Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid is a Rare Breed, Says Car Magazine

Not many hybrids can go fast and help save the environment, but the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid borrows some tech from the 918 Spyder to do just that.

With the new Porsche Panamera, the German automaker wanted to rewrite what’s possible for a four-door luxury car. While the new Panamera Turbo is an absolute monster, Porsche wanted to up the ante with a hybrid version – the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. Britain’s Car Magazine spent some time with the vehicle and found it to be one of those rare cars that actually help save the planet while being insanely fast.

The Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid has the engine out of the regular Panamera Turbo, a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 cranking out 550 horsepower, and a 134-hp electric motor in addition to the engine. That makes for a total of 680 hp, which makes the sedan extremely quick. “Send that to all four wheels via the finger-snap changes of the PDK gearbox and the results are expletive-inducingly quick,” says Car.

And with performance like that, it’s crazy when you realize that the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid can travel 31 miles without using any fuel. “One the one hand it’s easy to forget about the car’s hybrid nature and just drive, letting it make all the decisions and switching between exploiting the powertrain’s performance and getting free regen down the hills,” says the outlet.

There is a downside to the sedan’s capabilities, though. “The flip side is that the Turbo S E-Hybrid isn’t as quiet about its duties as you might hope; there is some distinct whine evident at lower speeds that simply isn’t there in a regular Turbo,” says Car.

In the end, Car found the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid to be a “remarkable technical achievement to marry disparate elements into something that hangs together so well…” The sedan may not be as sharp to drive as a normal Panamera Turbo, but its ability to run on nothing but electricity is impressive, especially after experiencing the sedan’s full capabilities.