Porsche Macan India launch in June

Porsche India will launch its latest SUV, the Macan in India this year. According to Porsche, it is targeting the May-June period to launch its smallest, sportiest SUV in India after the current political scene in the country takes concrete shape. After the new government as well as the budget and various policies around it are in place, Porsche will be in a better position to decide on the pricing of the Macan, is the rationale behind the launch in June.

The Porsche Macan might be the German sports car maker's smallest SUV but it would be anything but cheap when it arrives on Indian shores. The Macan which will compete against the likes the Audi Q5, the BMW X3 and the Range Rover Evoque in terms of size and purpose, will retail for almost twice the price of its base competitor models!

This might hurt the Porsche SUV's initial off-take, but Porsche India isn't too worried about this at the moment. The demand for the Macan in international markets is already high and the capacity at Porsche's Leipzig facility where the Macan is made (50,000 units annually), is already running full steam. This means, allotment for the Indian market for the Macan will be limited in any case. And whatever this allotment might be, Porsche India is confident it will find takers, the Macan's premium pricing not withstanding.

The Porsche Macan which is based on the same platform as the Audi Q5 will be sold in India in two versions to begin with. The top of the line model, and one that will overstep Cayenne's territory will the Macan Turbo. The Turbo comes with a 3.6-litre biturbo petrol engine that makes 400PS of max power. Porsche claims the SUV in this guise will hit 100kmph from a standstill in under 4.5 seconds. The other model will be the Macan S Diesel. It will share its 3-litre diesel with the Cayenne and the Panamera models and develops 258PS of max power. Its claimed 0-100kmph time is 6.3s and the Macan S Diesel can hit a top speed of 230kmph.

Both the Porsche Macan models in India will come with all wheel drive and a PDK; Porsche's 7-speed dual clutch automatic transmission as standard. But, the Macan has also been engineered with technologies like hill descent control, torque vectoring and active suspension, besides an off-road package that lifts its ride height by 40mm. But, whether these will come as standard or optional extras on the Macan in India has not been decided. All Porsche India is saying is that the Macan sold in India will be feature rich to justify its huge price tag.

Porsche will not homologate the Macan for India and it will come in as a CBU; also the reason it has decided not to bring the 3-litre, biturbo, 340PS Macan S petrol to India. Though Porsche India isn't saying much about the pricing of the Macan, expect it to cost Rs 90 lakh. The likes of the Audi Q5 and the BMW X3, to bring things in perspective, start at under Rs 50 lakh.