In a bit of a bait-and-switch, after revealing the new 2021 Porsche Panamera lineup just a couple of weeks ago, apparently, the top of the range is not the 621 BHP Turbo S.
In fact, according to Australia’s WhichCar, the range-topping car will be a new 2021 Porsche Panemera Turbo S E-Hybrid. After they said that those cars were relegated to the middle of the model line.
In the article, it is stated that Porsche’s executive in charge of the Panamera, Thomas Friemuth, has confirmed that the Turbo S will be getting two electric motors. Like the other e-hybrids, it will be one for each axle, which adds a combined 100 kW of power to the car.
To translate from metric, that’s 134 BHP. Add that to the 621 BHP twin-turbo V8 in the Turbo S, and you have 755 BHP.
2021 Turbo S Sport TurismoThat is top-end supercar power, and starting to encroach into what is now considered hypercar territory.
To give an idea of how powerful that car will be, the Type 991.2 911 GT2 RS had “only” 700 BHP.
It makes one pause to look at the executive saloon car segment that the Panamera lives in, and wonder if Porsche is trying to set it up as the next major supercar battleground. Lamborghini and Porsche started the super-SUV battle with the Urus and Cayenne, so it’s not above them to figuratively poke the sleeping giant.
According to WhichCar, the announcement confirming the car should be coming in September.
We already know that a wagon war is coming between Audi, Mercedes-AMG, and BMW. And competition almost always benefits the consumer, so an executive saloon war could only mean stronger, faster, nimbler S6’s and S8’s, AMG S- and E-classes, and M5’s and M8’s!
