RE: Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid
Sunday 26th February 2017
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.
Get your zero-emission smug drive on hereThe 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."
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.
Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid
Porsche corrupts the holier than thou hybrid image with monstrous 680hp Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid
Sit. Go fast. Stop. Recharge. Go again.
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
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?
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"...
Discussion
The reason why the 911 has always had a following is as much to do with its packaging as anything else. The combination of strong performance, in a relatively light weight body, 4 seats (well almost!), and reasonable luggage space made it a usable proposition for many, especially those who had got to a stage in life to afford a proper performance car, but still needed to stick the kids in the back occasionally. The rear engine layout was forgivable in that context because it offered so much in return.
The excuse is often given that without the likes of the Panamera, and very specifically the Cayenne before it, the 911 wouldn't exist. Having owned a second series Cayenne Turbo, it still had a lot of Porscheness about it. It certainly offered an SUV experience at that time that you couldn't really get elsewhere. But now we are confronted by a behemoth that is not far off twice the weight of my old 997, and so stuffed full of technology that I don't imagine the driver needs to be awake most of the time. All in the name of ecology with performance (I wish someone would do a study of how much energy is actually consumed producing these things, and the environmental damage done in mining all the rare earths etc required in all that battery/ electronic technology- maybe they have).
If ever there was a time when we are crying out for the return of the lightness, and simplicity that the great designers like Porsche and Chapman embodied it is now. Energy consumption is certainly something we should all be concerned about but this surely isn't the answer.
The excuse is often given that without the likes of the Panamera, and very specifically the Cayenne before it, the 911 wouldn't exist. Having owned a second series Cayenne Turbo, it still had a lot of Porscheness about it. It certainly offered an SUV experience at that time that you couldn't really get elsewhere. But now we are confronted by a behemoth that is not far off twice the weight of my old 997, and so stuffed full of technology that I don't imagine the driver needs to be awake most of the time. All in the name of ecology with performance (I wish someone would do a study of how much energy is actually consumed producing these things, and the environmental damage done in mining all the rare earths etc required in all that battery/ electronic technology- maybe they have).
If ever there was a time when we are crying out for the return of the lightness, and simplicity that the great designers like Porsche and Chapman embodied it is now. Energy consumption is certainly something we should all be concerned about but this surely isn't the answer.
Sounds like an absolutely ridiculous machine, I can't deny it has a certain attraction.
Plug-in hybrids start the NEDC tests fully charged, and most of the time they'll run fully electric until the battery is totally depleted - hence why cars like the 918 and this can get very high economy figures despite having thirsty engines.
RumbleOfThunder said:
jamespink said:
I love the marketing, the car comes standard with everything! Makes me thing the testing procedure is a little off when it rates this car as capable of almost 100MPG...
Yeah that seems ambitious. I thought a Prius was in the 60-70mpg range?!Krikkit said:
Sounds like an absolutely ridiculous machine, I can't deny it has a certain attraction.
Plug-in hybrids start the NEDC tests fully charged, and most of the time they'll run fully electric until the battery is totally depleted - hence why cars like the 918 and this can get very high economy figures despite having thirsty engines.
Makes the test horse sRumbleOfThunder said:
jamespink said:
I love the marketing, the car comes standard with everything! Makes me thing the testing procedure is a little off when it rates this car as capable of almost 100MPG...
Yeah that seems ambitious. I thought a Prius was in the 60-70mpg range?!
t doesn't it, I might as well run my car on fart gas from last nights curry, that might get me 3-4 miles before I need to start the engine on a good day....Chris Stott said:
Paddy_N_Murphy said:
WTAF : 0-62mph in 3.4 seconds
I think this is brilliant
Still around a second slower than a Tesla P100D I think this is brilliant
The Panamera will of course be a better proposition and still mind bendingly quick but it does make me wonder, if the Model S is the first go really, what EV acceleration is possible, its still early days but they dont seem to have the traction issues IC cars do, no winding up of all that driveline mass the same way that then has to be deployed tot he tyres in one hit, just a very tight loop between, motor, ecu, tyres and traction, pointless as 2.28 seconds to sixty is completely unnecessary, a neat party trick but part of me wonders how much faster they can get, someone is going to get into tuning them and this is still a fairly sensible 4 door exec, EV Hypercars, how fast will they be, is a sub 1 sec sixty mpg dash possible ?
J4CKO said:
Yeah, just over, P100D managed it in 2.28 ! a road car that is getting on for something that rocked my tiny brain as a kid, Will Gollops Metro 6R4, Murray Walker said it "does zero to sixty in 1.9 seconds" and luckily it was recorded as I thought I hadnt heard it correctly, surely that was impossible, I rewound it and yes, it was correct what I had heard, 1.9 seconds at a time when supercars were still typically > 5 sec, and now the two and a bit toone, leather lined unholy offspring of a Jag XF and a Milk Float is knocking on that door.
The Panamera will of course be a better proposition and still mind bendingly quick but it does make me wonder, if the Model S is the first go really, what EV acceleration is possible, its still early days but they dont seem to have the traction issues IC cars do, no winding up of all that driveline mass the same way that then has to be deployed tot he tyres in one hit, just a very tight loop between, motor, ecu, tyres and traction, pointless as 2.28 seconds to sixty is completely unnecessary, a neat party trick but part of me wonders how much faster they can get, someone is going to get into tuning them and this is still a fairly sensible 4 door exec, EV Hypercars, how fast will they be, is a sub 1 sec sixty mpg dash possible ?
2.2 seconds is about the limit for current normal road tyres. Check YouTube chanel Eingineering Explained for full description. In fact the figure for P100 is more like 2.5 seconds but there is a 1 foot roll in that knocks approx 0.3 seconds off this**. Of course dragsters can murder this figure due to super sticky non legal tyres.The Panamera will of course be a better proposition and still mind bendingly quick but it does make me wonder, if the Model S is the first go really, what EV acceleration is possible, its still early days but they dont seem to have the traction issues IC cars do, no winding up of all that driveline mass the same way that then has to be deployed tot he tyres in one hit, just a very tight loop between, motor, ecu, tyres and traction, pointless as 2.28 seconds to sixty is completely unnecessary, a neat party trick but part of me wonders how much faster they can get, someone is going to get into tuning them and this is still a fairly sensible 4 door exec, EV Hypercars, how fast will they be, is a sub 1 sec sixty mpg dash possible ?
- ** this mechanism is used to ensure consistency with historical figures where the same methods were used. Now we could use GPS or similar to get more accurate figures but they would look worse when compaired to 70s/80s/90s figures.
J4CKO said:
Yeah, just over, P100D managed it in 2.28 ! a road car that is getting on for something that rocked my tiny brain as a kid, Will Gollops Metro 6R4, Murray Walker said it "does zero to sixty in 1.9 seconds" and luckily it was recorded as I thought I hadnt heard it correctly, surely that was impossible, I rewound it and yes, it was correct what I had heard, 1.9 seconds at a time when supercars were still typically > 5 sec, and now the two and a bit toone, leather lined unholy offspring of a Jag XF and a Milk Float is knocking on that door.
Yeah, I remember Will Gollop's 6R4... 1.9s on wet tarmac/gravel... and flat out at 120mph. Anything under 5s was superfast... now you need to be under 3 to be in that bracket.
My brother-in-law has a P90D... it's LOL fast. But he will most likely swap it for a Panamera sometime this year (creating a 3 Porsche garage - Panamera, Cayenne Diesel S, 991GT3). When I saw him last weekend, he was talking Panamera Turbo, but now this has been announced I'm sure he'll want this instead.
Green1man said:
J4CKO said:
Yeah, just over, P100D managed it in 2.28 ! a road car that is getting on for something that rocked my tiny brain as a kid, Will Gollops Metro 6R4, Murray Walker said it "does zero to sixty in 1.9 seconds" and luckily it was recorded as I thought I hadnt heard it correctly, surely that was impossible, I rewound it and yes, it was correct what I had heard, 1.9 seconds at a time when supercars were still typically > 5 sec, and now the two and a bit toone, leather lined unholy offspring of a Jag XF and a Milk Float is knocking on that door.
The Panamera will of course be a better proposition and still mind bendingly quick but it does make me wonder, if the Model S is the first go really, what EV acceleration is possible, its still early days but they dont seem to have the traction issues IC cars do, no winding up of all that driveline mass the same way that then has to be deployed tot he tyres in one hit, just a very tight loop between, motor, ecu, tyres and traction, pointless as 2.28 seconds to sixty is completely unnecessary, a neat party trick but part of me wonders how much faster they can get, someone is going to get into tuning them and this is still a fairly sensible 4 door exec, EV Hypercars, how fast will they be, is a sub 1 sec sixty mpg dash possible ?
2.2 seconds is about the limit for current normal road tyres. Check YouTube chanel Eingineering Explained for full description. In fact the figure for P100 is more like 2.5 seconds but there is a 1 foot roll in that knocks approx 0.3 seconds off this**. Of course dragsters can murder this figure due to super sticky non legal tyres.The Panamera will of course be a better proposition and still mind bendingly quick but it does make me wonder, if the Model S is the first go really, what EV acceleration is possible, its still early days but they dont seem to have the traction issues IC cars do, no winding up of all that driveline mass the same way that then has to be deployed tot he tyres in one hit, just a very tight loop between, motor, ecu, tyres and traction, pointless as 2.28 seconds to sixty is completely unnecessary, a neat party trick but part of me wonders how much faster they can get, someone is going to get into tuning them and this is still a fairly sensible 4 door exec, EV Hypercars, how fast will they be, is a sub 1 sec sixty mpg dash possible ?
- ** this mechanism is used to ensure consistency with historical figures where the same methods were used. Now we could use GPS or similar to get more accurate figures but they would look worse when compaired to 70s/80s/90s figures.
Amazing that 2 and a bit tonnes can do that, nothing that heavy should shift that quickly ! like a scaled up Tamiya type thing.
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