A dark green leather Porsche Macan interior

I’m not sure I’d seen a green leather interior quite the color of our test Macan 4S, but I’m obsessed with it now.

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The back seat of a Porsche Macan 4S

There’s enough room back here for two adults not to feel cramped. Interior space is a huge upgrade from the gas Macan.

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There are physical controls for the climate settings, and unlike the Taycan and some other cars of late, you aim the air vents by physically pointing them at you, using the wonderfully tactile rubber grips. It’s welcome to see an automaker step back from an all-touchscreen user interface, although your finger will still get plenty to do on the main infotainment screen.

Porsche’s system is now built atop Android Automotive, which means third-party apps are becoming more plentiful. But the voice recognition and natural language processing happens in Porsche’s cloud and is more capable than the current state of Google’s voice assistant. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are both present, and with such a high percentage of Apple users among its owners, Porsche wrote an iOS app that lets you control the car’s climate or radio without leaving Apple’s casted garden.

Clever doors

In addition to better understanding you when you’re speaking to the car, the Macan also has a thoughtful way of getting your attention. Like many new cars, the interior lighting is LED-based, with numerous permutations, combinations, and themes. But the upper strip in the door will turn bright yellow if there’s a vehicle in that side’s blind spot. There’s also an optional augmented reality heads-up display, which may divide opinion—I appreciated its presence, but my driving partner did not.

A Porsche Macan EV interior showing the door lighting

The LED lighting in the doors can also alert you if there’s something in one of the car’s blind spots.

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A Porsche Macan dashboard showing the passenger infotainment screen.

I feel like I’m shouting at the clouds when it comes to these passenger infotainment systems.

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We’ve seen this AR-HUD technology on other cars for a while now. Here, the notable thing was how clear the display appeared and how much better it looked while wearing polarized sunglasses than the HUDs you may be used to.

From the driver’s seat, you won’t have a clear view of the passenger infotainment screen, should you option such a thing. I’ve yet to be convinced about the utility of a whole extra infotainment system for the front seat passenger, who can operate the one in the middle of the car without much difficulty. The coating or film on the screen that makes it appear black from the driver’s viewing angle did not do a whole lot for picture quality for the passenger, either. I even got a little carsick trying to use the screen, although that went away before too long once I was reacquainted with the horizon.

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