New More Powerful Panamera Hybrid In The Making Will Have Carrera GT Matching Performance

Here is the piece of news that would be music to all those who thrive on speed of the Porsche kind - there is going to be a new Panamera Hybrid that would be faster than the current version.

That by no means should imply the current Panamera 4 E-Hybrid is a slowcoach, with the ability to make the zero to 60 mph dash in a measly 4.4 seconds. That again can be attributed to the 462 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque it has at its disposal.

The fastest Panamera at the moment, the Turbo version has 520 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque on tap, enough to propel the car to the 60 mph mark from rest in just 3.3 seconds. This gives us with a fair idea of just how much more improvement we can expect with the new Panamera Hybrid in the making.

"We will do one more hybrid version of the Panamera and this will be more in the direction of a high-performance variant," Porsche's head of product development Michael Steiner said while speaking to the Australian edition of Motoring. "It will be better performing than the existing one. Much more performance and agility and range."

Steiner however wasn't in the mood to reveal further though Road & Track speculates it is the Panamera Turbo S Hybrid that was recently spotted at Nurburgring could be referred to here. Panamera model line director Gernot Döllner too had earlier hinted of an even hotter hybrid in the making, one that would match the performance of one of their "previous super-sports car," AutoCar reported. Of course, the reference here is to the Porsche Carrera GT and its 7:28 timing at the Ring.

This by no means will be a mean feat considering that the Carrera GT was a sports car to the core, one that has been built from ground-up that way. It came across as a mid-engined lightweight car powered by a 5.7-liter V-10 engine capable of 612 hp and 435 lb-ft of torque. All of that is channelled to the rear wheels via the six-speed manual box.

In contrast, the second gen Panamera Turbo is designed to seat four and is brimming with tech wizardry designed to offer the best of luxury and thrills. All of it makes the new Panamera a lot heavier than the Carrera GT and to claim it to have the same performance as the Carerra is pretty much exciting, to say the least.