Porsche Panamera news - Panamera gets hy' - 2008

Porsche has announced today that its four-door Panamera will be available in hybrid flavour. 

This is exciting news, not just because hybrids are obviously very important and worthy, but because it means the Panamera definitely exists. 

See, although we've known for a while that a Porsche four-door is on the way, this is the first time that Stuttgart has formally acknowledged that it'll be the Panamera.

Not that we know for certain what it'll look like, as the only official sketch released is this rather dull outline. 

However, Porsche is bandying around the words 'low', 'muscular' and 'dynamic' which, as expected, lines the Panamera straight up against the upcoming Aston Martin Rapide. But the Rapide won't get a hybrid. 

Using the same technology as the hybrid Cayenne - a standard combustion engine up front and an electric motor in the rear - the hybrid Panamera should, according to Porsche, return over 31mpg. 

Expect to see the same V6 hybrid system in big Audis and VWs soon. Slightly lighter are more simple than the Toyota or BMW/GM efforts, it doesn't save as much fuel around town but comes into its own on the motorway.

Porsche has also confirmed that the Panamera will be a strict four-seater, with just two seats in the back. We're expecting to see the Panamera on the road in 2009, with the hybrid version to follow in 2010.