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Four-seat grand tourer brings yet more performance and luxury to the added-desirability super-saloon segment

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Porsche has been making Porsche Panamera grand touring saloons for more than two full model generations and 15 years now, and with its new top-of-the-range, ultimate-performance plug-in hybrid version, the Turbo S E-Hybrid, it has corrected an uncharacteristic oversight.

There has never been a factory Panamera with a top speed in excess of 200mph - until now. For good measure, the flagship version has also become the fastest combustion-engined, four-seat, four-door production car yet to lap the Nordschleife.

And that's just the top-tier version. These days, the Panamera's name alone evokes visions of epic, continent-crushing journeys crossing vast distances with a romantic spirit of adventure.

And yet somehow the Panamera has, at times, felt like a car defined by others in the Stuttgart line-up. A four-door 911, you may remember, when it was brand new. More recently, it has been trapped in the shade of the similarly sized electric Taycan, which has mopped up both attention and company car sales. But Porsche, thankfully, is still committed to the concept of a petrol and now also petrol-electric sports saloon – hence the latest version.

Porsche calls this Panamera the G3. In other words, it’s supposedly the third entirely new generation of the big saloon. You might say that’s overselling things, since it still builds on the one that came out in 2016. Evidently, Porsche disagrees and says there have been “significant modifications to the platform, body structure, drivetrains, chassis and software".

It doesn’t matter a great deal, though, because the outgoing Panamera was still a very compelling car and this updated one has some serious technical tricks up its sleeve.

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We first sampled the new Panamera in Spain in early 2024 and have now had our first taste of it in the UK to see if that promise of wide-open adventure translates to our small island's crowded, pockmarked roads. We've also now tested latecomers to the range in the shape of the Turbo S E-Hybrid and GTS.

DESIGN & STYLING

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid pan 295990

Porsche hasn't made particular bold strokes with the design of this third-generation car. Visually, it’s still very obviously a Panamera - although the front bumper has been entirely redesigned, gaining new air inlets, and the front wings have been raised to create a bigger height difference to the bonnet, which gives the driver more of that 911-typical sensation of peering between the two headlight ‘tunnels’. The rear quarterlight has been made a bit more angular, almost gaining a kind of Hofmeister kink. And the rear light bar has become even more pronounced.

The Panamera is a classic sports saloon and a pretty big one, at 5052mm long and 2166mm wide. That can make it a little tricky to place on smaller roads, although gloriously it hasn't actually grown for this third generation. 

Ever wondered what the difference is between single-, two- and three-chamber air suspension? As a general rule, the more air that an air spring contains, the more it can compress and the softer it will be. Manufacturers then add chambers, because they can be opened or closed off in order to decrease or increase the spring rates. In other words, if you have three chambers, you can have three stiffness settings.

As for powertrains, Porsche has gone hybrid crazy. The only versions without electric assistance are the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Panamera, the four-wheel-drive Panamera 4 and the mid-range GTS. Those lower-level models use the same 349bhp twin-turbocharged 2.9-litre V6 engine that’s updated from the previous generation to deliver an extra 23bhp and 37lb ft of torque, while the GTS uses a 494bhp twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8.

There are also 4 E-Hybrid and 4S E-Hybrid models that combine the same V6 with a 25.9kWh battery and a 188bhp electric motor inside the housing of the ZF-built PDK eight-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Finally, the Turbo E-Hybrid (which is badged simply ‘Turbo’) uses the same electric components but with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8. This engine has been significantly upgraded compared with the outgoing version, mainly so it can continue to comply with emissions demands. It swaps its twin-scroll turbos for single-scroll items, because the latter are physically smaller lumps of metal and thus warm up faster. In turn, they draw less heat from the exhaust system and allow the catalysts to warm up quicker – a requirement for Euro 7. Additional turbo lag is rendered moot by the hybrid system’s torque fill.

Then there's the top-of-the-line Turbo S E-Hybrid. This model is ostensibly a Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid with an angrier V8 and all of the right options boxes ticked. It runs precisely the same 188bhp hybrid drive system as the lesser Turbo, but the 4.0-litre turbo V8 is turned up to produce 592bhp and 590lb ft, making for a 772bhp total system power output that's mighty enough to eclipse a certain new BMW M5. Just as Munich’s own hybrid ’bahnstormer starts rolling out of showrooms; what a remarkable coincidence.

As with the lesser E-Hybrid models, the Turbo S's biggish drive battery enables a company car tax-friendly electric-only range (47 to 59 miles, depending on the version), and thanks to advances in technology, it doesn’t take up any more space or weigh significantly more than the old unit.

Still, even the most basic rear-driven Panamera is quite a heavy car, at about 1.9 tonnes – and to manage that and make sure the Panamera drives like a Porsche, every version now features air suspension as standard.

The standard air suspension set-up now includes adaptive dampers with separate valves for the bump and rebound, so they can be independently adjusted. These more sophisticated dampers have allowed Porsche to change from three-chamber air springs to lighter, simpler two-chamber items.

For Panamera buyers who want sporting appeal without the electrification, there is the GTS model. This version’s suspension and powertrain hardware get unique sporting twists, as does its standard cabin spec, in the way that previous GTS models have made familiar. The adaptively damped, height-adjustable air suspension runs with 10mm-lower ride height than a lesser Panamera has, and with special tuning (passive anti-roll bars twice as stiff as the standard car’s, and special damper and power steering calibrations). You get a torque-vectoring active rear differential for the rear half of the standard four-wheel drive system as standard too, as well as a specially tuned active sports exhaust. Carbon-ceramic brakes and active four-wheel steering remain options.

Externally, GTS models are distinguished by their SportDesign bodykits and black body trim and badging, as well as by Porsche’s signature 21in centre-lock forged alloy wheels.

The truly exciting advances are reserved for the hybrids, however, since the 400V system can be employed to do more than just drive the car. On the optional Porsche Active Ride (PAR) system, it powers four hydraulic pumps – one for each corner. These in turn provide the pressure for hydraulic actuators in the air suspension that can stiffen, soften, lift or lower each corner of the car independently, thus enabling all manner of magic tricks. The air springs themselves go down to one big chamber to make them very soft – most of the stiffness can come from the actuators. PAR also does away with anti-roll bars.

The system draws its data from the steering, accelerator, brakes, accelerometers and, most importantly, sensors in the suspension itself. It doesn’t use cameras to monitor the surface, because they’re unreliable when obscured. Given the suspension can adjust 13 times per second, it doesn’t need to be proactive anyway.

At the car's press launch in Spain in early 2024, Porsche had a static demonstrator that could dance on its suspension like one of those American low-riders. More usefully, PAR can cancel out nearly all body roll, or even overcompensate and lean the car into corners, and counteract pitching under acceleration and braking. And on rough roads it can lift up the wheel for bumps and push it down into potholes.

INTERIOR

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid dash 296010

While all of the mechanical stuff sounds rather enticing, the interior makeover gives some cause for concern, because it follows the trend of going very screen-heavy. The gauge cluster loses its analogue tachometer and becomes one large screen. You can make it display the classic five gauges and it remains nicely clear and configurable, but it does feel a little like replacing a grand piano with a high-end electronic keyboard.

The main multimedia screen is an updated version of the old one and generally works well. It looks out over a redesigned centre console, where the main change is the lack of a gear selector, which has moved to the dashboard. In its place is a lid for a fairly generously sized storage cubby containing a cooled phone-charging pad.

The Panamera retains the touchscreen-controlled air vents that were introduced on the previous generation. Passengers in the rear have the luxury of manual vent controls. Lucky them.

Back on the surface, a good selection of buttons and switches remains, but when you press the buttons, you move the entire panel, which feels like it might be a fault at first. But it's the same on all the cars, and clearly by design. And once you adjust for it, it at least does offer some welcome physical response to otherwise touch-based controls. 

That said, the whole slab is gloss black, and even in our low-mileage test car it was already showing plenty of ugly scratches. There’s more gloss black on the passenger side, and the only way to get rid of it is to order your car with the optional secondary display for £1289.

The cabin design is well proportioned and restrained overall, so it still sort of works, but there’s no doubt that the quality has taken a step back. One upgrade concerns the metal door handles, which are slimmer and more elegant than before.

Our UK test car came with optional twin-tone blue and beige leather seats, which added a nice dash of colour and vibrancy to the interior and were as comfortable and enveloping as you'd hope.

The space on offer is broadly unchanged. Porsche calls this a four-door sports car, rather than a mere saloon, and that’s obvious in the low, outstretched driving position. The seats are superb and rear passengers get the sort of leg room they would expect in a car of this size, though head room is tighter than in some boxier-looking saloons.

While Porsche no longer offers the Panamera in estate-esque Sportback form, there's still plenty of room in the boot of the saloon. It has a capacity of 494 litres and its shallow, long space means that most of your belongings will be easily accessible.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid front tracking 295985

On the road, the standard Panamera feels unfailingly competent, if a little undramatic. Yes, 349bhp and 0-62mph in 4.8sec are very healthy numbers, but thanks to good noise isolation, even power delivery and seamlessly quick shifts from the PDK gearbox, it almost feels a little ordinary. But that’s where the S and GTS versions come in.

The V6 we tested in the UK is as typically refined as you would expect from Porsche: demurely quiet at low speeds but responsive to throttle inputs without much drama. Gearchanges are quick and incredibly smooth, whether you leave the car in auto or take to the steering wheel paddles. It's a bit restrained, though: acceleration is hardly slow, but there's a fuss-free competence to it, which is actually quite likeable. Combined with its low, outstretched driving position, it makes the Panamera a wonderfully relaxing place to be.

The steering-mounted drive selector switches between Normal, Sport and Sport+ modes, and in the hybrids, an e-Power and Hybrid mode. You can adjust the parameters separately using the touchscreen, but there's no individual mode.

The V6 sounds nicely sporting and acquires more of a rasp when you open the optional sports exhaust. We would definitely recommend that, given the muffling effect of emissions demands.

The V8 in the Turbo sounds bellowy and keen but, like the V6, it’s obviously muffled by all the emissions gear. The PDK gearbox is occasionally reluctant to slot a lower ratio too.

When you come to the more expensive end of the model spectrum, you'll find the Panamera GTS actually sounds a bit nicer than the Turbo, with its more genuine, woofling V8 exhaust tuning, whereas the Turbo S uses more stereo-speaker digital fakery when you open its taps and dial up its Sport mode, which is a bit of a shame. 

But the torque the Turbo S's hybrid system produces can catapult it out of tight bends in high gears before you’ve even found the limit of the accelerator travel, making 2.4 tonnes as nought. The V8 engine also likes to rev and keeps the car savagely on the boil when it is. It's a spectacularly fast saloon.

The 494bhp GTS, by contrast, doesn’t pin you back into your seat in quite the same way. This is one of those engines that appeals as much for what you might call qualitative performance reasons as quantitative ones. It sounds much more genuine than a Turbo hybrid thanks to that woofling exhaust. Get the motor on song, from about 3000rpm, and the car leaves little room to doubt its urgency. Moreover, the business of keeping it in the right gear using the paddle shifters, and mentally engaging with what you’re doing, is all part of the appeal.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid front corner 295993

One thing that has always struck us about Porsches is that they all have an innate Porsche feel, regardless of whether you’re in a 911 or a Cayenne. The firm could probably make a dump truck feel like a Porsche. The Panamera, despite its 1.9-tonne kerb weight and 2165mm width, is not a dump truck, but it does continue that legacy.

It starts with the suspension, which strikes a masterful balance between ride comfort on the one hand and retaining the connectedness you want from a Porsche on the other. You never get the ‘magic carpet’ feel of an air-sprung Mercedes-Benz, but all the movements are so well controlled and damped that there’s no harshness whatsoever.

We’ve always rated the air suspension on non-hybridised Panameras, so without driving the new car back to back with an older version, we wouldn’t want to claim a dramatic improvement, but it is very good. So too is the steering: it has that Porsche-typical weighty, unfiltered feel. 

Traction is incredibly strong as well, even in the rear-driven version on wet Tarmac. Most buyers opt for the 4, but unless you’re going to be frequently climbing snowy hills, there’s no real need.

Panamera Turbo

We only got to drive the Turbo on track in Spain, so we’ll need to try it on the road for a definitive verdict, particularly as Porsche says that the fancy suspension serves primarily to improve ride comfort rather than handling. Our limited experience still served to demonstrate that it’s a very impressive system.

In the demonstrations that Porsche set up, it was actually more spectacular to stand outside and see a car drive over an undulating surface with its wheels hopping up and down while its body remained nearly perfectly level.

We did some acceleration, braking and slalom tests, and the magical thing was that it all felt entirely undramatic. Swapping to a Turbo without Porsche Active Ride, it suddenly felt all at sea, even though it would probably compare quite favourably with conventional rivals.

At higher speeds, you truly can feel how the body movements (or lack thereof) are unlike anything else you might have driven, to the point where it messes with your sense of equilibrium. We would need some time on regular roads to figure out if we like it, but the effect is spectacular.

Engaging Sport or Sport Plus mode changes the system’s logic so that it aims to make the Turbo as composed yet natural as possible for intuitive performance driving. While this is not as dramatic, it does serve to make the 2.4-tonne car feel far lighter than it is.

The weight still shows, though, especially under braking, and while Porsche has improved the brake feel in the hybrid Panameras, you can still clearly feel the transition from the mushy regenerative phase to the firm friction phase.

Nevertheless, the way the Turbo enters tight turns and negotiates direction changes is impressive – if not as impressive as the way that it appears to simply flatten big crests and compressions.

In extremis, we didn’t feel as connected to the car as we might have done in a lighter, pure-ICE car without this system, but then that’s comparing apples to oranges. And anyway, the 400V hybrid system is necessary to power the hydraulic pumps.

Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid

Porsche offered us the chance to drive this derivative in Germany recently. And what really makes this car special is its uncanny spread of ability.

The Porsche Active Ride system (which works courtesy of the car’s 400V hybrid electronics, so you can’t get it on any Panamera that doesn’t have an E-Hybrid badge) makes it capable of superb cruising comfort and isolation. It leans into bends and pitches fore and aft almost imperceptibly - yet so effectively - to counteract the lateral and longitudinal forces that would otherwise act on your body as you slow, corner and accelerate again.

The engineers are totally honest: this is a comfort-boosting technology, not one intended to create grip or handling dynamism. (It’s so effective that they could probably license it to Rolls-Royce or, perhaps more likely, Bentley.) That's why, when you put the car into Sport mode, the clever body-level manipulation features switch off and you’re left with a car that just handles like an unmistakably large and heavy but characteristically finely balanced and composed Porsche super-saloon. Which is to say, very well indeed.

Panamera GTS

The GTS's handling is poised, level, precise and contained on the road, with good power-on cornering balance for a car of this size and weight. There’s no disguising the Panamera’s girth, it’s true, but the GTS does feel a degree or two lighter than a Turbo in its relative freedom from inertia.

It's still a four-wheel-drive, two-tonne Porsche, of course. So what’s missing? Some special front-axle hardware perhaps, a little like the equivalent Cayenne gets, which might have added even more positivity to the car’s turn-in, and given that telling extra dynamic lift. Without that – or just more of a dynamic point of difference for this car, however conjured – you wonder if there’s quite enough for a really keen driver to get his teeth into here. The GTS wants to be the natural enthusiast's choice in the range but, despite being the only unhybridised V8 option, it leaves you wanting just a little more grip, playful cornering balance and tactile feel.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid front tracking 295984

Prices for the standard Panamera start at £82,500, before you get acquainted with Porsche’s famously extensive options list. It wouldn’t suit a typical Toyota Corolla buyer, but I love that Porsche still lets you spec your car exactly how you want it. After a bit of a play with the configurator, we ended up at £100,000, which isn’t a great deal more than you'll pay for a similarly equipped Audi S7 (which has a diesel V6) or BMW 840i (a petrol straight six).

Here's a good example: with its plentiful options accounted for, our UK-spec Panamera test car was priced at £104,256. Extras included 20in wheels (£2219), fetching two-tone leather interior (£3692), the 4+1 rear seats (£719), the Sports Chrono package (£1371) and HD matrix LED headlights (£2033).

The Turbo starts at £141,400 and you’ll need an extra £6978 for Porsche Active Ride suspension. That’s quite a bit more than the Audi RS7, but that’s due for replacement relatively soon. Mercedes and BMW have yet to reveal prices for the newly hybridised Mercedes-AMG E-Class and M5.

The Turbo S certainly looks to be reaching a bit with its near-£170k price. Consider, however, that it gets 21in centre-lock wheels, PCCB carbon brakes, four-wheel steering, PTV+ active torque vectoring, and Weissach’s new and ingenious Porsche Active Ride hydraulically manipulated suspension system all for no extra cost – and that the extra cost that all of the above would add to a lesser Turbo E-Hybrid would actually bring it to within a pretty scant £2000 of the Turbo S’s price anyway - and very little millionaire maths may be needed to convince you how uncommonly reasonably priced it is. So convinced, in fact, that you might well feel like lavishing the extra £11k that Porsche is asking for the optional ‘Carbon Aerokit’ high-downforce option (extended sills, diffuser and chin spoiler, etc) that made that Nürburgring lap time possible in the first place.

VERDICT

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Porsche Panamera Turbo S e Hybrid rear tracking 295986

The Porsche Panamera is an excellent sports saloon that still offers a good choice of petrol and hybrid engines and it manages to combine genuine driving engagement with impressive ride comfort. Does it matter that the interior has been cheapened slightly (but also made more practical)? A little, sure, but it’s easy to overlook on a car that has almost no serious rivals left, does everything else so well, and would be hugely enjoyable every day. 

Even in base form, then, the Panamera is a superbly well-rounded package that would make for a truly enjoyable daily driver. And yet - as is so often not the case in luxury cars like this, when the law of diminishing marginal returns can prevent the range-topping cars from really shining - it's the Turbo and Turbo S E-Hybrid Panamera that really stand out. 

I’m not sure if VW Group politics would allow it, but this suspension system simply has to end up on a Bentley Flying Spur before long. The demo videos (just Google 'Porsche Active Ride') are marvels just to watch.

If you had all the money in the world to throw at them, the sheer duality of these petrol-electric V8s might actually make them the best Panameras to aim it at. The Turbo S is an uncannily good fast GT - supremely convincing in luxurious motoring, and still superb to drive when the mood takes. It's a remarkable technical tour de force for a car company whose engineering powers now seem second to none.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As part of Autocar’s road test team, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews, comparison tests, as well as the odd feature and news story. 

Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s eight-page road tests, which are the most rigorous in the business thanks to independent performance, fuel consumption and noise figures.

James Attwood

James Attwood, digital editor
Title: Acting magazine editor

James is Autocar's acting magazine editor. Having served in that role since June 2023, he is in charge of the day-to-day running of the world's oldest car magazine, and regularly interviews some of the biggest names in the industry to secure news and features, such as his world exclusive look into production of Volkswagen currywurst. Really.

Before first joining Autocar in 2017, James spent more than a decade in motorsport journalist, working on Autosport, autosport.com, F1 Racing and Motorsport News, covering everything from club rallying to top-level international events. He also spent 18 months running Move Electric, Haymarket's e-mobility title, where he developed knowledge of the e-bike and e-scooter markets. 

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.