Porsche Panamera Hybrid Bows at Geneva

[OmarKareem]

Porsche sales are up significantly, and the brand is selling more cars than ever on the back of the redesigned Cayenne and new Panamera

The Panamera in particular has been beating expectations though, as customers are eager to add a Porsche-branded four-door sedan to their driveways

One model that has helped sales significantly is the addition of the less-expensive V-6 model last year. Based on the V-6, the Panamera lineup is increasing its appeal further with a hybrid model

Porsche has already offered a hybrid for the other car purists love to hate – the Cayenne. The standard Panamera V-6 model makes 300 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. The hybrid model adds horsepower, and a whole lot of it

The V-6 engine is supercharged to the tune of 333 horsepower. Add in 47 horsepower from the car’s electric motor and you have 380 horsepower. That is enough for a 0-60 run of 5.7 seconds. The engine is mated to an eight-speed automatic. Not bad performance by any measure, and the Porsche says the Panamera Hybrid is the most fuel-effiicent Porsche ever

Rather than opting for a new lithium-ion battery pack, the Panamera sticks with a nick-metal hydride battery. The result is a mpg figure of around 34.5 mpg in the United States. Pretty impressive, especially with those kind of performance figures

The car has the ability to go up to 50 mph in all-electric model, and to travel up to one mile on purely electric power. On the highway, when the driver lifts off the accelerator the engine is switched off and disengaged from the drivetrain via a decoupling clutch. This offers electric vehicle-like coasting that eliminates resistance

Most importantly, the Panamera will help to increase Porsche’s CAFE numbers, helping to enable more of the outrageous performance models that we all love. While based on the V-6, the Panamera Hybrid certainly won’t come cheap. When it arrives in the U.S, the Panamera Hybrid will check in at $95,000, a cool $20,400 more than the V-6