Porsche Launches New Panamera; To Roll Out Its Hybrid Shortly

MUMBAI: German luxury sports car-maker Porsche, which today launched the second generation of its sports saloon Panamera, said it will soon be rolling out a hybrid version of the saloon in the domestic market. 

Porsche rolled out the new all-wheel drive Panamera Turbo at 1.93 crore and the Panamera Turbo Executive at 2.06 crore, (ex-showroom, Mumbai). This is the second generation of the car and will cost around 2.7 crore on road with 180 pct duties.

"We will be announcing the launch of the hybrid Panamera (Panamera Turbo SE-Hybrid,) within a month. The car is ready and all I need is the go-ahead from the headquarters," Pavan Shetty, Porsche India director, told PTI on the sidelines of launching the new Panamera. 

Asked about the pricing of the hybrid he said, it will be comparatively cheaper as the company will be getting the FAME benefit and will command a premium of only around 8 pct over the petrol/diesel model. Globally the hybrid commands around 20 pct premium, Shetty added. 

On sales expectation from the new launch, he said, they are already sold out for the first few months and going by the initial response it should do well. 

"Overall I expect this year to be better for me as well for the industry. If no negative surprises come in as in last year with the diesel ban, we should be really doing well," he said when asked about growth expectation this year. 

"Last year the overall luxury car market declined around 6 pct but we were flat with a negative bias. We ended 2016 with 401 units, led by Cayenne down from 408 units in 2015," Shetty said. 

He said Delhi-NCR constitutes 38 pct of his volume and the company lost around 20 pct sales last year in the nation's largest auto market due to the diesel ban as it took them time to get the petrol models from Germany. 

Shetty said the company will also be launching a long-wheel base version of the Panamera, as well as the Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo, which is its all-new body version revealed at the Geneva motor show earlier this month. 

For Porsche, which hawks only six models in the country, said Macan (compact SUV at around Rs 77 lakh) is the volume leader here as well as globally with around 60 pct share followed by the Cayenne with 30 pct and the Panamera 10 pct volume share. Its other models include the 918 Cayenne Spyder and 911 Cayenne Turbo and Macan 718. 

Overall the SUVs contribute 70 pct of the volume, Shetty added. 

He said the company will be adding two more dealerships -- in Bengaluru and Hyderabad -- this year. Porsche has four dealers currently.

On the number of women Porsche owners, Shetty said 

they constitute only 7 pct and that to increase this, they are planning an only-for-woman test drives for the Panamera. 

He also said almost 30 pct of the customers are repeat with some of them even owning the entire Porsche range. 

There are 3,200 Porsches on the domestic roads today, while the company sells over 45,000 units in China a year, making it the single largest market for the German company. 

The 4-liter petrol Panamera comes with modifications to the engine, transmission, chassis and overall design concept, and weighs 500 kg more than its rival, he said, adding the car can gain 0 to 100 in flat 3 seconds and can be controlled from the back seat. 

The new Panamera competes with Austin Martin and Audi RS7. 

The four-door saloon Panamera Turbo is more powerful than its predecessor, and offers significantly high fuel economy and lower emissions and also comes fully digitalised interiors, which the Stuttgart-based Porsche began with the 918 Spyder. 

The new Panamera engine comes with a 4-litre twin- turbo V8 and offer 550 hp at 5,750 rpm, with a maximum torque of 770 Nm between 1,960 and 4,500 rpm. It has 30 hp more than its predecessor as well as a torque increase of 70 Nm. The vehicle accelerates to 100 kmph in 3.8 seconds and can attain the top speed of 306 kmph.

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