Porsche's junior Cayenne, once known as the Cajun and later christened Macan, has been spied cold-weather testing in Europe this week.

Wearing only basic camouflage, the spied test car offers a clear look at the Macan's styling, and there's little to be surprised about: it is truly a smaller Cayenne.

While the lights and D-pillar are lightly masked and the front bumper is covered in tape, it is clear that the Macan will borrow much of the Cayenne's look, including the familiar glasshouse, simple body lines and fat haunches.

Set to enter production later this year, the Macan will share a platform with the Audi Q5, along with most of its powertrains and driveline.

Separating it from the Q5 will be a higher-output engine and handling options, and of course its own unique design, inside and out.

A high-performance flagship is also expected, driven by a 275kW twin-turbo version of the 3.0 litre supercharged engine driving the Audi S4.

Power is expected to be sent to all four wheels on all Macan models, via a version of the Quattro system used in the Q5.

This round of spy photos has also inspired a spot of rendered speculation by Photoshop wizard Dan Buzdugan. See above.

"Macan"?

As for its name, "Cajun" had been adopted as a project title for the new model, born as a portmanteau of the larger Cayenne's name and the word "junior".

Why wasn't the name approved for the final production model? According to Porsche's Bernhard Maier, the new Macan name, which is derived from the Indonesian word for tiger, is simply a better fit.

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• Macan news and reviews | Porsche news and reviews
• Spy Photos | Enthusiast news and reviews

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• reply ” like !

  

  Godspeed says,
  1 year ago

  Looks like the Porsche SUV design team are smoking the same stuff as their Bentley counterparts with the EXP9F
• reply ” like !

  

  Godspeed says,
  1 year ago

  1 like

  To be fair it just look like a smaller Cayenne, but it's still ugly IMO.
  
  Porsche *are* capable of coming up with a design that looks different to a 911 - look at the 928 and 70's 914 roadster - so why do they now feel everything needs to look like a 911, even though here, the engine is at the opposite end of the car?
• reply ” like !

  

  5 valve per cylinder says,
  1 year ago

  Really pushing the 911-look in all their vehicles can only go so far and will only gain a lot of insults and "lazy" comments on the net.
  All Porsche really needs is to bring more variety in their design to differentiate their sports cars line from their SUV's and sport sedans.
  • reply ” like !

    

    Balthazaaaargh says,
    1 year ago

    Not sure it matters how many comments they get if the sales keep going up.
• reply ” like !

  

  smart us says,
  1 year ago

  enough rich show offs to get them