New Porsche Panamera (2020): Facelift shot down

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Porsche Panamera G3 (2023)
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B e drive decisions for the future, Porsche is comparatively smaller Manufacturers with big names and many different markets are not to be envied: Which model has to make which customer groups happy where, which other buyers in other countries could be alienated with the wrong drive principle?

E-cars for China, combustion engines for the USA

To make matters worse, China and the USA are the most important national markets for the brand as a whole, whose preferences at least for the T drift apart diametrically. In China, electric cars are wanted by the state, are more or less subsidized and are increasingly in demand. At least there are less traditional combustion engine enthusiasts in the Middle Kingdom who already consider a start-stop function for the downfall of the West.

More so in the USA. Here the fans celebrate to the astonishment of the European models with manual transmissions, which have meanwhile largely switched to automatic transmissions, and sports exhaust systems that are more and more frowned upon in this country. Partly. In California, the ninth largest economy in the world and the seat of the tech giants in Silicon Valley and Tesla Country, the car nerds celebrate the electric Porsche Taycan, even if, according to the EPA, it only gets half as far as a Model S.

In other parts of the USA, the range, but also the sound and feel, are a lot for cars with internal combustion engines, and the state's most recent requirements for CO2 emissions have given gas guzzlers a very flat slide built. In addition, there are other regions in the world which, for reasons of infrastructure alone, cannot do much with electric cars.

Which model needs which drive?

So it is best if Porsche needs all types of drive , from the classic combustion engine to the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) to the all-electric car. But what for which series? As in the entire VW group, Porsche also has pure e-car platforms and series designed for combustion engines or PHEVs. With the iconic 911, even plug-in hybrids are repeatedly discarded or at least postponed because otherwise the weight would fall out of the sports car frame or the installation space would not be sufficient. For the new Macan, it has long been decided to switch to electric drive on the PPE platform developed jointly with Audi, only to then recently announce that the current first generation will be extended. It should be modified again inserving the relevant markets for combustion customers. Internally, people already joke about the Mercedes G model of the Zuffenhausen-based company - although the Macan is made in Leipzig - and that certainly not for another 40 years like the Swabian permanent climber from Graz.

But what will happen to the third Generation of the Porsche luxury sedan? Couldn't the Taycan take on its role? It is nine centimeters shorter than the Panamera, but as a combi-like cross-turismo it should have few disadvantages in terms of interior space, at least compared to the normal version of the Panamera, thanks to the space-saving electric drive.

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