These two cars are built on the same platform, carry the same size battery, run the same 800 volt electrics and charge at the same peak rate. One of them costs about £20,000 more than the other to start with. So the only question worth asking is what the money actually buys, and the answer is more specific than badge value.
It is also a comparison where both manufacturers publish less than you would expect, and contradict themselves more than you would expect. Everything below comes from Porsche's and Audi's own sources and Euro NCAP's own assessment pages. Where one of them publishes nothing, or publishes two different answers, we say so rather than filling the gap.
Porsche Macan
Five versions, all electric
Audi Q6 e-tron
Four models, SUV and Sportback
What the Shared Platform Actually Means
Both cars sit on the Premium Platform Electric that Porsche and Audi developed together, and the overlap is real rather than marketing. Audi states the battery voltage as 800 on every Q6 variant sheet, Porsche runs the same 800 volt system, and on the large battery both peak at 270kW on a DC charger and both do 10% to 80% in about 21 minutes.
| Porsche Macan | Audi Q6 e-tron | |
|---|---|---|
| Gross battery | 100kWh | 83kWh or 100kWh |
| Usable battery | Not published by Porsche | 75.8 or 94.9kWh, published |
| Architecture | 800 volt | 800 volt |
| Peak DC, large battery | 270kW | 270kW |
| 10% to 80% | 21 minutes | 21 minutes |
| Smaller battery option | None | 83kWh, 225kW DC |
| Front boot | 84 litres | 64 litres |
| Body styles | SUV only | SUV and Sportback |
This is the single most useful difference in the whole comparison. Audi publishes both figures with an explicit row label, gross and net, 100 and 94.9kWh, and Audi UK states the net figure on its own site. Porsche publishes no usable capacity for the Macan anywhere we could find, so every net figure you see quoted for a Macan is somebody's estimate rather than Porsche's number. Two cars, one battery, one disclosure.
Where the platform stops mattering is everything you actually feel. The suspension, the steering, the body, the cabin and the way the power is delivered are brand work, and Audi's own figures show how differently the same hardware can be set up: its SQ6 SUV has a smaller boot than its ordinary Q6 SUV, 514 litres against 526. The platform is not even common across one brand's own variants, let alone across two.
Where the £20,000 Gap Goes
Here is the part most comparisons skip. The gap is not mostly badge money, or at least not at the bottom of the ranges. It is that Audi sells two things Porsche does not sell at all.
| What Audi offers below the Macan | What it means |
|---|---|
| An 83kWh battery | Porsche has no smaller pack. The Macan range starts with the 100kWh car |
| Rear wheel drive at two power levels | 185kW and 225kW, both rear drive, where the Macan's entry car is the only rear drive version |
| A Sportback body | A second shell at a 156 litre boot penalty |
So the three bands look like this. Below roughly £70,000 the Q6 is on its own in this comparison, on a battery and a charging rate the Macan does not offer. Between about 70,000 and 90,000 the two ranges overlap heavily, and that is where you are genuinely paying for the badge and the chassis work. Above that the SQ6 tops out and the Macan carries on to the Turbo.
Audi UK's own comparison table gives 270kW and from 21 minutes for all four Q6 models. Audi's own dated technical data does not: the 83kWh car peaks at 225kW, the 225kW performance at 260kW, and only the quattro and the SQ6 reach 270kW. If you are buying the entry Q6 partly on the charging headline, the headline is not describing your car. This is a correction worth having and you will not find it on Audi UK's own site.
The Warranty, Which Matters More on a Lease Than Anything Above
On a three or four year agreement the warranty covers the whole of your time with the car, so this is the section to read twice. It also goes the way you would not expect.
| Porsche Macan | Audi Q6 e-tron | |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle warranty | No number of years published | 3 years or 60,000 miles |
| Battery warranty | 8 years or 100,000 miles | 8 years or 100,000 miles |
| Capacity guaranteed | 80% of original net capacity | 78%, then 74%, then 70% |
| How long that guarantee runs | 3 years or 38,000 miles | The full 8 years or 100,000 miles |
| Service activated? | Not stated | No, but servicing to schedule is a condition |
| Transfers to a new owner? | Not stated | Yes, automatically |
Porsche's threshold is the higher one, 80% against Audi's opening 78%, but it lasts three years or 38,000 miles and then stops, sitting inside an eight year battery warranty. Audi steps its guarantee down instead of ending it: 78% to three years, 74% to five, 70% to eight. For anyone on a four year lease, Porsche's guarantee runs out before the agreement does and Audi's does not. The cheaper car wins this one outright.
And there is a gap on the Porsche side we are not going to paper over. Porsche's own UK warranty page gives no number of years for the vehicle warranty at all, only that it is valid worldwide with no mileage restriction. So if you see a Macan described as having a three year warranty, that did not come from Porsche. We would get the term confirmed in writing from the funder before signing either car.
Charging at Home, and the Three Phase Problem
Both cars have an 11kW on board AC charger, the Macan with an up to 22kW option listed on its current configurator. Both of those rates need a three phase electricity supply, which most British houses do not have.
| Porsche Macan | Audi Q6 e-tron | |
|---|---|---|
| AC rate | 11kW standard, 22kW optional | 11kW, not published by Audi UK at all |
| Does the maker state the phase? | No, nowhere | Yes, the charge time row says three phase |
| Quoted 0% to 100% on AC | 10 hours | 8 hours on 83kWh, 10 on 100kWh |
| Achievable on a normal UK home charger? | No | No |
| What a 7kW home charger really means | Longer than the quoted figure | Longer than the quoted figure |
Audi's own charge time row is labelled three phase, 16A at 230V, which is exactly the disclosure Porsche never makes. But Audi UK's own home charging page says that most UK homes have single phase power and a 7kW wallbox, and that only some larger homes with three phase can host a 22kW unit. So Audi's published eight and ten hour charge times assume a supply Audi UK tells you that you probably do not have. On a 7kW box a 94.9kWh pack is closer to thirteen or fourteen hours.
Neither of these is a criticism of the cars, which charge quickly on a DC rapid. It matters because the AC number is the one that describes your driveway, and both brands publish it as though three phase were normal. If you are comparing overnight charging between these two, compare them at 7.4kW and the difference comes down to pack size rather than charger rating.
Space, Boots and Towing
Three different measurement conventions between two cars on one platform, and the labels matter more than the numbers.
| Porsche Macan | Audi Q6 SUV | Audi Q6 Sportback | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behind the rear seats | 540 litres | 526 litres | Not published |
| Seats folded | 1,348 litres | 1,529 litres | 1,373 litres |
| Front boot | 84 litres | 64 litres | 64 litres |
| Braked towing | 2,000 to 2,500kg by version | 2,000kg rear drive, 2,400kg quattro | Same as the SUV |
| Unbraked towing | 750kg | 750kg | 750kg |
If you take one thing from this section, take this. Audi UK publishes a single boot figure per model, labelled boot capacity with the rear seats folded, and it publishes no seats up figure and no front boot figure at all. So an Audi quoting 1,529 litres against a rival's 500-odd is comparing a folded boot with an upright one. The 526 litre figure above comes from Audi's own technical data rather than Audi UK, and for the Sportback the equivalent figure is not published by Audi anywhere we could reach.
Porsche is no better organised. Its 540 and 1,348 litre figures come from Porsche's own technical data rather than Porsche GB, and Porsche GB's own 4S page says up to 1,326 litres instead of 1,348. On towing, Porsche's technical data gives 2,000kg braked for the base car while Porsche GB shows 2,500kg on the 4S page with the optional towbar, so the Macan tows somewhere in a band depending on which one you take. Audi UK publishes no towing figure whatsoever, so the Audi numbers above are Audi's own technical data, with an explicit gradient label, rather than Audi UK's.
Euro NCAP: Both Five Stars, Neither Straightforward
Both cars were rated five stars in 2024 and both sets of scores are current. The difference is in who the rating covers, and in both cases it is not the whole range.
| Porsche Macan | Audi Q6 e-tron | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 5 stars, published 4 December 2024 | 5 stars, published 11 September 2024 |
| Adult occupant | 90% | 91% |
| Child occupant | 90% | 92% |
| Vulnerable road users | 83% | 81% |
| Safety assist | 78% | 80% |
| Tested car | Macan 4 Electric, left hand drive | Q6 e-tron quattro, left hand drive |
| Covered versions | Electric only, and the GTS is missing | SUV, Sportback and SQ6 all listed |
The Macan's covered variants table lists four electric versions and no petrol version at all, which is correct, but the Macan GTS Electric is not in it because it joined the range after the test. Worse, Euro NCAP's own mirrored results page states that the rating applies to all Porsche Macans, which contradicts its own table. The Q6 is better served because its list does include the Sportback and the SQ6, but on the live Euro NCAP page that table renders completely empty and the variants only appear in the datasheet PDF, where we could not read the right hand drive column. So we are not going to tell you Euro NCAP confirms the Q6's rating applies to right hand drive cars.
Neither car has a Green NCAP assessment, which for once removes a trap: on several other brands a five star environmental score sits on Euro NCAP's own newsroom and gets quoted as a safety result. Not here.
Neither One Gets the Electric Car Grant
Quickly, because people ask. Neither car qualifies and neither could. The government's cap is £37,000 on recommended retail price, with a route for a version in the same interpolation family as one under the cap up to a ceiling of £42,000, and two bands worth £3,750 and £1,500.
No Porsche appears on the government list at all. Exactly one Audi does, the A2 e-tron in the lower band, and no Q6 is on it. The cheapest car in this comparison is around £20,000 above the ceiling, so the price family route cannot reach either of them. Our electric car leasing pages cover the cars that do qualify.
Both Brands Disagree With Themselves on Price
We would normally keep this to a line, but it is the most practical thing to know if you are checking either car's price yourself, and it is why we price from the funders rather than from a list price.
| Brand | What we found |
|---|---|
| Porsche | Two UK price sets £1,200 to £1,800 apart. The model start pages give one set, the main UK model page and the finance pages another. Neither is dated |
| Audi | Four different prices for the Q6 Sportback across audi.co.uk, a £750 spread, none of them dated, and only one labelled as including metallic paint |
| Audi | A consistent £50 offset between its model pages and its comparison modules on three separate models, which says two price feeds rather than one |
| Audi | A legacy URL path still serving the superseded car as current, at 388PS and 352 to 389 miles where the current page says 462PS and up to 406 miles |
| Audi | Three different range figures for the same Q6 SUV across its own UK pages, 395, 396 and 398 miles |
| Porsche | All four petrol Macan versions still priced on two UK surfaces with no note that factory orders have closed |
Neither brand publishes a dated UK price list for these cars. Audi UK publishes no AC charging rate, no towing figure, no seats up boot figure and a PS figure for only one of its four powertrains. Porsche publishes no usable battery capacity and no vehicle warranty term. So a specification comparison of these two is assembled from German technical data sheets, Irish price lists and Euro NCAP datasheets, and anyone presenting a tidy table of both cars has filled in gaps that the manufacturers left open. We have left them open and labelled them.
Which One Should You Actually Lease?
If you want the most car for the money
The Q6, and specifically the rear wheel drive 83kWh car, which has no Macan equivalent at any price. Go in knowing it is the slowest charging car here at 225kW rather than the 270kW on Audi's own headline table, and that its 285 to 338 mile range is the shortest in the comparison.
If you keep cars for the length of a long lease
The Q6, on the warranty. A stepped capacity guarantee that runs the full eight years beats a higher threshold that expires at three years and 38,000 miles, and Audi publishes a vehicle warranty term where Porsche publishes none.
If you want the car to feel special
The Macan, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. The chassis work, the steering and the badge are what the overlapping middle of these two ranges is actually charging for, and plenty of people reasonably want that. Just know that the Macan cannot have Porsche Active Ride, PDCC or a 22kW charger as standard, air suspension is an option rather than standard equipment, and those are Cayenne features.
If you tow
Ask us before you choose. The Audi quattro's 2,400kg braked figure is clearly published with a gradient label, the Macan sits in a band between 2,000 and 2,500kg depending on version and which Porsche page you read, and Audi UK itself publishes nothing. This is the single most common thing to get wrong on either car.
Get both quoted. These two are close enough mechanically that the monthly is going to decide it more than the specification will, and funders price the same platform very differently between a Porsche and an Audi. Tell us your mileage and how you charge, because if your charging is a 7kW box on a driveway then pack size matters more than peak rate and the cheaper car gets more attractive. Compare them with the BMW iX3 and the Polestar 4 too, which sit in the same space on the same sort of money.
Macan or Q6, priced properly
We will quote both across our funders, and tell you honestly where the £20,000 gap is paying for engineering and where it is paying for the badge.
Talk to LetsLeaseFrequently Asked Questions
They share the Premium Platform Electric that Porsche and Audi developed together, and the overlap is genuine: both run 800 volt electrics, both use a 100kWh gross battery on the larger pack, and both peak at 270kW on a DC charger with a 10% to 80% charge in about 21 minutes. What is not shared is everything you feel. The suspension, steering, body, cabin and power delivery are brand work. Audi also sells an 83kWh battery and a Sportback body that Porsche does not offer at all.
Nobody can tell you for the Macan, and that is the point. Audi publishes both figures with an explicit row label, 100kWh gross and 94.9kWh usable, and Audi UK states the usable figure on its own site. Porsche publishes no usable capacity for the Macan anywhere we could find, so any net figure you see quoted for a Macan is an estimate rather than Porsche's number. Same size pack, and only one of the two manufacturers tells you how much of it you get.
Mostly because Audi sells versions Porsche does not. The Q6 range starts with an 83kWh battery and rear wheel drive at two power levels, and the Macan has no smaller pack at all. Below about £70,000 the Q6 is on its own in this comparison. Between roughly 70,000 and 90,000 the two ranges overlap heavily, and that middle section is where you are genuinely paying for the badge, the chassis work and the cabin rather than for different hardware.
Only on the large battery, and Audi UK's own table gets this wrong. Audi UK gives 270kW and from 21 minutes for all four Q6 models. Audi's own dated technical data gives the entry 83kWh car 225kW, the 225kW performance version 260kW, and only the quattro and the SQ6 the full 270kW. So the cheapest Q6 is the slowest charging car in this comparison, and you would not learn that from Audi UK's website. The Macan's 270kW applies across its range.
The Audi, clearly, and this is the most commercially relevant difference in the comparison. Audi UK publishes three years or 60,000 miles on the car and a stepped battery capacity guarantee that runs the full eight years or 100,000 miles: 78% to three years, 74% to five, 70% to eight. Porsche guarantees 80% of capacity for only three years or 38,000 miles inside an eight year battery warranty, so on a four year lease its guarantee expires before your agreement does. Porsche's own UK page also gives no number of years for the vehicle warranty at all.
Almost certainly not, and both brands publish the figure as though you could. An 11kW AC rate needs a three phase electricity supply, and Audi UK's own home charging page says most UK homes are single phase with a 7kW wallbox. Audi at least labels its charge time row as three phase, 16A at 230V, which Porsche never does anywhere. The practical effect is that the quoted eight and ten hour full charge times are not achievable on an ordinary home charger, where a 94.9kWh pack is closer to thirteen or fourteen hours.
Carefully, because the labels differ. Porsche gives 540 litres behind the rear seats and 1,348 folded, plus an 84 litre front boot, though those come from Porsche's own technical data rather than Porsche GB, whose 4S page says 1,326 instead of 1,348. Audi's own technical data gives 526 litres behind the second row and 64 in front for the Q6 SUV. The catch is that Audi UK publishes one figure only, the seats folded one at 1,529 litres, and no seats up figure at all, so an Audi headline boot number is not comparable with a rival's upright figure.
The Audi quattro, on the clearest evidence. Audi publishes 2,400kg braked and 750kg unbraked for the quattro and the SQ6, and 2,000kg braked for the rear drive cars, with an explicit gradient label. Porsche's technical data gives 2,000kg braked for the base electric Macan while Porsche GB shows 2,500kg on the Macan 4S Electric page with the optional towbar, so the Macan sits in a band depending on version. Audi UK itself publishes no towing figure at all. If you tow, get the figure confirmed for the exact version before ordering.
Yes, both in 2024, and both sets of scores are current. The Q6 scored 91% adult occupant, 92 child, 81 vulnerable road users and 80 safety assist. The Macan scored 90, 90, 83 and 78. The important part is coverage rather than the scores: the Macan's covered variants list is electric only and does not include the Macan GTS Electric, which joined the range after the test, while Euro NCAP's own mirrored page claims the rating applies to all Porsche Macans. The Q6's list does include the Sportback and the SQ6, but it renders empty on the live page and only appears in the datasheet.
No, and neither could. The scheme caps recommended retail price at £37,000, with a route for a version in the same interpolation family as one under the cap up to a ceiling of £42,000, and two bands worth £3,750 and £1,500. No Porsche appears on the government list at all, and exactly one Audi does, the A2 e-tron in the lower band. The cheapest car in this comparison is around £20,000 above the ceiling.
Because both manufacturers publish more than one. Porsche runs two UK price sets £1,200 to £1,800 apart, one on its model start pages and one on its main model and finance pages, neither dated. Audi is worse: we found four different prices for the Q6 Sportback across audi.co.uk with a 750 pound spread, a consistent 50 pound offset between its model pages and its comparison modules, and a legacy URL path still serving the superseded car at 388PS where the current page says 462PS. Neither brand publishes a dated UK price list for these cars, which is why we price from the funders.
If you want the most car for the money, the Q6, and specifically the rear drive 83kWh version that has no Macan equivalent. If you are on a long agreement, the Q6 again on the warranty. If you want the car to feel special, the Macan, and that is a legitimate thing to want. In practice these two are close enough mechanically that the monthly will decide it, and funders price the same platform very differently between a Porsche and an Audi, so the sensible thing is to get both quoted and compare the actual numbers.
LetsLease is a credit broker rather than the lender. We arrange the agreement and place it with a funder such as Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens or Santander, and that funder owns the vehicle and holds the agreement with you. Because we work across several funders rather than one, we can compare how each prices the same car.