The latest Porsche Panamera S Hybrid is a kinder, gentler flagship fastback for the eco-conscious towkay.
If you still need convincing about hybrid technology, look no further than the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid. Porsche has essentially transplanted the entire powertrain from the Cayenne S Hybrid into the Panamera’s bodyshell.
This means that Porsche’s four-door luxury limo now gets its smallest-ever engine – a 3-litre supercharged V6 (itself borrowed from the Audi S4) in place of the 400bhp 4.8-litre V8 in the Panamera S.
The 3-litre is no weakling, though, delivering a keen 333bhp and 440Nm of torque. But wait, there’s more (as those TV ads would say)– a compact electric motor (essentially a large disc-shaped device mounted between engine and gearbox) provides 47bhp of extra shove, giving it a total of 380bhp. Maximum combined torque is particularly impressive, with 580Nm at a startlingly low 1000rpm.
This motor draws its power from a battery pack, mounted under the boot floor for weight distribution reasons – weight balance is a near-ideal 51:49 front to rear.
The rest of the Panamera range gets a 7-speed PDK dual-clutch transmission, but courtesy of its Cayenne-derived hardware, the Panamera Hybrid has an 8-speed torque converter Tiptronic S automatic instead.
The PDK isn’t badly missed, because the Tiptronic auto is slick and responsive, and comes with the same steering-mounted shifters as the PDK. That eighth gear also allows for extra-relaxed cruising, with the engine at a barely awake 1500rpm at 100km/h.
The Panamera Hybrid does abandon the all-wheel-drive setup of its Cayenne sibling in favour of a more sporting rear-drive layout. This helps save some weight, too, but the car still weighs 1980kg – a hefty 100kg heavier than the Panamera S, due to the electric motor and dense battery pack.
Performance is storming for a big, near two-tonne luxury fastback equipped with a relatively modest 3-litre. The 100km/h mark is reached in 6 seconds flat (just 0.6 second behind the Panamera S) and it maxes out at 270km/h, making this Porsche the world’s fastest production hybrid.
The manner of its delivery is even more impressive. With a mountain of low-end torque, there is no need to wring out the engine – the car just hurtles off the line and keeps accelerating, its power delivery strong and linear, the V6 note stridently musical all the way to its 6500rpm redline.
Those grin-inducing performance numbers are not the highlight of this car, though – they’re just a happy side effect. As with all hybrids, fuel economy is the headline and the Panamera Hybrid doesn’t disappoint, with a combined consumption figure of 14.7 kilometres per litre. To set it in context, that’s better mileage than what a humble Toyota Vios can offer.
To achieve these remarkable consumption numbers, the Panamera Hybrid relies on its electric motor as much as possible, cutting its engine altogether at town speeds under light throttle so the car wafts around silently like a golf cart until the battery charge drops too low or significant acceleration is needed, at which point the V6 stirs to life again. In pure electric mode, the vehicle can reach 85km/h and go for up to two kilometres, although it cannot do both at the same time.
The engine also cuts out when you come off the throttle at a cruise (such as on a long downhill stretch), so the car basically “sails” (as Porsche describes it) until you open the throttle again. It switches off when you halt for traffic lights, too, although that is a function of the Panamera’s standard stop-start system and not its hybrid powertrain.
When “sailing” and during braking, the car’s energy regeneration system converts kinetic energy into electrical energy to charge the batteries. They also get recharged during normal driving with the combustion engine on – when the system assesses that the engine is delivering more power than the car needs at any point in time, it channels that excess energy to the batteries.
A gauge on the dashboard tells you whether (and to what extent) the batteries are being drawn down or recharged, while another display shows the level of existing charge, where motive power is coming from (engine or batteries) and also whether the batteries are being simultaneously recharged by the engine. It’s fascinating and oddly addictive to see how long you can coast along in electric-only mode.
Porsche’s quoted consumption figure isn’t (as is sometimes the case with manufacturers’ consumption quotes) a theoretical number unachievable except under strict laboratory conditions – we proved it for ourselves.
At the car’s launch in Salzburg, Porsche dispatched us on a 100km mixed route through city traffic, meandering country roads, motorways and rural towns. On a light throttle, sticking within speed limits and “sailing” as frequently as possible without holding up following traffic, but with a couple of accelerative blasts thrown in for good measure (it was hard to resist), we achieved 14.1 kilometres per litre. Others with more self-restraint managed as much as 15.4 kilometres per litre.
Thanks to the car’s propensity to switch to full electric mode the slightest chance it gets, the engine is off and the car isn’t drinking a drop of fuel in most urban settings below 80km/h until the battery charge is exhausted and the engine needs to step in.
In Singapore, it’s likely that the Porsche Panamera Hybrid would be in electric-only mode manoeuvring around carparks, along estate roads, edging along in traffic jams and wafting between the traffic lights in town. And while waiting at the junction, the engine would also remain off, naturally. Add this all up and it probably amounts to 25 percent or more of your daily commute.
Having the engine cut in and out, seemingly at will, is not quite the unsettling experience you might expect. It helps that the car is supremely refined and well-insulated, so the engine hardly makes its presence felt or heard at low revs anyway, and the transition from electric power to internal combustion and back again is so seamless, you need to be really paying attention to notice.
The rest of the car would be instantly familiar to Panamera S owners – which means a classy and beautifully built cabin, a great ride and excellent dynamics aided by the car’s standard air suspension and PASM adaptive damping.
Turn-in is a tad less immediate than on the Panamera S as a result of the extra weight, but it still easily trumps any comparable luxury vehicle in the agility stakes. The brakes, while powerful, are slightly less progressive than before due to the interference of the energy regeneration system, but it’s not a big deal.
All in all, the Porsche Panamera Hybrid is a tremendous achievement, and it ably demonstrates that in this increasingly green age, there is still a future for large, fast and indulgent flagships.
Porsche Panamera S Hybrid 3.0 (A)
ENGINE 2995cc, 24-valves, V6, supercharged, hybrid
MAX POWER 380bhp at 5500rpm
MAX TORQUE 580Nm at 1000rpm
GEARBOX 8-speed automatic with manual select
0-100KM/H 6 seconds
TOP SPEED 270km/h
CONSUMPTION 14.7km/L
PRICE INCL. COE $450,000
Check out the successors to the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid, the Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid models
Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo has space and searing pace
