Shortly before its launch, the new Porsche Panamera S Hybrid has already scored a sensational success according to its makers. With its parallel full hybrid drive it has won the Intercity Rally at the eleventh Michelin Challenge Bibendum – an international forum for sustainable mobility which was staged this year in Berlin. Second place was taken by a 911 Carrera with a conventional combustion engine. Porsche see both successes as good market feedback that their models are "fundamentally very efficient vehicles".
The two Porsche models were competing against 14 other contestants in the combustion engine driven production vehicle category of the 300 km Intercity Rally. This category judges both vehicles with conventional diesel and petrol engines as well as hybrid and plug-in hybrid models. Acceleration and lap time on a handling course were measured as well as fuel consumption. There were also a number of regularity tests carried out during the rally that took place south west of Berlin.
With CO2 emissions of 159 g/km the 380 hp (279 kW) Panamera S Hybrid boasts the lowest emissions of any model in the entire Porsche range. That equates to fuel consumption of 6.8 l/100 km (41.5 mpg imp.) based on the NEDC. These values are achieved with optimised rolling resistance Michelin tyres, available as an option. But even with the standard tyres, the new Porsche hybrid model's fuel consumption is at an unprecedentedly low level in this class at 7.1 l/100 km (39.8 mpg imp.) based on the NEDC – which equates to 167 g/km CO2.