The gas-powered Porsche Macan will return.
And news of its unexpected comeback comes from the most reliable source of them all: the automaker’s new CEO, Mark Leiters, according to The Financial Times. The company isn’t turning its back on EVs, but it’s come to realize that there’s a value to having battery- and gas-powered version of its best-selling model in its lineup.
Leiters made the revelation in his first interview with international media since taking over Porsche in January. The executive, who was previously the head of McLaren, calls his reputation as an EV skeptic “unfair,” but explained that he feels the best way to increase his new company’s profits— which have been hurt, in part, by plummeting sales in China—is to develop new gas-powered sports cars and SUVs. And the quickest way to do so is by bringing back the ICE version of the model that has consistently been one of its most popular vehicles, if not its most, since it was introduced in 2014.
The 2026 Porsche Macan GTS Electric
Porsche
“We have to recover our petrol strategy, but I’m very positive that once we have the Macan with the petrol engine, we have a very balanced offer for our customers on electric and petrol cars.” Leiters told the newspaper.
The numbers suggest that Porsche may have been a bit premature in transitioning from the gas- to battery-powered Macan. The former, which debuted in 2024, saw its sales fall by 40 percent year-over-year during the first half of 2026, while the latter saw them rise by 2 percent, according to FT. That increase may not seem like much, but Porsche had already stopped selling the first-gen model in the E.U. before the start of this year due to cybersecurity regulations. The ICE SUV is still available in North America, though the marque stopped building it this summer (before that it was revealed the company was stockpiling the model while it still could).
The new gas-powered Macan is expected to be ready by 2028 and will be sold alongside the electric version rather than replace it, showing Porsche’s commitment to striking the right balance between EV and ICE vehicles. It was also reported that the battery-powered, fourth-generation 718 remains in development (no mention of traditional performance-oriented variants was made), though Leiters again reiterated that there won’t be an electric 911 anytime soon.
