Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid

Porsche corrupts the holier than thou hybrid image with monstrous 680hp Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid

We're told choice is everything these days but the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid rejects this idea in spectacular fashion. Quite simply it gives you everything. Want a Turbo Panamera with supercar troubling performance stats? Done. Want some electric-only cruising to purr around town with Prius-style piety? Done. Want extra legroom in the back to kick back while someone else does the driving? It's yours.

Sit. Go fast. Stop. Recharge. Go again.

This is a car for life's winners, the kind of people who don't accept compromise and have no time for quibbling over decisions. Choice is for losers. If the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid went to a restaurant it wouldn't waste time perusing the menu - it'd just order everything on it in one go.

The amount of technology in this car and the numbers generated are unprecedented. After all, how many people take a 190mph, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 powered Porsche Panamera Turbo with 550hp, 568lb ft and think "what that needs is an additional and alternative powertrain adding to make it faster still"? Enough to make a £137,140 mega-hybrid a viable proposition it seems, the LWB version with an extra 150mm in the wheelbase costing nearly £10K more.

To the Turbo's twin-turbo V8 Porsche has added a 136hp electric motor that can support the petrol engine or be decoupled for electric-only running as a plug-in hybrid. In this mode you can get up to 31 miles by Porsche's claims. Combined you get 680hp, 627lb ft, 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds and a top speed of 192mph. This with official stats of 97.4mpg and 66g/km. Some step up from the V6 petrol-based Panamera 4 E-Hybrid already in the range, its previously healthy sounding combined 462hp and 516lb ft suddenly looking a little weedy in comparison, even if it costs a relatively reasonable (in this context) £81,141.

Get your zero-emission smug drive on here

The powertrain is, of course, just the core of the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid's technical smorgasbord. "The E-Performance boost strategy of the new Panamera is derived from the Porsche 918 Spyder super sports car," says Porsche, going on to boast that E-Performance is "seen by Porsche as the performance kit of the future; yet it is on the road today."

Ready for some acronyms? You'd better be, because mega hybrid packs a few. An electro-mechanical clutch actuator dubbed ECA controls the power distribution between the petrol and electric motors, the drive going to the wheels via an eight-speed PDK gearbox and PTM variable all-wheel drive. The chassis gets all the bells and whistles too, three chamber air springs paired with PASM adaptive dampers, PDCC Sport active anti-roll, PTV Plus torque vectoring and fitted with 21-inch Turbo Design wheels over PCCB brakes.

Hang on, wasn't that a white car?

The liquid-cooled lithium ion battery under the boot floor can be replenished in six hours via a 10A 230V connection and 3.6kW charger, dropping to 2.4 hours if you add the optional 7.2kW charger. If you want to be really flash you can manage the charging via the PCM module in the car and your smartphone or Apple Watch. A weight figure for all this is notable by its absence from the launch press release - given a Turbo is over two tonnes already and the E-Hybrid already checks in at 2,245kg, don't expect it to be light though.

And with that the corruption of the hybrid car as a symbol of tree-hugging eco consciousness takes another step forward. Place your bets on the car being unveiled at Geneva to Freddy Mercury bellowing "I want it all"...

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housen

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