This post was originally published on Autocar
Four-seat grand tourer brings yet more performance and luxury to the added-desirability super-saloon segment
Jot down a list of its various attributes and it becomes clear that the subject of this road test is one of the most ambitious cars we will assess in 2025, and possibly for some time beyond that.In ‘4 E-Hybrid’ form, the latest Porsche Panamera is a car that promises pedigree handling and dynamism when you want it but limousine-grade rolling refinement when you don’t. There is also the prospect of minuscule fuel bills, at least when it comes to everyday driving, as well as practicality, not to mention any-weather security, courtesy of having four-wheel drive. So while the 4 E-Hybrid occupies rather a modest position in the broader Panamera line-up, its remit is perhaps the greatest.Too great? Just how well all this translates into real life is something we’re about to discover, with what is our first fully instrumented test of the new ‘G3’ Panamera in any guise.As the name suggests, this is the third coming of Porsche’s four-door performance car (an full-bore super-saloon, in certain strains), whose visual identity has resolved nicely since the ungainly original of 2009, and whose chassis has now been injected with some of the very latest technology at the disposal of the Volkswagen Group’s bigger-ticket luxury brands.Chief among those technologies is Porsche’s Active Ride Control suspension. This has been co-developed alongside Audi and is fitted to the car seen here at the not inconsiderable cost of £6978. The Panamera’s hybrid system is also more advanced than it was on the G2 generation, with a larger drive battery and greater energy-recuperation ability. The claimed electric range is up to 60 miles, around 25 miles more than before.As for what this all costs, with careful optional-extra selection it’s possible to have the clever suspension and still keep the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid beneath £100,000. It’s hardly a bargain, but in a world where BMW’s similarly sized, similarly powerful plug-in hybrid 550e xDrive M Sport is knocking on the door of £80,000, neither is it terrible value.And as for where the 4 E-Hybrid sits among its own range-mates, the basic rear-drive Panamera (349bhp) starts at £82,000, with the 4WD version costing a little more. Next up is our test car (464bhp) at £91,000 before you get to the 4S E-Hybrid (537bhp, £102,000), then the V8-engined GTS (493bhp, £126,000).The flagships are the Turbo E-Hybrid and the 771bhp Turbo S E-Hybrid, the latter being the first Panamera capable of exceeding 200mph.