Macan 4S EV Detailed First Impressions

[bbmertz]

Yea try that "!" And "i" . One of them was it for me. Now that I have it, the text is gone so i can't replicate it again

As @Kal-El mentioned, it looks like I’ll need to activate Plug & Charge inside the vehicle when the repairs are completed at the dealership.

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[bbmertz]

I'm getting the "Assistance Systems Error" and "Headlight Control Error" intermittently.

Upon start up I will either:
Have no messages and no messages come on for the entire trip. All assistance features work perfectly for the trip. The car behaves exactly as it should.

Or....about every 4-5 times I start the car...get these messages within a few seconds of starting the car. They will stay on for the entire trip. I lose all the assistance functions for the trip: blind spot, cruise control, traffic sign recognition, lang change assist, warn and brake, auto high beams. Turning the car off, getting out of it, locking it and then getting back in doesn't clear the messages. It seems the car needs to sit for a length of time, then the next start the messages are gone.

This error messages appeared before and after the factory reset so that hasn't solved the problem. I now cross my fingers each time I start the car to see if these message appear. I made an appointment at my dealer.

Yeah, I brought my car back to the dealership even though the Assistance Systems warnings disappeared since the service advisor said it’s likely to recur. He said he’s seen it on a large number of Macan EVs and it’s likely to require a part replacement.

 

[cottony]

Driver’s side seatbelt is a bit tough to reach since it drops to the floor, so I may consider buying either a seat belt buckle button stop or seat belt clip from Porsche (see attached examples: https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKU995STOP.html https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKU99BELTCLIP.html)

i had the same issue, and decided to install these clip stops off amazon. imo theyre more conspicuous. you do have to poke a hole in the seatbelt though, but the material closes up really easily, so not a big deal if you make a mistake, you won't even be able to see where it was perforated. it has pretty good reviews on amazon, but ill be curious to see how long this clip holds out for.

attached some pics for reference. on the second pic, u can barely make out the OEM clip stop, so gives you an idea of how much higher i raised the resting position of the buckle.

 

[Awaz]

@cottony
I did the same and pretty satisfied with the outcome. There is a buckle on the passenger side only, but that also slides down, not ideal. Whereas the button works better.
I did a post on this on Saturday as well.
@ferrocinque was worried about making a hole, and I assured him no hole is visible if you use a spike.
https://www.macanevowners.com/forum/threads/handy-tips-when-driving-the-macan.18492/#post-279368

 

[bbmertz]

i had the same issue, and decided to install these clip stops off amazon. imo theyre more conspicuous. you do have to poke a hole in the seatbelt though, but the material closes up really easily, so not a big deal if you make a mistake, you won't even be able to see where it was perforated. it has pretty good reviews on amazon, but ill be curious to see how long this clip holds out for.

attached some pics for reference. on the second pic, u can barely make out the OEM clip stop, so gives you an idea of how much higher i raised the resting position of the buckle.

I was about to buy those exact same buttons from Amazon since they get good reviews and come with an awl to poke the hole. I decided to ask the dealership to install OEM ones instead while they’re resolving my software issues.

It’s really odd that Porsche did not install these button stops in the Macan EVs since they’re on all front and rear seatbelts (with no sliding seatbelt clips) in the 2020 & 2024 ICE Macans.

I purchased a buckle cover to prevent the passenger side seatbelt from banging against the pillar. Do you think I should still install a button stop on that side as well even though it already has a seatbelt clip?

 

[davecrutchf]

Volcano Grey 4S Configuration:
https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PS8BQQP9

• Can select menu option to automatically open/lock when approaching/departing car without using key and to auto start/stop car without pushing start button, as long as the key is with you

Does this work similarly to the walk away lock on Tesla? I thought with Porsche you had to use the key or hold the handle to lock?

 

[bbmertz]

Does this work similarly to the walk away lock on Tesla? I thought with Porsche you had to use the key or hold the handle to lock?

Yes, it is similar to the Tesla as you just walk away and the car locks, the only difference being that you need to carry a key as opposed to just your cell phone with the Tesla. You do have to enable the auto lock/open feature in vehicle settings since the default is off.

You are correct that this is a new feature in the Macan since we have to touch the handle to lock the doors on my wife’s 2020 ICE Macan.

 

[gianteli]

i just got my Plug n charge to work...and it was more so not being guided well in the app than anything else...

hope that helps

FWIW, there was likely an app update after which this worked. I had the same issue until early this week when viola, cert downloaded.

 

[Tacoman]

X

 

[Greybeard72]

No REGRETS:
I've had many of the same issues with my 2025 4S (took delivery in late Dec). It took me about 4 days to actually get Plug&Charge to deliver a certificate after resetting the car and getting the feature to actually not be greyed out. I get the sense that their back end servers are just not able to manage the requests effectively and communication with EA for the certs are likely being lost or dropped. I also had a bizarre issue with Carplay.. It seems that if you connect to the house wifi with the car, Carplay doesn't work most of the time while connected to the wifi. Especially if both your phone and the car are on the same network. Why? No clue. As soon as someone pointed that out, I stopped trying to get it to connect while in the garage and now it seems quite reliable. Although I've also noticed that the app doesn't reliably get updates to and from the car. My solution has been to kill the app and restart it.. that seems to get it to restart communication with the car. I wonder if that's a function of the wifi connections again. I also got a very sporadic error the other day (flashed up for a second) saying the ALK system was disabled and needed to be fixed. Bizarre since it went away almost immediately and ALK seems to work just fine (although given the crappy roads in Westchester/NYC I may turn it off since it drives me crazy sometimes trying to force me into the lane when trying to avoid potholes). Given that the average temperature these days is in the low 20's, the efficiency ain't great at this point (avg is around 40kw/100 miles). Also the area I live in is hilly and acceleration up hills drives the efficiency down. I only have 350 miles on the car so I suspect the battery is still in early phases.

On the other hand, driving the car is FANTASTIC! It's quiet, fast and accelerates on the highway to get me out of tight spots quite nicely. It takes curvy roads (there are a lot around here) quite nicely. I haven't even had to go into sport mode or sport plus to get it to move on the highway. If you are going to spend on a car like this, I highly recommend the 4S over the 4 based on what I have read and seen. I have a friend with a Turbo and she loves it as well. Although she had even more issues early on (it's an early 2024).

I saw the Edmunds review and agree with folks who think the person was incorrect and probably biased. He didn't even mention the glitches with the car that you could rightfully criticize it for. This is my first EV and my 3rd Porsche (including a 911 4S Cab.). This car is awesome. I have no regrets at all. Someone else posted about the 'fear' of rapid depreciation. That may yet turn out to be true but whoever posted that doesn't seem to have one (it wasn't mentioned in his post). I suspect it's another troll like the many you see on YouTube videos. I highly recommend looking at the Out of Spec series on the car (Dave and Kyle). I got a LOT of information from them and it made me ready for all the glitches so I wasn't surprised.

 

[davecrutchf]

No REGRETS:
I've had many of the same issues with my 2025 4S (took delivery in late Dec). It took me about 4 days to actually get Plug&Charge to deliver a certificate after resetting the car and getting the feature to actually not be greyed out. I get the sense that their back end servers are just not able to manage the requests effectively and communication with EA for the certs are likely being lost or dropped. I also had a bizarre issue with Carplay.. It seems that if you connect to the house wifi with the car, Carplay doesn't work most of the time while connected to the wifi. Especially if both your phone and the car are on the same network. Why? No clue. As soon as someone pointed that out, I stopped trying to get it to connect while in the garage and now it seems quite reliable. Although I've also noticed that the app doesn't reliably get updates to and from the car. My solution has been to kill the app and restart it.. that seems to get it to restart communication with the car. I wonder if that's a function of the wifi connections again. I also got a very sporadic error the other day (flashed up for a second) saying the ALK system was disabled and needed to be fixed. Bizarre since it went away almost immediately and ALK seems to work just fine (although given the crappy roads in Westchester/NYC I may turn it off since it drives me crazy sometimes trying to force me into the lane when trying to avoid potholes). Given that the average temperature these days is in the low 20's, the efficiency ain't great at this point (avg is around 40kw/100 miles). Also the area I live in is hilly and acceleration up hills drives the efficiency down. I only have 350 miles on the car so I suspect the battery is still in early phases.

On the other hand, driving the car is FANTASTIC! It's quiet, fast and accelerates on the highway to get me out of tight spots quite nicely. It takes curvy roads (there are a lot around here) quite nicely. I haven't even had to go into sport mode or sport plus to get it to move on the highway. If you are going to spend on a car like this, I highly recommend the 4S over the 4 based on what I have read and seen. I have a friend with a Turbo and she loves it as well. Although she had even more issues early on (it's an early 2024).

I saw the Edmunds review and agree with folks who think the person was incorrect and probably biased. He didn't even mention the glitches with the car that you could rightfully criticize it for. This is my first EV and my 3rd Porsche (including a 911 4S Cab.). This car is awesome. I have no regrets at all. Someone else posted about the 'fear' of rapid depreciation. That may yet turn out to be true but whoever posted that doesn't seem to have one (it wasn't mentioned in his post). I suspect it's another troll like the many you see on YouTube videos. I highly recommend looking at the Out of Spec series on the car (Dave and Kyle). I got a LOT of information from them and it made me ready for all the glitches so I wasn't surprised.

Great write up and I agree with all. Question - did you do the factory reset on your own to get plug and charge to work or take it to a dealer? I’m concerned with bricking the car if I factory reset at home

 

[Greybeard72]

Great write up and I agree with all. Question - did you do the factory reset on your own to get plug and charge to work or take it to a dealer? I’m concerned with bricking the car if I factory reset at home

Happy to answer: I did the reset on my own. I pressed the volume button down for the requisite number of seconds (I forgot the number >10?) but the car rebooted just fine and I was able to reset the number of accounts to just mine as the primary. There are a number of accounts (1 or 2) set there to allow the dealers/port folks to drive the car and set it. I had to relog in to the car through the app and restart the whole process[QR code and all]. I had to redo most of the settings and wait a bit for the car to synch. After a bit, the Plug&Charge was no longer greyed out and I set it to on. Getting the certificate onto the app was more frustrating and I had to wait several days and retry several times to get it. I suggest you do it yourself if you are at all tech-savvy. If you are concerned and have to take it to the dealer anyway, have them do it with you there since you have to go through the motions anyway. I really like my dealer.. they are responsive and willing to help but the sales people don't know much about dealing with the car so do it with the people that have been trained by Porsche.

 

[Wivenhoe]

Greybeard72. There are many hours hrs of Out Of Spec - ordering, collecting the car, 3 episodes taking the car home, setting up the car, comparing to Tesla, range test, safety features.
Already posted on another thread is a UK Youtube where they drive 6 EV’s from 100% to 0% on a motorway (highway). The Macan beat the Tesla.
What I found interesting, was in the UK video the guy says from the start and initial drive he thought the Macan real range would be more than reported in the dash and Kyle says the same thing and they are right.
Both range tests were driving at 70 mph throughout in lowish temperatures - in the UK one the car died at 318 miles and Kyle achieved 298.

 

[kaiju]

Volcano Grey 4S Configuration:
https://configurator.porsche.com/porsche-code/PS8BQQP9

Driving Experience:

• Off-the-line acceleration very quick (without launch control) — much faster than the 4 which I test drove; comparable to Tesla Y Long Range which I previously owned
• Very little regen/slowing when taking foot off the accelerator — I really liked one-pedal driving on the Tesla but I’m already used to braking and don’t miss it that much now
• 20” S wheels equipped with Pirelli Scorpion MS ELEC all-season tires — very smooth and quiet drive with nominal road noise relative to my Tesla. Note that these tires are quite expensive to replace —$460 front and $515 rear, per tire.

Thoughts on Options:

• Partial Leather — satisfied with very high quality interior relative to Tesla, even without the full leather package
• 14-way heated/ventilated comfort seats with massage are fairly comfortable with multiple massage options for driver and passenger. However the lumbar backrest feels almost overinflated, possibly due to the massage equipment in seat, although I have not compared with non-massage seats. I might have opted for 18-way seats without massage if the seat back is less firm and then opted for lighted Porsche logo in headrest
• Bordeaux seat belts & compass dial are very dark burgundy red. In the future, I might prefer the ice blue color for more contrast against the black interior.
• Rear axle steering is not a game changer for me so far, but I like the subtly tighter turning radius on u-turns and when parking so no regrets ordering it
• Very pleased with black window trim (rather than standard silver trim on 4S) and illuminated brushed aluminum door sills (since black aluminum shows dust and footprints). Standard side blades with checkered pattern look great against Volcano Grey as do the standard silver side/tailgate emblems
• I’m okay having no rear wipers since it looks better and doesn’t further obscure the limited visibility through rear windshield. I could see others wanting this option in snowy/rainy environments and it would have been nice in the misty rain today.
• Tow hitch was a key factor in buying a Macan instead of Taycan. Area around the hitch is black and looks finished, unlike some of the early production versions.
• I don’t miss the Electronic Sport Sound and was pleasantly surprised to hear light electric motor sounds when accelerating

Additional Observations:

• Homelink setup is a bit tricky on garages with rolling codes. Must press programming button on garage opener unit in garage during second step after initially programming with garage remote.
• Piano black surface on top of center console near temperature controls is a fingerprint magnet. 12V & USB outlets under console are a bit awkward to reach. I purchased a compact Anker 12V charger with a blue ring to fill the 12V receptacle and also light the storage area.
• As others noted, passenger seatbelt occasionally bangs against door pillar. I purchased this cover which fits perfectly over the seat belt buckle after a little work to stretch it (need to air it out overnight to eliminate the chemical smell). https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMZTS36N?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
• Driver’s side seatbelt is a bit tough to reach since it drops to the floor, so I may consider buying either a seat belt buckle button stop or seat belt clip from Porsche (see attached examples: https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKU995STOP.html https://www.suncoastparts.com/product/SKU99BELTCLIP.html)
• Very pleased with Porsche OEM all-weather floor and trunk mats offered by my SA
• Storage space in front trunk (frunk) will not fit a carryon suitcase. Bose fills most of the storage under the trunk but there is a small space (about 24x6x4”) to store miscellaneous items (e.g. towel, sweatshirt, umbrella, hitch lock, etc.).
• Can select menu option to automatically open/lock when approaching/departing car without using key and to auto start/stop car without pushing start button, as long as the key is with you.I miss the Tesla geolocation features which auto folded/unfolded the side mirrors when approaching/departing garage at a preset distance and also overrode the auto lock feature when in the garage. The Macan can be programmed to raise/lower air suspension at preset locations for tall speed bumps or driveway curbs.
• Coming from a Tesla, I find myself frequently turning on the windshield wipers when I change gears but I’m sure I’ll get used to the gear shifter on the dashboard after a few weeks
• Need to be careful not to open frunk with first button on key or left button on driver’s door
• Tile buttons on main screen as well as displays on dashboard can be rearranged. I wish the programmable Diamond button on the steering wheel could be set to activate Homelink rather than some of the other less useful options available.

Software Issues:

• Unfortunately, I only had my car two days before I had to bring it back to the dealer today due to software issues, with no ETA on how long the repair will take. Most significant issue was a series of warnings related to “Assistance Systems Limited” including additional warnings related to turn assist, rear cross traffic alert, lane change assist and egress warner not being available, in addition to a headlight control error. Warnings disappeared a while later after exiting the car, however the dealer asked me to bring it in since they said it is likely to reoccur based on similar issues with other Macan EVs they recently delivered. Mentioned that others required replacement of a controller which may be in short supply.
• When trying to add a secondary account on the car for my wife, the main display went black aside from a rolling circle above a “Loading Account…” message. Unable to reboot car using scroll buttons but message eventually cleared after about two hours. Still unable to load second account however SA recommended that my wife simply use the Guest user account and store her preferred settings by saving them using one of the memory set buttons on the driver’s door with only her key in the car.
• Unable to activate Plug & Charge from the My Porsche app despite multiple attempts. Will ask dealer to activate when I pickup the car.
• I realized that I may experience issues as one of the early 4S owners but hoped Porsche had addressed most of them based on their experience with the Taycan and Macan 4.

Timeline:
8/25/24 ordered
9/24 freeze date
10/24 production complete
11/5 ship departed Emden
11/22 arrived at port in Jacksonville, Florida
12/10 truck departed port (after two-week “quality action” delay)
12/17 arrived at dealership
12/20 ready for pickup
12/26 delivered
12/28 returned to dealer for service repairs

Thank you for taking the time to post this!
Also coming from Tesla Y, for me one-petal driving is almost synonymous with EV, but that’s just my experience with all other EVs I’ve driven. I hope Porsche reconsiders and give folks an option. Medium regen braking is just so convenient and also feels safer than jumping between petals.
I pick up 4S in about a week!

 

[bbmertz]

I did miss one-pedal driving initially but have gotten over it after two months of driving the 4S. One cool feature that makes it a bit more like Tesla braking is that you can firmly hold down the brake pedal when you’re stopped at a red light and the Macan will go into Hold mode. This allows the driver to release the brake pedal without the car creeping forward and to just press the accelerator when ready to go.

Overall, I really love the 4S — it drives extremely well and the interior quality is light-years ahead of the Tesla. I do still occasionally receive miscellaneous software warnings but them seem to fix themselves either while driving or by locking the car and then returning 15 minutes later.

Congrats on your upcoming 4S delivery! Look forward to seeing your configuration along with some photos and your initial impressions.

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