Porsche Panamera two-door still under study

Porsche is still considering whether to develop two-door coupe and cabriolet versions of its Panamera, which would be spiritual successors for the 1987-1995 Porsche 928 and direct competitors for the BMW 8 Series range.

During a virtual roundtable interview with Australian media following the launch of the facelifted Porsche Panamera this week, carsales asked Panamera product line chief Thomas Friemuth if Porsche was studying two-door coupe and cabriolet versions of the big sedan.

In response, he said: “We have not finally decided yet. So we are just discussing this topic for several years as you can imagine since other competitors also have two-door cars.

“Be we’re not finally yet ready to decide whether to do this or not. We have quite a nice two-door car in our program called the 911.

“[But] We are always looking at new opportunities to get new markets and more customers. I can talk about it when we have the decision for it – not yet. I have a lot of ideas.”

As we reported in April 2019, when the idea of a born-again Porsche 928 was first mooted, any new large two-door flagship model line from the German sports car maker would likely be based on a shortened version of the same MSB architecture that underpins the latest Panamera.

A Panamera-based coupe and cabriolet, would be a proper 2+2-seat grand tourer offering space for four adults and their luggage, and is likely to share the existing sedan’s turbo V6 and V8 petrol and hybrid powertrains.

The big new two-door Porsches would not only be direct rivals for the BM8 Series Coupe and Convertible, but also competitors for the Aston Martin Vantage range, Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe and the upcoming Mercedes-AMG SL Roadster.

But it would not be called a Panamera. Instead, Porsche’s seventh model line would likely debut an all-new nameplate.

However, any potential revival of the Porsche 928 concept would likely be based on the third-generation Panamera, given the second-generation model is now in the second half of its lifecycle following this year’s midlife makeover.