Paris show: Porsche plots Panamera wagon

PORSCHE has ripped the covers off a production-oriented Panamera Sport Turismo concept that points the way to a high-performance wagon version of its four-door grand tourer.

Presented on the eve of the Paris motor show, the Panamera wagon is the first tangible expression of Porsche’s long-anticipated work on “an evolutionary, sporty body concept” that would compete against the Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake and other upper-echelon European sports wagons.

The Sport Turismo concept also features “the next development step” of the company’s current petrol-electric hybrid powertrain, with plug-in charging capability for the first time.

Porsche has not said when the sexy new model might enter production, simply calling it “an outlook on a possible Porsche sportscar of tomorrow”, but company sources have told European media it will emerge as part of the second-generation Panamera range due in 2016.

Should this eventuate, expect the wagon to roll off the same production line as the Cayenne and the forthcoming Macan small SUV at the Porsche factory in Leipzig, Germany.

Visual changes over today’s four-door Panamera GT include shorter overhangs, a longer roofline and glasshouse, sharply raked rear tailgate, sleeker blacked-out LED tail-lights and four-point LED headlights.

At 4950mm long, 1990mm wide and 1401mm high, the Sport Turismo is slightly shorter, wider and lower than the current Panamera, and is likewise shorter, wider and lower than Mercedes’ CLS Shooting Brake.

Befitting its status as a concept car, the Turismo has a pair of cameras mounted in the side air outlets and linked up to the cabin display rather than rearview mirrors, while the indicators have been relocated to the large front inlets.

Inside the four-seat cabin, a central TFT display sits in place of the traditional instrument gauge and is flanked by a pair of screens that project images from the digital ‘rearview mirrors’, while the centre instrument fascia has been replaced by large touchscreen, mounted low on the dash.

Under the concept skin, meanwhile, sits a development of the existing petrol-electric parallel hybrid drivetrain used in the Panamera S Hybrid and Cayenne S Hybrid, with a more efficient lithium-ion battery pack and featuring external charging capability for the first time.

Dubbed ‘e-hybrid’, the Porsche system combines the current Panamera S Hybrid’s 245kW supercharged petrol V6 with a new 70kW electric motor – double the size of the current version – and a powerful 9.4kWh lithium-ion battery pack in place of the current nickel-metal hydride unit.

The milled aluminium battery housing is mounted under the boot floor, which is made of glass and can reveal a view of the energy source illuminated in bright green at the touch of a button.

The fluid-cooled battery pack can either be recharged by the petrol engine generator, or via an AC wall charger in a little as 2.5 hours depending on the power supply.

The drivetrain develops peak power of 306kW and can be driven in pure EV mode at speeds of 130km/h, or across a distance of 30km, before the petrol engine kicks in.

Combined fuel consumption is listed as 3.5L/100km, and the 0-100km/h sprint can be dispatched in less than six seconds.

The Porsche powertrain defaults to the greenest all-electric setting, but this can be deactivated by a steering wheel button that unleashes the petrol engine simultaneously.

When the car is operating in hybrid mode, the driver can flick a button to intensify the amount of engine power directed to recharging the battery.