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AKARTA: German premium carmaker Porsche AG announced in a media statement sent to The Jakarta Post on Friday that its new SUV model will be named the Macan.

Macan is the Indonesian word for tiger and the SUV will combine suppleness, power, fascination and dynamics as the core characteristics of the new off-road car.

“The Macan combines all the characteristics of a sports car with the benefits of a SUV and is a genuine Porsche,” Bernhard Maier, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Porsche AG said in the statement.

“The name of a new Porsche has to fit with the brand, sound good in very many languages and dialects and evoke positive associations.”

As the fifth Porsche model line, the Macan is a central plank of Strategy 2018, by which the sports car manufacturer will expand its model portfolio. Porsche intends the Macan to emulate the success of the Cayenne.

Cynthia Ratna, spokeswoman for Porsche in Indonesia, told the Post she was pleasantly surprised and proud when she learned of the choice of name for the new model and that the decision to give the car an Indonesian name had been made by Porsche’s head office in Germany.

The SUV will be produced at the company’s plant in Leipzig, starting in 2013. The site in the Saxon city is being expanded into a fully fledged production plant including body assembly line and paint shop.