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Petrol-electric Porsche Panamera has real-world pace to spare and looks like good value next to its rangemates. Not without one or two drawbacks to drive – but still impressive.

What is it?

The Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid is more fresh meat for the lower end of the Porsche Panamera range – which is a confusing enough place to negotiate as it is.

There’s the entry-level Panamera, the Panamera 4, the 4S and the 4S Diesel to choose from down here already: sub-£100k options all, powered by no fewer than three different engines and offering the choice of either one driven axle or two.

Into that mix now enters the four-wheel drive Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, adding V6 petrol-electric power to the existing choice of V6 petrol or V8 diesel engines – and that’s not counting the V8 petrol or V8 petrol-electric options on offer if you’re prepared to spend upwards of £100,000 on a car with that ever-alluring 'turbo' badge on the bootlid.

The hybrid slots into the range between the regular Panamera 4 and the pair of 4S models on price, being slightly slower-accelerating than both of them on paper – but, confusingly, also more powerful than both.

Its combustion engine is a detuned version of the twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 from the 4S, which produces 326bhp and 332lb ft of torque. Electrical motive force comes from a 134bhp, 295lb ft motor mounted upstream of the car’s eight-speed ‘PDK’ gearbox and four-wheel drive system. So the car is technically similar to ‘plug-in’ hybrids from BMW, Mercedes and Audi, which use electric and piston engines driving a common transmission - rather than those made by the likes of Mitsubishi and Volvo with their ‘electric rear axles’.

Like other Porsche Panameras, the car offers four doors, four seats and a large liftback-style boot, and all are combined with a curving roofline that Porsche hopes you’ll consider sufficiently ‘coupé-like’ to consider the car more elegant and desirable than the average three-box saloon. And if you don’t, the 4 E-Hybrid will also be available as a Sport Turismo shooting brake.

Panamera e hybrid 1015

What's it like?

Given you’re getting an extra 22bhp and 110lb ft here compared with the 4S and you’re freeing up nearly £10k on what you might have spent on that car, you might consider this the sweet spot of the whole Porsche Panamera range. It doesn't drive that way - not quite, anyway - though this is still a car with a lot going for it.

Real-world performance is always better represented by in-gear acceleration than standing-start times, after all – and in manual mode, picking up from humdrum speeds in a fairly high gear, the E-Hybrid feels both instantly muscular and brisk.

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The car offers ‘electric’, ‘hybrid’, ‘sport’ and ‘sport+’ driving modes, covering about 25 miles on a full battery charge in the first of them – and doing so with plenty of performance for town motoring and in typically hushed calm. The contrast when you move from zero-emission mode into ‘sport’, however, is a big one – the car’s twin-turbo V6 growling angrily and conjuring a distinct performance flavour.

When punting the car around at urban speeds, the Porsche Panamera’s eight-speed twin-clutch gearbox can struggle to make the car feel at once responsive and smooth – but when you’re accelerating hard out of town, it works quickly and blends together the dual sources of torque very well. The faster it revs, the less gutsy and special the car’s powertrain feels – but it never feels less than assertive on the road.

Another advantage the E-Hybrid gets over the more expensive 4S petrol is adaptive air suspension as standard, which makes the Panamera ride and handle with an impressive mix of suppleness, isolation and good body control. The weight penalty of that hybrid drive battery does present itself under particularly high lateral loads but isn’t a barrier to enjoying the car at normal road speeds when it feels commendably precise, and both agile and well-balanced for a car of its size.

Panamera e hybrid 1027

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Should I buy one?

For outright driver appeal, few luxury GTs beat the Panamera. This particular one would still rank behind both a Turbo and a 4S Diesel for us, for different reasons – but if you’re looking to beat the rush and switch to electrified power in your modern performance GT sooner rather than later, there are few more commendable ways to do it.

Equally, if you’re simply a Porsche Panamera buyer looking to make your money go as far as possible, the E-Hybrid’s got plenty of rational appeal – and it’s a vastly better car to drive than its immediate predecessor was.

Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid

Where Feltham On sale now Price £81,141 Engine V6, 2894cc, twin-turbocharged petrol; plus electric motor Power 456bhp at 6000rpm Torque 516lb ft at 1100-4500rpm Gearbox 8-spd twin-clutch automatic Kerb weight 2170kg Top speed 172mph 0-62mph 4.6sec Fuel economy 113.0mpg CO2 rating 56g/km Rivals Lexus LC500h, Tesla Model S 90D

Panamera e hybrid 1026

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce PhantomTesla RoadsterAriel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren SennaRenault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.

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xxxx 5 September 2017

Deprication affects ICE too

Its big time on all Panamera's, including Diesels. Don't believe me, look at the number of low mileage second hand ones on the Porsche Website.

porkerfan 24 October 2017

xxxx wrote:

xxxx wrote:

Its big time on all Panamera's, including Diesels. Don't believe me, look at the number of low mileage second hand ones on the Porsche Website.

 

52.  Gosh!

Ski Kid 5 September 2017

the depreciation is enough to shut up shop

So to speak, I would not be confident with any ev or hybrid buying new ,buy second hand at ther price of a conventional combustion alternative to allow for massive loss to original purchaser .The learning curve is quite vast with this I fear,resulting in obsolescence within years of purchase will it be 3, 5 or 10.Also,depends on the new kids on the block ie Dyson etc.Plus other new technologies.

BertoniBertone 5 September 2017

Depreciation ?  Who cares

Depreciation ?  Who cares these days ? Can you see anyone this side of a Lotto-winner paying for a Panamera other than with a PCP ?  Mmm: thought not.  These will go to people who'll rent at an 'affordable' and 'tax deductible' figure and give it back to Porsche AG to re-fettle after 3 years...to then punt out again at another (lower) rental figure....until, 10-15 years later, it shows up a local scrap metal merchant near you.....

si73 5 September 2017

Ski Kid wrote:

Ski Kid wrote:

So to speak, I would not be confident with any ev or hybrid buying new ,buy second hand at ther price of a conventional combustion alternative to allow for massive loss to original purchaser .The learning curve is quite vast with this I fear,resulting in obsolescence within years of purchase will it be 3, 5 or 10.Also,depends on the new kids on the block ie Dyson etc.Plus other new technologies.

I don't know, used hybrids seem to be quite expensive, look at the price of a 10 year old prius or insight compared with say a focus or civic, they aren't cheap.

Porus 4 September 2017

Feltham?

Did you lose the wheels?