At Porsche dealership today for service on ‘14 Panamera 4S. Largest dealership in province (British Columbia, Canada). My good friend is tight with the GM. Encouraged to take out a 2021 Taycan 4S. Well optioned but not a crazy build. INSANE experience! Instant power. Planted. DNA is pure Porsche.

Told me that with the introduction of the Taycan (2020 was 1st year in Canada), Panamera sales have plummeted. Normally sell 100 Panamera per year. Last year sold 30. If want Panamera now need to order. No more spec vehicles available as no certainty of sale.

Taycan range is about 350km. With extended power pack can get about 380km. Obviously not for everyone as range is issue compared to a grand tourer. Rear seats are tighter and cockpit is more spartan. Nonetheless, an incredible machine.

Bye bye Panamera?

 

This thread comes up every few months. No, I want my hatch, this is my daily get stuff done car and the extra space matters. I also have no intention of ever charging any car away from home so an electric would need more range to work for me. I find the interior to be lower class than the Panamera with too many cheap bits that don't cut it in a car in that price class. No, the station wagon won't do it either, all the same problems except the hatch and it's a wagon which by itself is a non starter.

I gotta say the acceleration is quite the party trick but it didn't blind me to the rest of what's on offer.

 

The interiors of of the two Taycans I've sat in (Turbo and 4S) were really disappointingly cheap in appearance and feel.

 

The difference in range between the two is very large. With a 26 gallon gas tank you can easily get over 900km without stopping. That's a great feature of the Panamera.

 

I know I’ll probably buy a Taycan at some point in the future but not today. I’m still in love with the look and SOUND of my GTS.

The Taycan is only going to improve in performance and range so no need to rush.

 

New to Porsche here, but after months of research and considering the Taycan, I ordered a '22 Panamera 4S E-Hybrid. My top reasons:

1) Performance/Value - P4SEH starts at $113k and does 0-60 in 3.5 seconds (though Motorweek road tested it at 3.2 seconds (!) so Porsche is probably being too conservative otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to pay $16k more for the slower GTS (3.7 0-60) or $64k-74k more for the slightly faster TS or TSEH). Taycan 4S is comparable in price (starting $103k) but it's slower (3.8 0-60). So to get better performance from Taycan, you suddenly jump to $150k starting price for the Turbo (3.0 0-60)--to me this is not worth it considering range, size, etc.

2) Range - Panamera gets over 500 miles range in e-hybrid mode or 34 miles in electric-only. Taycan gets about 200-250 miles--this is fine for short commutes but not enough for longer drives/trips. P4SEH is the best of both worlds; I can pretty much go all electric for my short work commute and have an absurd amount of range for long drives; I can also go as hard/fast as I want without having to worry about getting even less than 200 range (remember if you have your AC on, accelerate fast, etc., the Taycan will give you even less range, oh and it’ll be slower too once it drops below 70ish% battery...).

3) Size - P4SEH is the perfect combination of sports car, family car, and daily driver. Taycan is just a bit too small for rear passengers and storage.

4) Other factors - Panamera SOUNDS amazing. I know this is subjective but it also looks and drives better (overall), and has a more elegant interior. You can also get the same EV credit on both cars.

Anyways, I may consider a Taycan in the future if it gets more range, better performance relative to its price, an improved interior, and better charging network. But for the (long) time being, P4SEH was a no-brainer for me and hit the sweet spot on all counts from performance to practicality at an amazing relative value.

P.s. the dealerships around me have so many Taycans sitting on their lots, while they have a limited supply of Panameras (and very limited availability for allocations too).

 

Agree with most of what you wrote. But one thing I disagree with. While the 3.8s 0-60 of the Taycan may be slower on paper than the 3.5s 0-60 of the Panamera 4SEH, in real life the Taycan will feel quite a bit quicker because of the way the power is delivered, and because of the broader usability of the power.

 

Range Range Range. My highway aka Panamera needs to get me far without stopping. If you dont live in a Metro charging is still a huge problem. Im Not ready for battery cars yet.

 

Truth is fully battery powered cars are not ready for primetime yet simply because of the infrastructure. Certain small areas of the country are ok at best but the vast majority of America its a nightmare trying to charge a car outside of your home.

Don't even get started on trying to do some type of long trip with one outside of the state of say California being probably the most easiest State to do this in. You'll be left stranded or it will take you a lot more time to get too your destination if you even can. Who wants to plan out a trip down to where you will stop to charge only to find out you get there and it's out of service. More charging stations are coming online but we are a long way off from it being useful without major planning on drivers part for any type of driving beyond to the store or work and back.

 

Well I can't argue with how one feels! But I do think 4SEH is even faster on the road than Porsche's 3.5 0-60 claim (see Motorweek's 3.2 0-60 road test, and they got 3.0 from the Turbo S for comparison sake)... the 4SEH would smoke a Taycan 4S. Also, at high speeds, ICE cars always have an advantage over EVs so Panamera 4SEH will be even faster when accelerating at higher speeds, say on the freeway. EVs' quickness is mostly realized in the initial take-off since they have no gears and how their electric motor gets power form the batteries, but the advantages fade at higher speeds. The limitations on EV acceleration/speed at high speeds can also bee seen in their top speed stats (Pan 4SEH at 185 v. Taycan 4S at 155).

 

I hate Tesla and love my panamera, but the CD article yesterday on the model 3 performance made me cringe.

 

We've had situations like this before. When Porsche started to build the Boxster and Cayenne. Purest hated them but they saved the brand. I feel this situation is similar, theres always going to be the purest who want a combustion engine do to the feel, sound etc. Theres going to be some people who convert and get on board the electric train. I don't think we have to pick though. Porsche is trying to get their E fuel going.

 

Ill probably own the last Panamera made

 

Is the line blurred too much between a full EV Panamera and Taycan to produce both? I’m not sure it is.

 

Good point. Taycan as compact sedan and Panamera as full-size sedan, serving different audiences.

That would be consistent with reports from Porsche CEO Oliver Blume, who told Autocar that a third-generation Panamera could happen sometime after 2024 for one very good reason: "The Panamera is one step higher than the Taycan.” Also from the article: "For Porsche, we are counting on five topics for differentiation: high quality, Porsche-typical design, Porsche-typical performance, fast charging (where Porsche is much better than the competition because of its 800V system) and the driving experience. These five pillars are very important for future differentiation," he explained. "We do compare to the competition, and when we bring a future Taycan and Panamera, there will be differentiation between them in the C- and D-segment."

Source: https://carbuzz.com/news/porsche-pan...mes-into-focus