The Turbo S E-Hybrid is peak Panamera and has a stunning breadth of capabilities, from zero-emission city car to drag racer to record-setting track tool to luxury cruiser.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail
Porsche’s family sport-limo is entering its third generation for 2024, and as is Porsche’s way, the model lineup is coming together like a jigsaw puzzle. Last spring we experienced the base V6-engined Panamera, plus the plug-in-hybrid V8 Turbo E-Hybrid that introduced Porsche’s new optional Active Ride suspension.
Since then, the V6-engined Panamera 4 and 4S E-Hybrids have been inserted, and now we’re in Stuttgart, Porsche’s home town, to experience the GTS and the Turbo S E-Hybrid.
As usual, the GTS, which starts at $173,400, is a sweet-spot model that sits mid-range in price and performance, and targets serious lateral-g junkies (think: track days) with tuned-for-handling air-spring suspension and a rev-hungry 493-horsepower V8 with uniquely tuned pipes.
As for the Turbo S E-Hybrid, the “S” denotes a near-800-horsepower loaded flagship that throws in all the physics-defying chassis technologies in Porsche’s playbook, including Active Ride. The result promises to be all things to all Porschephiles (well, all those who can afford $257,000 before taxes and fees.)
The GTS skews Panamera’s talents even more toward drivers who value handling and the tactile experience more than just straight-line speed.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail
Active Ride hydraulically manages suspension movement according to road and driving conditions, thus promising exceptional bandwidth between luxury and lappery. Set up for the latter, the car set a new luxury-sedan record at the legendary Nurburgring racetrack south of Bonn. That’s with the 591-horsepower four-litre V8 and 140-kilowatt electric motor partnering to generate 771 horsepower – 100 more than both its predecessor and the current Turbo E-Hybrid – and 738 lb-ft of torque.
Alternatively, salve your eco-guilt by plugging in every night and conducting your daily driving in E-Drive mode. The 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery yields up to 88 kilometres of electric range, according to the European WLTP range standard – perhaps 50 to 60 kilometres in real-world Canada.
We didn’t make it to the Nurburgring, but the hilly terrain around Stuttgart provided a decent workout. One thing we learned is that Porsche might want to redesign their wireless phone-charging pads. This wisdom was acquired after sampling a full-throttle launch-control departure in the GTS and losing my phone. I eventually located it in the back seat, apparently projected there by the ferocity of the launch.
And that was in the “slow” Panamera. The GTS hits 100 kilometres an hour in 3.8 seconds, Porsche claims. The Turbo S accomplishes the same deed in 2.9 seconds, a feat of teleportation that threatens to relocate not just phones but also stomach contents.
In expressive real-world driving, the performance gap feels even greater. Floor it from a stop in the GTS, and the classic turbocharger lag-then-lunge looms large. The Turbo S, on the other hand, has 338 lb-ft of instant-on electric-motor torque to fill in the gas engine’s preboost hesitation. So the Turbo S is not only meaningfully quicker on paper, its superior thrust is also more fully real-world useable, whereas the GTS’s best efforts involve test-track techniques that could lose you more than just your phone (or your lunch) if deployed in public.
Like most Porsches, the Panamera makes it easy for a wide range of body types to get comfortable at the wheel, though we’d like fewer touch-sensitive switches.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail
The GTS, however, has its own charms. From the first turn of its wheels on pavement, it relays an unfiltered connection to the pavement, building a trustworthy driver-machine-road partnership for enjoying the chassis agility and balance and the tenacious grip of the track-focused Michelin rubber.
And then there’s the sound. Oh, the sound. Unique to the GTS, the exhaust system amplifies and enriches the V8 vocals to become autodom’s equivalent of James Earl Jones’s voice – that which was once described as “stirring basso profundo” layered with “gravel and gravitas.” Rich, textured and good-natured in moderate driving, it intensifies and hardens with the hammer down but is still intoxicating in its own, angrier, way.
Like any Porsche, the finer points of the driving experience can be influenced by options (the GTS test car had rear-wheel steering and ceramic brakes) and the drive modes in use (including Sport and Sport+).
The Turbo S E-Hybrid, on the other hand, comes standard with all the chassis technologies that are optional on lesser models, so no ambiguity there. But it adds even more drive modes – hybrid and full electric – so the “how long is a piece of string?” conundrum still applies.
When I first stepped into the test car, it was showing 37 kilometres of electric range on a 56-per-cent state of charge, so I went with that. Over a hilly, twisty, mostly rural drive in E-Power mode, the 56 per cent lasted 30 kilometres.
The remainder of the loop was driven more expressively, including a couple of full-on drag-strip departures – after which, curiously, two kilometres of electric range reappeared on the display. We completed the 40-kilometre loop having averaged just 3.6 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres over all.
The Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid has 771 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail
At the other extreme, a 77-kilometre loop including some stop-and-go city traffic, as well as no-speed-limit Autobahn-storming (well, within the limits of traffic, and of German driving standards that aren’t what they used to be) averaged 13.1 litres per 100 kilometres in Hybrid mode.
Still, there’s more to the Turbo S E-Hybrid than its powertrain. This was another opportunity to experience Active Ride, after an inconclusive first engagement last spring in Spain, where fissured, coarsely textured pavement created so much road noise that any comfort dividend from Active Ride was largely lost in the din.
This time we drove on different tires (Pirellis) and on smooth, finer-textured, German roads – and still we’re not convinced. In the switchbacks, the Turbo S is immensely capable and planted, though there’s a robotic remoteness to it all, not least when compared with the more visceral GTS. But on the ride side, the only real challenges were manhole covers, and they weren’t smothered as effectively as expected.
We suspect that when it comes to isolating bumps, Active Ride is more effective over disturbances that are rounded, not sharp-edged, and it doesn’t isolate road noise that well. And there’s also this: Revisiting my notes from Spain last spring, my passenger and I both thought “the structure felt less rigid than you’d expect on rough surfaces.”
That comment didn’t make it into the review, in part because I wondered if we’d imagined it. But it returned to mind while driving the Turbo S E-Hybrid in Germany. And I started to believe it the next day after driving a Porsche Taycan GT, some of it on rougher roads. The all-electric Taycan also has Active Ride, but is built on a different architecture than the Panamera and I had no reservations about either its ride or its handling.
Despite being the “loaded” flagship model, our test sample still included $35,810 worth of options including four-zone climate control, eight-way power-adjustable rear seats, power rear sun-blinds and rear entertainment system.Jeremy Sinek/The Globe and Mail
Still, we’re talking nuances here. The Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid is a breathtaking piece of engineering for those who can afford the sheer bandwidth of its talents, from zero-emission commuter car to luxury cruise missile to Nurburgring lap-record holder. And if you’re not convinced by Active Ride, there are six other Panamera models on which it’s either an option or unavailable.
Either way, the Porsche sales rep will seek countless other ways to part you from your money, but remember, just by being in the position to buy a Porsche, you’re already ahead of the game.
Panamera prices start at $119,700, the GTS asks $173,400 and the Turbo S E-Hybrid tops the lineup at $257,000. First deliveries of the two latest editions start in the first quarter of 2025.
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.
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