Porsche Macans Hit The Street

Our trusty Teamspeed spies bring us today the first round of production-ready Porsche Macans out on public roads. The long awaited smaller SUV from Porsche is said to debut this November at the LA Auto Show, with a spring 2014 release date, but these shots lead us to believe an earlier release could be in the works.

The new Porsche will be based on the same underpinnings as the Audi Q5, but will be much lighter due to a more extensive use of aluminium components. AutoExpress noted this could save roughly 130kg over its Q5 sibling.

Power will come from engines delivered by Audi, both gas and diesel, said to be worked over by Porsche to give it higher power figures then the Q5. By offering a 4-cylinder variant of the baby SUV, this will be the first time Porsche has put a 4 cylinder engine into production since the 968. A powerful Turbo version as seen above will available as well.

The Macan will most likely be offered with the Hybrid-drivetrain known from the Q5, meaning a 2.0 TFSI delivering 210 horsepower combined with a 44 HP electric motor. That will help Porsche to come closer to the average CO2 goal of 130 g/km that all car manufacturers need to reach from 2015.

The Porsche Macan will be launched with four doors initially, but we are hearing rumors that a little later on there could be a sportier looking two door version as well, which is possibly a direct response to Range Rover’s successful Evoque.

Expect US pricing to start around the $42,000 mark. See you in LA!