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Porsche premieres Macan EV: 161 MPH top speed, 3.1s 0-60, 100 kWh battery

Credit: Porsche

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Porsche unveiled its Macan EV today, bringing its second all-electric car to market and releasing some interesting details regarding its performance and power.

Ten years after the launch of the Macan, Porsche is bringing the vehicle in what it calls “a bold new direction.”

Porsche has kept a lot of the same design features with the EV version of the Macan, hoping to build upon its already successful status as a mainstay in the company’s lineup.

“Our aim is to offer the sportiest model in its segment with the all-electric Macan. In many ways, we are taking a very successful SUV to a new level,” Jörg Kerner, VP of the Macan for Porsche, said.

Porsche confirms Macan will go all-electric, production to follow Taycan, Cross Turismo

Initially, Porsche plans to bring two Macan configurations to market: the Macan 4 and Macan Turbo, both offering different performance metrics.

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  • Porsche Macan 4
    • 300 KW | 402 HP
    • 479 lb-ft torque
    • 0-60 MPH in 4.9 seconds
    • 136 MPH Top Speed
  • Porsche Macan Turbo
    • 470 KW | 630 HP
    • 833 lb-ft torque
    • 0-60 MPH in 3.1 seconds
    • 161 MPH Top Speed

Premium Platform Electric with 800-volt Architecture

A lithium-ion battery with a gross capacity of 100 kWh and 95 kWh of usable energy powers Porsche’s new Premium Platform Electric with an 800-volt architecture. This is the first time the automaker is using this on an EV.

It has a DC charging capability of 270 kW, and Porsche said the Macan will be capable of charging from 10 to 80 percent in just 21 minutes under ideal conditions.

It also explains that, at 400-volt charging stations, a high-voltage switch in the battery pack will enable bank charging by splitting the 800-volt battery into two batteries, effectively creating two 400-volt batteries. This will keep charging efficiency at a maximum without using an additional lithium-ion booster.

Additionally, the Macan EV will use regenerative braking that allows up to 240 kW of power to be recuperated through the electric motors while driving.

Premium Handling

When Porsche initially developed the Macan, it wanted to keep things simple but still allow the vehicle to encapsulate what it calls “quintessential Porsche driving dynamics and a characteristic steering feel.”

This was also put into focus with the Macan EV.

“Thanks to its particularly sporty seat position and low center of gravity, as well as its impressive driving dynamics and steering precision, the new Macan delivers a real sports car feeling,” Kerner adds.

Both configurations of the Macan EV will feature all-wheel-drive with two electric motors. It is also equipped with the Porsche Traction Management system (ePTM), which operates around five times faster than a conventional all-wheel-drive system, and can respond to wheelspin within 10 milliseconds.

Porsche Torque Vectoring Plus, or PTV Plus, is an electronically controlled differential lock on the rear axle. This helps improve traction, driving stability, and lateral dynamics.

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Spacious Interior and Increased Room for Luggage

The Macan was designed with practicality in mind. Porsche details that, depending on the configuration and equipment fitted, the capacity behind the rear-seat bench is up to 18 cubic feet.

The frunk also features 2.9 cubic feet of room, which increases the total space in the vehicle to 4.4 cubic feet greater than the previous Macan model.

High-Tech Driver Experience

A free-standing 12.6-inch curved instrument cluster is complemented by a 10.9-inch central display.

The Macan EV also features, for the first time, a passenger option to view information, adjust settings on the infotainment system, or stream video content while the car is being driven on its own 10.9-inch screen, which is optional.

The Porsche Driver Experience, however, features a head-up display with augmented reality technology. It also features navigation arrows which are visually integrated into the real world.

Both Android Automotive OS and Apple CarPlay are featured in the Macan EV’s new-generation infotainment system. Porsche Communication Management will allow the driver to say “Hey Porsche” to access anything from suggested routes, charging stops, and other crucial information.

Pricing and Availability

Porsche plans to bring the Macan to market within the second half of the year, but customers can order it immediately.

The Macan 4 is priced at just $78,800, while the Turbo configuration will be $105,300. Each price does not include the $1,650 delivery, processing, and handling fee.

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I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla says fixes on Full Self-Driving’s two biggest issues are on the way

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Tesla Full Self-Driving is set to receive improvements to address its two biggest issues, according to a company engineer.

Director of Engineering at Tesla AI, Phil Duan, revealed in a post on X that improvements to both pothole avoidance and navigation “are coming,’ something we have heard many times in the past. However, there are a few things that seem to hint that things might be different this time around.

Pothole avoidance, navigation, speed control, and left lane camping are some of the most prevalent and frequently mentioned shortcomings of the Full Self-Driving suite. These are a few of the biggest issues that have kept Tesla Full Self-Driving as a Supervised suite, meaning drivers must remain attentive during operation.

Pothole Avoidance

Pothole avoidance was first mentioned as an “Upcoming Improvement” with the Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.3 update back in early April of this year. It was listed alongside “Expand reasoning to all behaviors beyond destination handling.”

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Tesla is fixing Full Self-Driving’s pothole problem

It’s been six months since we first saw pothole avoidance explicitly mentioned, and it has not moved beyond that and joined the main release notes yet.

Tesla has not shed any light on why pothole avoidance has been such an issue for it to solve, but it also has issues identifying large bumps much of the time, so its modeling of sudden changes in road conditions is likely pretty weak at this particular point. I’ve had more issues with large bumps than potholes, personally, but both are issues that need to be resolved.

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It makes sense that things might be pretty close to being released to the public, as we are going on such an extensive period of time between it being mentioned and it actually being deployed.

Navigation

Navigation is likely the most painful part of using Full Self-Driving, as it routinely takes strange routes, has trouble with local rules (like Except Right Turn Stop Signs in Pennsylvania), and sometimes does not realize that maneuvers it is suggesting are against the law. Turning out of my neighborhood, you cannot turn left, yet my Model Y still suggests it roughly 70 percent of the time when I’m leaving.

However, Tesla might be close to a breakthrough on this. With the Summer Update, Tesla added “Preferred Routes” alongside “Automatic Navigation.”

Preferred Routes prioritized roads that the driver had actually taken before, instead of always defaulting to what the vehicle believes is the most efficient path. This has already solved many of my issues. Formerly, I would turn off the Online Routing setting, and that would eliminate most of my complaints with routing, but then you lose out later on the Live Traffic Visualization.

Tesla’s Navigation has improved tremendously thanks to the Preferred Routes release with the Summer Update, but it still could use some polishing, as it still suggests strange routes from time to time, and it also has a lot of issues getting out of a parking lot. I find that those truly confuse FSD sometimes.

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SpaceX’s midnight spy satellite launch quietly set a new record

Falcon Heavy launched its first NRO mission while SpaceX landed four boosters in one day.

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SpaceX's Falcon Heavy lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. ET on October 1, 2026, carrying the classified NROL-97 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. (Credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. ET on October 1, 2026, carrying the classified NROL-97 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. (Credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX closed out one of its busiest days ever with a midnight Falcon Heavy launch from Florida, and the rocket’s two side boosters came home to finish off a landing record the company had never set before.

Falcon Heavy lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:54 p.m. ET Thursday carrying NROL-97, a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. It was the first time the NRO has flown on Falcon Heavy after 22 missions on Falcon 9, and the first NRO mission bought through the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract awarded in 2025, according to Spaceflight Now.

Roughly eight minutes after liftoff, side boosters B1104 and B1072 touched down at Landing Zones 1 and 2 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, setting off double sonic booms across Brevard County. B1104 was flying for the second time and B1072 for the fourth. Both last flew on August 30 on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, making NROL-97 the quickest turnaround between Falcon Heavy missions to date. The brand new center core, B1106, was expended in the Atlantic so the payload could reach its high energy orbit, and SpaceX’s mission page noted the fairing had previously flown on the NROL-95 mission in July.

The two landings capped a record for SpaceX. Earlier Thursday, Falcon 9 booster B1101 returned to Landing Zone 40 after sending the Crew-13 astronauts to the International Space Station, and another Falcon 9 launched the Transporter-18 rideshare with 130 payloads from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Spaceflight Now reported it was the first time SpaceX has landed four boosters in a single day, wrapping up the triple header Teslarati previewed on Wednesday.

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The mission also brought Landing Zone 1 back for what may be its final landing. SpaceX first landed an orbital class booster there in December 2015, but its lease on the former Launch Complex 13 site ended in 2025 as the company moved Florida landings to new pads at its own launch complexes. With LZ-40 already holding the Crew-13 booster, SpaceX brought LZ-1 back into service for one more night. Launch tracker Next Spaceflight listed NROL-97 as the final expected landing at the site.

NROL-97 adds to a fast growing stack of national security work for SpaceX. The company has flown four Space Force missions from Vandenberg since mid August, several believed to carry Starshield satellites, pushing its Pentagon contract total for 2026 past $8 billion. Elon Musk was also named this week to help lead the Pentagon’s Project Meridian study on the future of warfare.

The Florida doubleheader stood out for another reason. The Space Coast saw only one launch in all of September as SpaceX shifts more of its East Coast infrastructure toward Starship, which reached orbit for the first time on Flight 14 just three days earlier.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla deliveries best Wall Street guesses alongside second-best energy quarter

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Credit: Tesla Europe & Middle East | X

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported strong delivery figures that beat Wall Street guesses, and they were revealed alongside the company’s second-best quarter in terms of energy deployments ever.

Tesla announced this morning that it delivered 486,532 cars in Q3, while producing 464,391, exceeding analyst consensus, which sat around 462,000 units.

Meanwhile, Tesla reported 13.7 GWh of energy storage deployed for the quarter. That’s the second-best quarter Tesla has ever reported on that side of things.

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Vehicle Deliveries

Deliveries were strong, and it was another quarter when Tesla had the opportunity to outshine the Wall Street pundits who are quick to criticize and slow to give credit. Tesla saw a slight decrease in deliveries compared to Q3 2025, but Tesla still had the $7,500 EV Tax Credit to use to help incentivize consumers to pick an EV.

A small decrease of 2.1 percent is pretty telling because it shows Tesla does not need massive federal credits to convince consumers to purchase its vehicles.

It was also the company’s third-best performance all-time in terms of deliveries, trailing that of Q3 2025 with 497,099 deliveries and Q4 2024, when the company handed over 495,570 cars.

We reported several days ago that Tesla Showrooms across the United States were completely bare of inventory or unclaimed units. Many locations also removed Demo Drive units, which had been bought by customers looking to take delivery sooner.

Tesla showrooms picked clean ahead of Q3 end as demand looks strong

Energy Generation

Tesla’s Energy Generation performance in Q3 was also very strong, as the company deployed 13.7 GWh of energy storage over the past three months. The only quarter when Tesla reported stronger energy deployment figures was Q4 2025, when 14.2 GWh of energy storage was deployed.

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Tesla’s Q3 performance in energy generation has continued to grow each quarter, with the company increasing its deployments by ten-fold since Q3 2021, when just 1.3 GWh was deployed.

It is also nearly double what it was in Q3 2024, when the company reported 6.9 GWh. This is one of Tesla’s quickest-growing divisions, and it flies under the radar with fans and analysts, as many are focused on self-driving or the vehicles themselves.

Tesla Stock

Shares rose 5.07 percent to $372.06 at just after 10 a.m. on the East Coast. This is a rarity for Tesla after a strong delivery report, as positive news usually brings the stock down. Many quarters with extremely robust delivery reports have not been as kind to the Teslanaires of the world.

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