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The drawing above depicts the 2014 Porsche Macan, the compact crossover formerly known as Cajun. We’ve extensively covered this long-anticipated baby Porsche SUV, but here’s a recap: The Macan will share its architecture with the Audi Q5 and slot into the Porsche SUV lineup—yes, the company now has a lineup of SUVs—below the Cayenne. It likely will use engines pulled from Audi’s parts bin, but as you can see from the design sketch Porsche released today, won’t share its look with any four-ringer.
The styling is hardly shocking—it strongly resembles the Cayenne—and it looks very similar to a rendering we published some months ago. So why the name change? Apparently “Macan” sounds good in many languages—it means “tiger” in Indonesian—and, at least according to Porsche, “evoke[s] positive associations.” While Porsche’s small SUV was never officially named “Cajun”—as we pointed out when Porsche green-lit the model—it had a nice ring to it and it matched the larger Cayenne’s spicy-sounding moniker. (The new name makes us think of macaws. And pecans.) Regardless, Porsche’s high-riding tiger will begin rolling off an assembly line in Leipzig, Germany, in 2013 before going on sale as a 2014 model. We expect the Macan to debut at an auto show later this year. In the meantime, check out Porsche’s uplifting teaser video for the Macan below.
Stuttgart • Porsche has named its newest upcoming sport-ute not the Cajun, as was expected, but the Macan. The name Macan is derived from the Indonesian word for tiger and, says the automaker, combines suppleness, power, fascination and dynamics — “core characteristics” of the new SUV.
“The Macan combines all sports car characteristics with the benefits of a SUV and is a genuine Porsche,” says Bernhard Maier, executive vice-president sales and marketing of Porsche AG. “The name of a new Porsche has to fit with the brand, sound good in very many languages and dialects and evoke positive associations.”
As the fifth Porsche model line, the Macan is a central plank of Strategy 2018, by which the sports car manufacturer will expand its model portfolio. Porsche says it intends the Macan to emulate the success of the Cayenne. The SUV will start coming off the production lines in Leipzig in 2013. To that end, the site is being expanded into a fully-fledged production plant, including body assembly line and paint shop — with 500-million euro of investment, it is one of the biggest building projects in Porsche’s corporate history.
According to Porsche, word names have concrete connections with corresponding models and their characteristics: “The name Boxster describes the combination of boxer engine and roadster, Cayenne stands for sharpness, the Cayman is snappy and agile and a Panamera is more than a Gran Tourismo, capable also of winning the Carrera Panamericana long-distance race.”
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