SHANGHAI MOTOR SHOW: Porsche Panamera plugs in

Porsche’s first plug-in model will cut fuel consumption by more than half when the Panamera S E-Hybrid arrives in Australia as part of a facelifted sedan range in late July.

Revealed overnight ahead of its global debut at the Shanghai motor show on April 20, the Panamera PHEV (plug-in electric vehicle) will return NEDC fuel consumption of just 3.1L/100km.

That makes it the most frugal production Porsche ever, as well as much as 56 per cent more efficient than the Panamera S Hybrid (7.1L/100km) it will replace and ‘greener’ than a Toyota Prius.

Billed as the world’s first plug-in hybrid luxury car, the new Panamera PHEV will also be 52 per cent more efficient than Porsche’s current benchmark-setter, the Panamera Diesel (6.5L/100km), and almost as miserly as the all-new 918 Spyder PHEV hypercar due for European release in September.

What’s more, the S E-Hybrid is also half a second quicker to 100km/h (5.5 seconds) than the superseded Panamera S Hybrid, and can now travel for up to 36km -- at speeds as high as 135 km/h -- in all-electric operation.

Among a host of other changes, the new-look Panamera line-up will also ditch the V8 in favour of an all-new twin-turbo V6 in mainstream Panamera S and 4S models, while two new long-wheelbase four-seat Executive versions aimed at China will bring the total number of Panamera variants to 10.

Porsche Cars Australia says it will announce pricing for its facelifted gran turismo range in the coming weeks and has confirmed neither the new 150mm longer-wheelbase Panamera Turbo Executive or Panamera 4S Executive models will be sold here.

However, as we reported last month, expect the Panamera PHEV to be priced only incrementally higher than the Panamera S Hybrid it replaces.

That means not much more than the outgoing Panamera hybrid’s $300,500 pricetag, which is $99,100 more than the Panamera V6 upon which it’s based ($201,400) and $13,400 more than the V8-powered Panamera S ($287,100).

Despite its ground-breaking new technology and modest price premium over similar-performance S variants, however, Porsche expects only a handful of Australians to stump up for the Panamera PHEV.

Last year hybrids accounted for less than two per cent of about 100 Panamera sales here last year.

A similar situation exists with the Cayenne S Hybrid, which shares its V6 petrol-electric drive system with the current Panamera S Hybrid and will be replaced by a mechanically identical S E-Hybrid as part of a facelifted Cayenne range next year, accounting for less than 10 of 857 examples sold here in 2012 being petrol-electric.

Porsche is therefore keen to see how Australian Porsche buyers with a preference for performance over efficiency will take to the new Panamera S models, which come with a downsized 3.0-litre turbo-petrol V6 that delivers about 15kW more power (310kW) and 20Nm more torque (520Nm) than the 4.8-litre V8 it replaces, while being 18 per cent more efficient.

Next year Porsche will release a facelifted Panamera Diesel with a new 200kW (up 16kW) 3.0-litre V6 turbo-diesel engine, and 2014 will also see the arrival of new Panamera Turbo S and Panamera Turbo S Executive flagships.

For now, new technical details show the Panamera PHEV is even more effective than the ‘shooting brake’ concept that previewed it, with the Panamera Sport Turismo claimed to deliver 30km of pure electric driving at speeds of up to 130km/h, 0-100km/h acceleration in less than six seconds, fuel consumption of 3.5L/100km and CO2 emissions of just 82g/km.

Porsche is yet to reveal peak power outputs, but the Panamera Sport Turismo delivered 306kW from the existing Panamera hybrid’s Audi-sourced supercharged 3.0-litre petrol V6 (245kW) and a new electric motor – eclipsing the 279kW of the existing Panamera S Hybrid and even the 294kW 4.8-litre V8 in the outgoing Panamera S.

The new electric motor produces 70kW (more than double the power of the Panamera S Hybrid’s 34kW motor) and draws its energy from a new 9.4kWh lithium-ion battery, which offers over five times the energy capacity of its predecessor’s 1.7kWh nickel metal hydride battery.

The full parallel hybrid drive system is capable of up to 270km/h in the Panamera, but such speeds and the use of electrical systems including heating and air-conditioning can reduce its EV range to 18km.

Porsche says the new Ni-Mh battery can be charged in around 2.5 hours when connected to an industrial quick-charger, or in less than four hours via a conventional household power outlet.

While the rest of the Panamera range comes standard with Porsche’s seven-speed PDK automated manual transmission, the Panamera E-Hybrid and Diesel are fitted with a conventional eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.

The facelifted Panamera will also feature technologies and exterior styling previewed by the Panamera Sport Turismo concept at the 2012 Paris show, although that car’s wagon body style and adventurous new interior are not likely to appear in showrooms until the second-generation Panamera arrives in 2016.

Porsche says new design elements include a ‘faster’ windscreen, fresh headlights with vertically stacked beams, a new bumper with large air intakes, new tailgate with wider windscreen and the option of LED headlights.

A new Porsche Car Connect smartphone app has also been developed for all versions of the upgraded Panamera, which will guide owners back to their parked cars, remotely pre-set the car’s climate-control system, reveal remaining driving range and, for E-Hybrid drivers, indicate battery charge status.

The 2013 Panamera range will appear at Shanghai precisely four years after the original Panamera – Porsche’s first four-door passenger car -- debuted there in April 2009.