New Panamera to spawn family of models

Porsche’s all-new Panamera will spawn a family of models to secure the long-term viability of the model against the ever-increasing onslaught of premium SUVs and crossovers.

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume confirmed to motoring.com.au that additional derivatives of the Panamera – including a Shooting Brake – will be rolled out over the coming years, broadening the model’s demographic spread beyond the traditional performance-luxury sedan buyer.

“There will obviously be a long-wheelbase [Executive] version that will be very important for the Chinese market, but it will be available elsewhere as well,” he told motoring.com.au.

“We are also working on another derivative (based on the Sport Turismo concept revealed at 2012 Paris motor show) that will also be very important, but we’re not talking about that for now.”

Porsche’s head of design, Michael Mauer, also confirmed a Shooting Brake was in the works, saying: “Porsche has a long history of building derivatives of models, so it’s no secret that there will be more versions of the Panamera. You will be surprised… it will look great.”

The flexible new MSB architecture that underpins the latest Panamera is for now unique to it, but the platform will also eventually be used by upcoming Bentley models such as the next-gen Continental GT and Flying Spur. However, Blume says the commonality won’t dilute the appeal of the Porsche.

“Yes, it’s true the new platform for the Panamera will also be used by various Bentley models over the coming years,” Blume said.

“But the platform we use in the Panamera will react in a different way in a Bentley and that’s because our R&D department has adapted it in a different way to how Bentley will do it.”

Although the Panamera’s powertrain line-up for now comprises just three options – turbo petrol 3.0-litre V6 and 4.0-litre V8 units, plus a 4.0-litre V8 turbodiesel – Blume says these will in due course be supplemented by a pair of performance-focused plug-in hybrids that will be a key part of the range, especially in Europe and Asia.

“For the next 10 years, hybrids represent an important technology, but we may find that as electric technology improves and charging times are reduced, then it will prove to be an intermediate solution as full-electric cars become viable… For now hybrids are the best and we will have a mix between continuous combustion powertrains and plug-in hybrids in our line-up,” he stated

Although Tesla has managed to redefine performance parameters for luxury electric cars, Blume says Porsche won’t follow suit just yet.

“In terms of technology processes Tesla has done a very good job and it has moved the whole automotive industry, but up until now they haven’t earned any money. We’ve learning from what they have done, but we’re combining that with our technology and when we launch an electric car like the Mission E, it will contain everything that Porsche is with future electric technology, high performance, long-distance running and short charging time,” Blume stated.

Blume also commented on Porsche’s recent last minute win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“In the first moments after the race, I really felt for Toyota. It cut really deep to see our friends from Toyota crying on the other side. After the finish I went over with our chairman of the supervisory board [Dr Wolfgang Porsche] to offer our commiserations.

“But, at the end, at Le Mans you have to drive for 24 hours, and not 23 hours and 58 minutes. The race was very close and during the night we had the lead at several points. In the end we got lucky, but we worked very hard for it.”

Blume says Porsche doesn’t have any plans to enter Formula One in the foreseeable future, as WEC represents a better fit for the brand.

“At the moment we’re focusing on Le Mans because it’s the hardest race in the world and we can make a lot of improvements to our series production models based on what we learn there,” he said.

“So for the moment we have no plans to enter Formula One, but we don’t know what will happen in the future. For the time being we feel the WEC series is better than F1 as a sport,” Blume stated.