for 2026 and 2027, offsetting its sports cars against the Chinese brand's electric fleet. For 2028 it needs a new arrangement, and the EU fleet target tightens sharply again in 2030. A petrol Macan selling in volume across Europe makes that sum harder, which is exactly why the electric Macan stays on sale beside it.
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Leiters is being called an EV sceptic for following Porsche's own delivery data. A Macan that could not be registered anywhere in the EU still found 38,961 buyers in 2025, and in early 2026 it outsold the electric version. Customers made this decision before the boardroom did. The weakness is timing: from July 2026 until the new car arrives, anyone wanting a petrol Porsche SUV smaller than a Cayenne will look at a BMW X3 or a Mercedes GLC instead.
Expect the petrol Macan to outsell the electric one in 2029, its first full year on sale, making Porsche's best-selling model a combustion car again. That is no defeat for the electric Macan, which keeps its buyers. It is a range built around what people actually order, and for a brand that earned a 1.1 percent margin in 2025, that is the right priority.
