While the 2024 Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid isn’t exactly the most environmentally-friendly plug-in hybrid you could choose, there’s an updated version of the Stuttgart super-sedan on the way next year, and it packs a 25.9kWh battery. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 1.8kWh more capacity than an entire first-generation Nissan Leaf gave you. Not bad.
Porsche is putting that extra capacity to good use, with a claimed electric-only range of 91 km (56 miles) for the Turbo E-Hybrid, up from about 50 km (31 miles) in the old model, an improvement of nearly 45%. That range could possibly be even greater in versions that don’t come with a hefty 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine, but Porsche hasn’t announced those just yet (they’re on the way). Porsche also doesn’t say what the electric-only top speed is, but previous Panamera eHybrid models were limited to around 140 kph (86 mph) in electric drive mode, which is more than enough for a silent, emissions-free daily commute in your 4-door supercar.
I’m not sure how quickly you’ll arrive at 140 kph running on that electric motor, but it’ll be considerably sooner than the outgoing Panamera E-Hybrids — Porsche has upped the electric motor output from 136 hp to 187 hp. That’s around 30% more, which is a very significant boost. Further, Porsche has upgraded the onboard charger for the Panamera eHybrid to 11kW AC (from 7kW), meaning that 25.9kWh battery can be refilled in a little over two hours from empty at the right charging station — an output that’s entirely practical to find in most places.
While the Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid is still a car best left to the petrolheads, the fact that you could feasibly own one of these and keep it in electric-only mode basically all the time — outside moments of hard acceleration or trips over 50 miles — shows how far PHEV drivetrains have matured. Not that this is a good reason to buy one, of course! A true BEV is still by far the better choice if your goal is to maximize zero-emission miles.
Granted, on a purely cost basis, this is one of the more expensive ways you could imagine to get around using electrons. The Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid will start at 192,500 Euro when it goes on sale in March 2024 (though other E-Hybrid trims will be considerably cheaper). No US pricing has yet been announced.
For more, you can check out Porsche’s press release.
Keyword: New Panamera E-Hybrid has a battery bigger than a Gen 1 Nissan Leaf