The Porsche Macan has been spotted during winter testing, traipsing through the snow almost completely free of camouflage ahead of its official unveiling later this year.
Revealing a sleek and swoopy shape, the images show a near-production Porsche Macan with a front end featuring a deep central intake flanked by LED strips that make up the baby SUV’s daytime running lights in a combination that differs from the first spied images seen last year. Below the DRLs sit two smaller lights on each side, mounted into the side air vents.
Chrome window surrounds and brushed aluminium roof rails also add class, but the former could also be helping to disguise some details of the rear window and C-pillar design – similar to last year’s images.
At the rear of the Audi Q5-based Macan is the same Cayenne-style plastic cladding over the tail-lights, used again to mask the production car’s final design, but these are suspected to more mirror the car’s design sketch in being closely related to the those of the new Porsche 991 911. In a clear difference, though, the latest shots show the addition of two more exhaust pipes for a quad-pipe layout.
Due to start production this year, the Porsche Macan is scheduled to arrive in Australia in 2014, joining the growing mid-sized SUV market to take on premium rivals including the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Range Rover Evoque.