THE PORSCHE PANAMERA almost has it all. Thanks to its sports car dynamics and excellent engineering it stays true to its residually endowed badge, and then adds a wallop of limousine-like space on top of a competitive price that starts at R760 000.  It’s quite the package – just a pity about the disproportionate looks. Like the bulky Cayenne before it, the Panamera might have driven the two-seater Porsche traditionalist to tears, but it hasn’t stopped the rest of the world from buying it. It seems looks count for little once you’re the one having fun behind the steering wheel.

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Now there’s a new Panamera that makes even more sense than its siblings. It’s a hybrid, but it happens to be the fastest production hybrid money can buy. It’s also the most economical Porsche ever, although that’s not much of a brag given the performance oriented family tree from which it branches. To be fair though, it’s a car with a top speed of 270kph that can sprint from 0 to 100kph in 6 seconds flat, and return a claimed fuel consumption of 7.1 litres every 100km. Though of course gunning for the first two figures would blast out the last.

 I’m not a huge fan of hybrids. Most of them smack of clunky compromise, delivering neither the power, the consumption savings nor the satisfaction of driving on electric-only propulsion for meaningful distances. I’ve preached the gospel of small diesels over hybrids many a time. Now, after driving the Panamera S Hybrid around, over and through the Austrian and German Alps for two days at the international launch, I’ve been forced to reassess my dislike of hybrids.

This V6 hybrid does most things as well as the regular V8 Panamera S, and some of them it does a lot better. Yes, it loses the 0-100kph sprint by 0.6 seconds and it sacrifices 13kph at the top end, but it thrashes the regular Panamera S with a range of 1470km versus 970km on the same tank of fuel. Emissions are a paltry 167g/km versus the regular car’s 242 and at R1 114 000, it’s only R14 000 more expensive. I hesitate to write this, but the electric engine adds an element of bunny-loving, tree-hugging fun that a regular internal combustion engine-only set-up just can’t match.

I know I have to explain myself before the petrolheads start calling me a traitor, which means things are about to get technical. The Panamera S Hybrid is a parallel full hybrid, which means the main power comes from a supercharged three-litre V6 engine delivering 245kW, supported by a 34kW electric motor. There are times though when this little electric motor isn’t just the supporting act, but stars as the main attraction propelling the two-tonne Porsche on its own.