The Porsche Panamera Completes 10 Years
Ten years ago, Porsche launched into a new market segment. With the Panamera, the sports car manufacturer presented its first Gran Turismo in April 2009. Like no other car in the luxury car class, this model combines the performance one would expect from a sports car with the luxury and versatility of a touring saloon. While Porsche initially planned production of 20,000 units per year, the Panamera has long since exceeded all expectations: more than 235,000 cars have been delivered to date.
“As a technology platform for innovations that were later transferred to other models, the Panamera has played a significant role in shaping the past ten years of the brand’s history,” explains Michael Steiner, then first Vice President of the product line, today Member of the Executive Board Research and Development. “With its high-performance hybrid variants, it is now above all a trailblazer for electromobility at Porsche.” The current, second model generation is manufactured entirely in the Porsche plant in Leipzig, and comes in three different body variants.
A Porsche for four – over the course of the company’s more than 70-year history, Porsche engineers kept coming back to this idea. In the 1950s, they developed a comfortable four-seater based on the 356. The Type 530 had a lengthened wheelbase, larger doors and a raised roof at the rear. Others followed, including a four-door prototype based on the 911 and, in the 1980s, lengthened variants of the 928. Ferry Porsche used one of these as his private car. In 1988, Porsche made a new attempt with the Type 989: the four-door coupé offered space for two full seats in the rear. The drive power was provided by a V8 front engine. Design elements from the 989 were later incorporated into the 911 of the 993 generation. Like all similar concepts before it, however, the 989 remained a prototype. For economic reasons, development was discontinued at the start of 1992.
The Panamera’s first official appearance was on April 19, 2009 in Shanghai. The first model, internally known as G1, set standards in its class thanks to the wide spread between sportiness and comfort. It was packed with innovations: for the first time, a luxury class production model was offered with a transmission and start-stop system. The top model Panamera Turbo also introduced air suspension with additional air volume on demand, as well as an adjustable, multi-dimensionally extendable rear spoiler. The Gran Turismo also set the course for all other Porsche model lines with its new display and operating concept.
The second Panamera generation (G2) celebrated its world premiere on June 28, 2016. The development involved multiple streams: in addition to the Gran Turismo with a standard and extended wheelbase, a third variant was developed on the same platform: the Sport Turismo. From 2017, its avant-garde design and body concept brought more versatility to the luxury vehicle class.
“With the G2, we managed to carry over the performance-oriented hybrid strategy from the 918 Spyder into the luxury segment,” says Gernot Döllner, Vice President Product Line Panamera from 2011 to 2018, and today responsible for product concept development at Porsche. This strategy was well received by customers: in 2018, 67 percent of all Panamera models delivered in Europe had a hybrid drive.
Porsche set the stage for electromobility with the Panamera in 2011. As the first parallel full hybrid in the luxury class, the Panamera S Hybrid was the most economical Porsche to date, despite a power output of 380 hp. Two years later, the Panamera S E-Hybrid once again led the way in the segment as the world’s first plug-in hybrid – with 416 hp and an all-electric range of 36 kilometres. In the second Panamera generation, Porsche embraced electric performance across all model variants: the boost strategy adapted from the 918 Spyder supercar enabled performance of the kind typically associated with sports cars, but combined with high efficiency – both in the 462 hp Panamera 4 E-Hybrid and in the top model Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid with a system power output of 680 hp.
