2024 Porsche Panamera review: Quick drive
The third-generation Panamera carries on where its predecessors left off.
- Dynamic security
- Handsome design
- Magic of optional Active Ride suspension
- The cabin feels like a television warehouse
- Still cramped in the rear
- Not being able to see over the Cayenne in front…
2024 Porsche Panamera
In terms of sales, Porsche has long since become an SUV maker with a nice sideline in sports cars, but the galloping success of the Macan and Cayenne seem to also be supporting the continued existence of the Panamera. In terms of global volumes, the four-door coupe-sedan is the company’s second-smallest-selling model, saved from the wooden spoon only by the 718 Boxster/Cayman. Yet Porsche has still paid out for the Panamera to live into a third generation, and also to receive some impressive new tech.
Having driven the Panamera on road and track in Spain, we should be glad that it has survived. The luxury sedan market might have been in steady decline for years, but there is still something unarguably special about a really good one. SUVs are great at many things, but the unbreakable laws of physics mean they will never change direction as willingly as something lower and sleeker, or feel as refined when cruising at high speeds.
So yes, the Panamera remains a much less practical choice than the Cayenne or even the Macan, the sedan being a strict four-seater with limited rear leg room and a relatively small luggage compartment. But, looked at from the other end of the range, the Panamera is definitely a better family haulier than any 911 variant would be – with a driving experience that feels sharper than that of its SUV sisters.
The fact the new Panamera’s dimensions are barely changed from the outgoing car gives a good indication of the similarities that lurk beneath the surface. Porsche says every exterior panel is new for the third-gen Panamera, as is the interior, but a fair amount of the underbody has jumped the generations with the two cars sitting on the same Volkswagen Group MSB platform. Overall length has increased very slightly – 5052mm against 5049mm for the non-Turbo version – but the wheelbase remains identical at 2950mm.
Engine choice will be binary from launch. The entry-level power plant remains the 2.9-litre ‘hot vee’ twin-turbo V6 that has been seen in various Audi and Porsche models, and which is retuned in the new Panamera to make peaks of 260kW and 500Nm, those being 17kW and 50Nm more than the last-generation.
The V6 will be offered in the entry-level rear-driven Panamera and will get an eight-speed PDK double-clutch gearbox as standard. Other markets will get the all-wheel-drive Panamera 4 using the same engine, but this isn’t coming to Australia.
Above the V6 will sit the Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid, combining the efforts of a 382kW 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a 140kW electric motor integrated into the PDK gearbox. Total peak output is 500kW, accompanied by up to 930Nm of combined torque, which is delivered to all four wheels. It’s a plug-in, with a 25.9kWh battery pack positioned under the rear floor that is claimed to be able to deliver up to 91km of electric-only range under the WLTP test cycle.
Porsche has confirmed it is also working on a more powerful Turbo S E-Hybrid, and it seems likely that the more focused Panamera GTS will also make the leap to this generation, but we don’t know if either will make it to Australia. Porsche Australia has already announced pricing for the two launch models – the rear-drive Panamera will be $227,000 before on-road costs, and the Turbo E-Hybrid will be $402,300.
The base spec will be high but with plenty of goodies reserved for expensive options. All versions of the Panamera will get height-varying air springs as standard, as well as double-valve adaptive dampers – with this suspension set-up officially referred to as ‘Semi-Active’.
Above that is a more complex fully active set-up that will be an option on the Turbo E-Hybrid called Porsche Active Ride. This replaces physical anti-roll bars with an electro-hydraulic system that can send pressure to the dampers at each corner to counter-roll under cornering loads, but also pitch and dive under braking and acceleration.
Active Ride even brings the option to go beyond neutrality with Active Tilt and Active Pitch, which will counter-lean the Turbo into turns – like riding a bike – and also raise the front under braking and the rear under hard acceleration to counter g-loadings. It is basically the same system that is also going to be offered on top-spec versions of the revised Taycan.
The good news is that the new Panamera looks great in the metal, better than either of its predecessors for my money. Both the original 2009 car and its 2016 successor tried too hard to integrate 911 styling themes onto a four-door, their front and back end looking like they’d come from different designers than their centre sections. But the new car’s switch to a narrow, full-width lightbar at the rear is much more successful, and up front bigger lights give much more visual character than the soap bar Taycan.
It’s not all praise, though. The new Panamera’s interior has had a massive tech upgrade, but it has lost much of the character of the two earlier generations. The outgoing car’s cabin was well-designed and made from classy materials that made it feel like a special place to spend time.
But the new one feels more like the television aisle of a superstore with what are now wall-to-wall display screens – a digital dash and an XL 12.6-inch central touchscreen come as standard, with an optional triple-screen configuration for range-toppers adding another 10.9-inch display in front of the passenger. This has a unidirectional mesh on it, like the privacy filters sometimes fitted to laptops, meaning that it can’t be seen from the driver’s seat. So the passenger can legally watch streaming video when the car is moving.
Space in the back remains limited. The Panamera has two separate seats, although with an additional seatbelt to allow for a third passenger to perch in the centre – doing this will require legs to go on either side of a chunky rear console. As before, it’s definitely not the sort of limo that you can stretch out in. There is 494 litres of luggage space with the rear seats in place, and up to 1328L with them folded.
Even the rear-drive V6 Panamera now weighs 1885kg on Porsche’s numbers. Yet it still manages to feel impressively brisk on the road, thanks to the plentiful mid-range torque of the engine and the smart software that controls gear selection for the eight-speed PDK gearbox. Even with the transmission shifting well short of the marked 6750rpm redline there is a strong, linear urge – and although the engine never sounds particularly compelling when pushed, cruising refinement is excellent.
Compared to Porsche’s sports cars, the Panamera’s steering lacks feel and front-end bite is unsurprisingly less enthusiastic. But the level of grip generated by the Michelin Pilot Sport tyres is well balanced between both ends, and the Panamera turns keenly and holds onto a chosen line without fuss, the standard air suspension doing an excellent job of keeping the body under tight control. On dry tarmac, I certainly didn’t feel the need for the extra traction of the AWD Panamera 4 that Australia isn’t getting.
Switching to the Turbo E-Hybrid brings more performance and the chance to test the new Porsche Active Ride system, which will be offered as an option in place of the standard semi-active system. My first experience of this is limited to a miniature track that Porsche has set up in the paddock of the Monteblanco circuit near Seville to demonstrate its talents, this featuring a set of undulations with 90mm of height difference between peaks and troughs positioned 1.5 metres apart.
Driving over these at 50km/h proves that the electro-hydraulic system can indeed react quickly enough to almost smooth out the motion of the body as the wheels move up and down. There is still discernible movement in the cabin, but not nearly as much as there should be given that I’m basically driving over a series of speed bumps. Active Ride also pretty much removes dive under a full, anchors-down ABS-deployment emergency stop, and also squat during a full-throttle launch.
Moving onto the circuit at Monteblanco proves the Turbo E-Hybrid is mightily fast. The electric motor gives instant reactions, even as the V8’s turbochargers are still building boost, with the car responding to the throttle without any hint of lag. In the Sport Plus dynamic mode, Active Ride fights roll to maximise cornering grip: a very small amount of lean has been left to help the driver orientate to cornering forces.
The E-Hybrid can generate plenty of these, and also deliver impressive traction on the way out of corners. But the physics involved in persuading 2360kg to change direction also meant the Panamera doesn’t feel like a natural track star.
The Active Tilt and Active Pitch settings felt more gimmicky. These are only available in the Normal dynamic mode, and at what are basically typical road speeds. The sensation of the car tipping itself into the corner feels unusual at first, although after a few minutes, I barely noticed it – and it does reduce the effect of cornering forces.
But the Active Pitch gives cartoonish over-reactions, pumping up the front of the car under gentle braking and doing the same at the rear when accelerating. Active Ride is a far more convincing system when it is taking distractions away, not adding them.
On road, the range-topper delivers impressive refinement. The selectable EV mode works effectively and invisibly, but without delivering any accelerative thrills – it’s hard to imagine many E-Hybrid buyers are going to actively choose to limit performance to that provided by the 140kW motor except in heavy urban traffic. Despite that, the electric top speed is 140km/h, although acceleration tails off beyond 100km/h.
But running as a hybrid, with the V8 ready to instantly step in, or with the engine on all the time, the Panamera feels almighty – solid acceleration never more than a flexed toe away. Punchier versions of the Taycan might have usurped the Panamera as the quickest Porsche sedan, but the combination of performance and drama from the V8 still feels very special.
Active Ride copes with the bumps of the real world as well as it did with Porsche’s carefully constructed corrugations, and yet the E-Hybrid never feels floaty or disconnected as the suspension works its magic.
As before, the Panamera definitely isn’t a four-door 911. Dynamically it still feels like a lower and leaner Cayenne, its behaviour obviously dictated by the size and weight of the engine hung up front. It’s the sort of car that used to be described as an executive express, and although it is highly likely the Panamera will still remain the choice of only a small minority of Porsche buyers, we should all be happy that they will still be able to make it.
Key details | 2024 Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid |
Price | $402,300 |
Engine | 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, electric motor |
Power | 500kW (system peak) |
Torque | 930Nm (system peak) |
Drive type | All-wheel drive |
Transmission | Eight-speed double-clutch auto |
Weight (kerb) | 2360kg |
0–100km/h | 3.2sec |
Top speed | 315km/h |