Here’s the new third-generation Porsche Panamera
We promise this really is the new third-generation Porsche Panamera. Porsche has reverted to its classic incremental design approach for the switch from G2 to G3 (hope that pleases the model code fans out there), although there are some subtle styling differences if you look hard enough.
Up front there’s a new grille with an extra inlet above the front numberplate, while the arches are more pronounced to ape the 911. The rear looks a little more 911-esque too with a frameless rear window, a redesigned lightbar and a slightly larger black plastic area.
Porsche is launching the G3 with the Panamera 4 and mid-range Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid. The 4 gets a twin-turbo 2.9-litre V6 that makes 352hp and 500Nm of torque, while the Turbo E-Hybrid pairs a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 with a 25.9kWh (gross) battery and an electric motor that’s integrated into the eight-speed PDK gearbox. Total power output? A cool 680hp and 930Nm of torque. And that’s not even going to be the top spec.
As with the previous Panamera, there will be a full-fat Turbo S E-Hybrid that Thomas Friemuth – Porsche’s head of the Panamera product line – tells us will have “significantly higher numbers”.
For reference, the old one had 700hp. Expect a non-hybrid, V8-engined GTS for the drivers too, as well as a V6 hybrid and a base spec rear-wheel drive V6 that’ll just be called ‘Panamera’. Sounds like there won’t be a non-hybrid Turbo S this time though. Got it? Good, neither have we.
Here’s the really big news though: the ultimate dog wagon – the Panamera Sport Turismo – is dead. Yep, you won’t be able to have any of these new Panameras in estate form. Boo.
Still, those PHEV four-doors will now manage up to 90km on a charge in city driving, up from a max of 55km for the previous generation. That’s thanks to a bigger battery of course, but also increased efficiency, better aero, improved regen braking and less rolling resistance. We did say this was incremental progress.
Saying that, Porsche does reckon it has completely transformed the Panamera’s suspension system. All cars come with air suspension, but (nerd alert) the standard setup now gets two air chambers and twin-valve dampers which can be adjusted independently for rebound and compression.
The optional Porsche Active Ride system uses just a single air chamber and those twin-valve dampers combined with a 48-volt electrohydraulic system. This allows each wheel to be controlled independently and means the Panamera gets some proper party tricks.
Those tricks include a ‘comfort access’ mode which lifts the Panamera by 5.5cm at a standstill, ‘dynamic ground clearance’ which can drop the Panamera at speed, ‘active cornering’ which allows it to lean into turns and ‘acceleration and braking comfort’ that uses the active suspension to keep the car flat during (you guessed it) acceleration and braking.
Christoph Bittner, who may be slightly biased as he’s a chassis boffin who works for Porsche, says that this is “the best chassis system available on the market”.
As for the interior, well, you’ve already seen that. Porsche decided to show off the Panamera’s screen fest earlier this month. Click these blue words for the full download, but the basics are a 12.6-inch curved driver display, a 12.3-inch central touchscreen and an optional 10.9-inch passenger screen.
The long-wheelbase Executive version will return for the Chinese market with this latest generation, and over on our shores you’ll be able to spec 21-inch centre lock wheels for the first time on a Panamera. The we-promise-it’s-really-new Panamera.
STORY Greg Potts
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