High-performance Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid variant planned

The Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid is all set to receive a high-output variant. It will have at least 507hp and a top speed of more than 290kph.

The car will likely be unveiled alongside the Panamera Sport Turismo Shooting Brake at the Geneva motor show next month. Porsche hasn’t revealed which powertrain it will use, but when it was suggested that the engine could be a hybridised version of the current 4S engine, Panamera sales and marketing director, Stefan Utsch, said, “That would work.”

The current Panamera 4 E-Hybrid uses the same twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 engine as the 4S but in a different state of tune, producing 329hp. It is mated to a 136hp electric motor, for a claimed 465hp of ‘system power’. The 4S, meanwhile, has 440hp.

Utsch said that the newly developed electric motor is unlikely to become more powerful, but even if it were married unchanged to the 4S motor, it would provide 576hp of system power.

However, it is unlikely that both the petrol engine and electric motor will provide peak power at the same time, so the maximum real-world output is likely to be lower. Even so, the new car — likely to be badged Panamera 4S E-Hybrid — should provide performance second only in the range to the 550hp Panamera Turbo, and that too only because it is likely to weight at least 250kg more than the Turbo.

In India, Porsche is set to launch the second-gen Panamera in March, along with the high-performance Panamera Turbo. The Turbo will be followed by the launch of the long-wheelbase Panamera Executive Turbo. After this, the company will launch more petrol and diesel models towards the end of the year.