2017 Porsche Panamera E-Hybrid to get hot 500bhp variant

Porsche will launch a high-output version of its new Panamera E-Hybrid.

The car will have at least 500bhp and a top speed of more than 180mph. It is likely to be unveiled alongside the Sport Turismo Panamera shooting brake at Geneva in March.

Porsche isn’t saying which powertrain the car will use, but when it was suggested the engine could be a hybridised version of the current 4S engine, Panamera sales and marketing director Stefan Utsch said: “That would work.”

The current Panamera 4 E-Hybrid uses the same twinturbo 2.9-litre V6 engine as the 4S but in a different state of tune, producing 325bhp. It is mated to a 134bhp electric motor, for a claimed 459bhp of ‘system power’.

The 4S, meanwhile, has 434bhp. Utsch said the newly developed electric motor is unlikely to become more powerful, but even if it were married unchanged to the 4S motor, it would provide 568bhp of system power.

However, it is unlikely that both the petrol engine and electric motor will provide peak power at the same time, so the maximum real-world output is likely to be lower.

Even so the new car — likely to be badged Panamera 4S E-Hybrid — should provide performance second only in the range to the 542bhp Panamera Turbo, and then only because it is likely to weight at least 250kg more than the Turbo.