It's usually stricter emissions regulations that lead to the demise of a car in the European Union. However, that's not the reason why the gas Macan is about to get the proverbial axe. The SUV is unable to meet upcoming cybersecurity regulations, so Porsche has no other decision but to pull the plug on its smallest crossover.
A company spokesperson told Automotive News Europe that sales of the Macan will come to an end in EU countries next spring. When Porsche was developing this generation of the crossover, those regulations had yet to be finalized. According to the spokesperson, updating the vehicle to meet the new requirements would be too expensive. Autocar reports an automaker faces an up to €30,000 (nearly $33,000) fine for each vehicle it sells that doesn't comply with the upcoming UNECE WP.29 regulation.
We've reached out to Porsche to learn more about the decision.
2021 Porsche Macan GTS Review
As to which markets are about to lose the ICE Macan, the EU comprises the following 27 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden. There used to be 28 but the UK officially left the EU on January 31, 2020.
It's a huge blow for Porsche since the Macan was by far its best-selling product through October. In the first 10 months of the year, nearly 20,000 units were sold in Europe, based on the numbers gathered by research company Dataforce.
The brand is months away from launching the second-generation Macan. However, it'll be an entirely different vehicle since it's going to be sold strictly as an EV on a new platform co-developed with Audi. The latter will sell its own version of the model, the Q6 E-Tron.
The Macan isn't the only Porsche being replaced with an EV since the 718 is also going to lose its combustion engine. The Boxster and Cayman duo will go purely electric around 2025. Not only that, but a next-gen, electric-only Cayenne has already been announced, along with a bigger three-row SUV that'll do away with ICE power.
