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I got out of the Panamera this evening after doing some grocery shopping and had forgotten that this thing had four doors! It really is that easy to forget that this is a rather large car; if you drive it with the sport suspension active, it feels like a nimble sports car thanks to the lowered ride height and firm ride. Drive the Panamera in comfort mode, and it is still nimble and agile but it soaks up the bumps and ruts like a luxury car should.
Despite the fact that the Panamera unexpectedly drives like a sports car, it does feel big in some situations. Parking it, although easy, makes you realize it is a long and wide car and you want to keep your distance from door-dingers. Backing up can can be a little difficult too, with the very small mirrors and small rear window opening. It seems that my test car has a reversing camera system as there is a camera on the trunk, but it is not turning on… not sure what the problem is there.
The real story, though, is found out on the open road or the twisty back country road. The Panamera turns quickly and precisely even on the winter boots my tester is wearing; get on the power and — whoa boy — you will be pushed back into the seat! Press the electric mode button and you can come to a stop and accelerate up to 70km/h before the engine bumps in to assist, and unlike most other hybrids you do not have to be ridiculously light on the throttle to keep from engaging the engine.
The Panamera Hybrid has what Porsche calls a “coast” mode, allowing the engine to shutdown at any speed, where as all other hybrid manufacturers have a limit to the speeds at which the vehicle will run on electricity alone. The Infiniti M35h, for example, allows you to travel up to 100km/h with the engine disengaged while the Ford Fusion goes up to 70km/h; I had the Panamera cruising with engine off at 120km/h.
The switch between gas and electric assist is, as expected, completely seamless, as are the shifts from the eight-speed transmission. If you aren’t paying attention to the tach you would never know the vehicle is switching between electric and gasoline power, except when stopped as you can hear the engine purring away at idle. The brakes do suffer from the hybrid sponge syndrome: although they can be modulated carefully when a quick decrease of speed is needed, at slower speeds the brakes tend to go from nothing to grabby in an instant, bopping your passengers around in parking lots or slow-speed traffic.
