No Group hug for Panamera

Porsche has no plans to leverage the new platform that underpins Panamera across the Volkswagen Audi Group (VAG) -- at least for now.

A clean sheet project, Porsche says the so-called G1 front-engined rear and all-wheel drive chassis was designed and built for the Panamera alone with no 'launch customers' secured. This is in contrast to the Cayenne platform that Porsche developed but was almost immediately leveraged with Volkswagen (Touraeg) and Audi (Q7) models.

"It was always just going to be Porsche," Porsche sales and marketing boss and board member, Klaus Berning, told the Carsales Network, explaining that no collaborative 'partners' had been sought for the Panamera's underpinnings.

"If now somebody likes it, it's negotiable," he added.

Berning stated the brand had yet to impose any 'rules' on the use of the platform.

"Honestly I've never given any thought to this. It [the 'other' vehicle] can be below; it can be at the level [of Panamera]; it can be above... But I think it must be at or above the level, because I presume anyone who wants to use it wants to make money," he stated.

Unlike new platforms from larger carmakers, the Panamera chassis is very focused. According to body and packaging chief, Dr Ludwig Hamm, there was no allowance made during its development for easily stretching or shortening the G1 platform. This would seem to fly in the face of suggestions Porsche will itself tweak the Panamera platform to produce a 2+2 -- the so-called '928 replacement'.

"We made a tailor-made body for what we intend the Panamera should be in order to achieve the best compromise. To provide or take care of the possibility [to build in more flexibility] costs you some weight. You end up with more flanges than you would need if you were not interested in such [platform] flexibility.

"For us it was more important to make use of the components [engine, gearbox, electronics, etc] in the family with the Cayenne [but] the unibody is self-standing," Hamm explained.

Hamm said the Panamera launches a new electronic platform that will underpin all future Porsches. It's standardisation of this type that, in an interesting turnaround of common auto industry practice, Hamm says allowed Porsche to custom build the Panamera's base structure.

"[Because of component sharing] We have more money for the body-in-white, so we can tailor it to the perfect demands, in terms of roominess, in terms of weight and so on," Hamm explained.

Berning says the relatively modest size of Porsche's development team means they were fully employed just hitting Porsche's targets for the Panamera. He suggests finding other cars within the Volkswagen Group or elsewhere with which to share Panamera was not in the engineering team's scope.

"Because you guys talk to the BMW, the Mercedes and the Audi guys [you assume we have the same resources]. We are 100,000 cars; we have 2400 people at Weissach; so when we have to bring Panamera to market our people [are 100 per cent occupied].

"We have to take things one step at a time... And please do not make a mistake. So for us always the six months after a successful POS launch are the ones when we are creative."

On the other side of the coin, according to Berning, Porsche ruled out leveraging another VAG platform very early in the Panamera's development.

"The conclusion was, if [with Panamera] we make a 'me too' product with a Porsche badge... it might be a four-year success, but it turns back on you. But somebody else using the Panamera platform -- and doing his own thing [that is now a possibility]," Berning opined.

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