Meanwhile, if carrying bulky loads is something you do on a regular basis, the X3’s much taller, squarer boot will be a lot more useful. Audi does, of course, make a regular, non-Sportback SQ5 should you need that bit more carrying space, so things aren’t exactly cut and dried here.
The cars provide quite differently for their drivers. If you want something higher-riding but which still feels couched and a bit sports car-like, the Macan ticks the box better than either rival.
You don’t lower yourself down into it, yet, given the straight-legged driving position and the height of the car’s beltline around you, you feel almost as if you must have.
The X3’s driving position feels broadly similar: quite straight-legged, with a high-sprouting steering column, so you could almost be in some ‘all-road’ saloon or estate. In contrast, the Audi is higher of hip point and lower of column, so more ‘sit up and beg’ and, to be honest, more ordinary.
We would all like our £75,000 sporting SUV to come with a touch of quality, wouldn’t we? Well, if the BMW is topping the order for space and practicality, it’s the Porsche that hits back on tactile quality.
There’s a true sense of maturity, elegance and understatement about the Macan Electric’s cabin and, in truth, neither the BMW nor the Audi has an answer to it.
