Porsche have taken the Panamera one step further by releasing a new “lightweight” version. It’s not sure if lightweight refers to lite, as in the car only has a 220kW V6 engine. Or are is Porsche actually being serious and trying to fool you by referring to the car’s 1730kg kerb weight as light. I think it’s the latter.
To be fair the V6 engine does drop 30kg over the normally aspirated V8 found in the Panamera at its original launch. But let’s not get too carried away here, this is no stripped out GT3-style model.
The 3.6-litre V6 has a 90° cylinder angle and in addition to its 220kW peak power there is 400Nm of torque on offer. It will be dropped into two models, badged as the Panamera and Panamera 4. Fuel consumption in the two-wheel drive model is a respectable 9.3l/100km, while the all-wheel drive variant adds 0.3l/100km to that figure. Similarly, the Panamera 4 yields a small 7g/km CO2 emissions penalty over the 213g/km figure of the rear-wheel drive.
Standard fitment of Porsche’s dual-clutch PDK transmission and Auto Stop Start technology help the new entry-level Panamera achieve these figures.
Beijing will host the premiere of the V6 in late April and the car will be on sale in Europeans markets shortly after.