Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid Review

Look and Living

The Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid has been round for some time now, it had a refresh in 2017 but still retains its familiar shape. Its a little bit of a marmite car as some say the car is ugly, especially the rear. Personally I like it, its a fantastic looking car, low, long and definitely a Porsche. Its also huge, very long and very wide, one of the biggest footprint in a sports coupe on the market.

Opening the boot reveals a very large boot. It’s slightly smaller than the non-hybrid version due to the motor and hybrid battery taking up space at the sides and beneath the floor. Never the less for a sports car its class leading (405 litres).

Internal features

Inside the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid the finish is simply stunning, our test car had full leather interior, including the dash and window sills on the car doors. The car is also very roomy, although only a four seater the rear seats and leg room are limousine standard. The seats are extremely comfortable, the leather is very high quality and the electric memory seats very adaptable to attain any required driving position.

The centre console has a couple of cup holders and useful storage with a USB and jack plug socket under the arm rest. The gearstick and heated seat controls sit in front of this and the finish in piano black in our test model was outstanding.

The centre of the dash is dominated by a large glass fronted touch screen. Again of the highest standard the graphics are crisp and clear and its easy to use touch screen is a class above.

The steering wheel has a lovely feel, soft leather and a thick rim, excellent for sports driving. It also hascontrols for the phone and car set-up on the wheel. Behind the wheel are manual paddles for the 8 speed auto gearbox, wiper controls, cruise control and indicators. Driver information is dominated by the centre rev counter and four other electronic dials, which are all very clear.

Internal storage is excellent, a large glove box, central console and door pockets giving plenty of places to store your nick-knacks. The only disappointment is no-where to put your phone without it sliding around.

9.5/10

Technology

The Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid has a raft of driver aids. Adaptive cruise, lane change assist, lane keeping assist, road sign recognition and cornering notification, park assist to name a few. Then there’s Porsche InnoDrive, which is too complicated to explain.

The LED lights are very high spec and there is night vision assist as an option.

The touchscreen in the centre console is beautiful and very clear and easy to use.

All in all there is a great deal to enhance the driving experience but nothing ground breaking in the EV world.

7/10

Performance and Drive

Without doubt the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid is a drivers car, despite its size and weight (over two tonnes) the car handles well. There are three drive settings, normal, sport and sport plus. The suspension is firmed and gear changes adapted depending upon the mode. The suspension can also be set to different levels independently.

I found that day to day driving was most suited to normal mode with sport setting on the suspension as I found the normal suspension setting too soft.

Driving in sport is exhilarating, with a total of 456hp and combined total torque of 850NM there is a tremendous amount of power to more you along. 0 to 62 in 4.6 seconds is very quick for a car of this size, the electric motor making it very quick off the mark. This stat alone does not give you an understanding of the pleasure of driving on the move, acceleration on motorways is outstanding. Overtaking is a breeze with the level of torque and power available.

All Panamera’s are now all wheel drive which helps to get the power down and stops the tail wagging which could be achieved in the previous rear wheel drive versions. It will also make the car drivable in winter conditions which was impossible without all wheel drive.

The air suspension gives a fantastic ride, absorbing the bumps in the road and firming up on the corners when required.

The 8 speed gearbox is quick and seamless, the kick-down on firm acceleration instant, the car is a grand tourer which will take you to your destination quickly and in comfort like no other hybrid.

9.5/10

Range, Charging and Greenness

A 100kw electric motor with a battery of 14.1 kWh gives an electric only range of 30 to 40 miles. Plug incharge takes 3.5 hours at 3.7 kW. The car will charge the battery on the move through braking, total range for the car is quoted at just over 500 miles. Combined fuel consumption is quoted at 113mpg but is likely to much higher than this on a long or hard driving run.

CO2 emissions are quoted at 56g/km which is good for a car of this size. The car attracts category 3 status for the government grants and zero costs in congestion charges.

Basically its not the greenest PHEV on the road but neither is it the worse, however if you want a true 4 seater sports hybrid, this is the car for you.

7.5/10

Specifications and Extras

The car comes well equipped but like all Porsches’the extras add up quickly, metallic paint, different wheels, higher spec seats and audio can soon add £20k to the base price. Obviously you don’t have to have any of these but some extras are considered necessary by Porsche dealers to keep up the resale value of your car.

7/10

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