(Bloomberg) -- If you’re like me, you’ve focused so much lately on electric vehicles—will they or won’t they become well made, reliable, affordable and fun—that some existing combustion models have fallen through the cracks.
Porsche’s Panamera sedan, which made its debut in 2009, was one of them. The electric Taycan sedan stole a lot of the Panamera’s mojo when it premiered in 2019, halving Panamera sales almost immediately and attracting massive amounts of buyers new to the brand. Globally, Panamera sales in 2024 are down 20% from a year earlier, largely because of dwindling interest from buyers in China.
Driving the 2025 Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid in Los Angeles was a happy reminder that this twin-turbo V-8 hybrid is something we shouldn’t let go. As the future of EVs is debated in boardrooms and congressional hearings, hybrids like this road-hungry workhorse are looking more appealing by the day.
The Essentials
The Panamera is the family-size sedan in the Porsche lineup, larger than the two-door 911 but not, say, the Macan SUV. The Turbo S hybrid version is the big power player among the Panamera line—a car for the boss—with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price that starts at $226,500 but will punch much higher.
The one I drove, painted in what the company calls Provence purple, rang up to $250,165, courtesy of such extras as high-gloss black wheels ($1,300), thermal- and noise-insulated glass ($1,370) and a Porsche crest emblazoned on the armrest in the center console ($300). Do I want all those things and more when I spec out this car? Yes, yes I do. I didn’t even mind the faux leather interior and Pepita seat inserts that throw back to the original air-cooled Porsches of the 1960s.
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It has a 4.0-liter, 771-horsepower, V-8 engine paired with an e-motor found in the Porsche 911 GTS; this new e-machine is now cleverly integrated completely into the PDK transmission, for more efficient energy transfer. It comes standard with an eight-speed automatic transmission, all-wheel drive and rear-axle steering along with torque vectoring, which helps agility by electronically controlling the power sent to each wheel.
We don’t have Environmental Protection Agency figures yet, since it’s not due in dealerships until the second quarter of 2025, but the previous Panamera Turbo S hybrid reached up to 48 MPGe in combined city and highway driving. And we know that top speed is 202 mph and that zero to 60 mph with the standard Sport Chrono package is a blistering 2.8 seconds. (Top speed under all-electric mode is limited to 87 mph; total driving range under electric-only is roughly 55 miles.)
Basically, anything you can do in the Taycan, you can do in the Panamera backward and in heels, so to speak—without having to wait for a battery charge, since this one can recuperate while you drive.
The Good
I didn’t go anywhere especially exotic during my two-night test of the Panamera, but that was enough time to let me fall in love with how it drives. Everything from the acceleration to the steering to the braking was instant. Tight. Balanced. Dialed in. I haven’t used superlatives with regard to a sedan in a long time, but they apply here.
Both the electric and the combustion systems can be used together or independently. Drive modes from pure electric to sport focused the car for my specific purpose in the moment, though I spent most of my time in sport—I had only a few days with it; I needed to get my kicks. Driving it enlivened even such mundane errands as picking up dry cleaning.
I have a feeling that’s because many of the engineering goodies that make the 911 so thrilling can also be found here (and I’m pretty sure I used them all). For instance, I know the Panamera’s torque vectoring helped me dance across Mulholland Drive at dusk. The rear-axle steering helped me wind through the chaotic downtown LA streets even at a snail’s pace. The eight-speed PDK gearbox with manual mode let me grab paddles for imperceptible gear changes as I broke free from traffic and reached for speed on Highway 101 early one morning. Not that I ever actually approached this car’s max. You’d need a track for that.
The Bad
The purple paint on this people pleaser did it no favors. And the price tag isn’t for the faint of heart.
A Porsche Active Ride chassis system comes standard in the Turbo S E-Hybrid and is available only in the Panamera models with an E-Hybrid powertrain. It raises the entire car by 55 millimeters (a little more than 2 inches) when you get inside, then lowers it again when you drive away. This acrobatic display, which looks pretty gimmicky, enables the air suspension to adapt to each individual wheel when in motion, translating into a more balanced and comfortable drive.
After multiple days watching the Panamera raise and lower itself like an animal getting up to greet me, I’m still not sure whether, on balance, I think it’s cool or cringey. What’s certain is that it’s very obvious, the type of thing that’ll have folks standing around gawking in a parking lot for a moment. If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t want extra attention, you’ll quickly disable the feature.
If You Remember One Thing
EVs have gotten a lot of attention lately, but with hybrids on the rise, it’s too early to count out the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. If you ask me, it deserves a comeback.
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