Sales of the Porsche Panamera are up to 13,500 units so far in 2014, a 28% increase. Of those, fully 10% were Panamera E-Hybrids, helping lift sales a lot. Porsche is having a very good year so far. Sales during the first half of 2014 were up 8% to 87,800 units, and of that total, 30,000 cars were delivered to European customers, 23,000 went to the US market and 19,800 to China.
Worldwide, the best selling Porsche model remains the Cayenne, with 37,200 units, followed by the 911 with 15,615 sold. Purists have always put the knock on Porsche for selling “trucks” (even though the Cayenne is a very, very nice truck) but clearly the corporate bottom line has been fattened considerably by doing so, since the Cayenne outsells the 911 by more than 2 to 1.
As for the Panamera E Hybrids, they’re equipped with an electric motor that adds 95 hp, more than double the 47 HP of the previous hybrid model for a grand total of 416 ponies. The hybrid has a 9.4 kWh lithium-ion battery which can be fully charged in about 2.5 hours via the integrated on-board charging system and the standard Porsche Universal Charger (AC) when connected to a 240V power source.
The Panamera S E-Hybrid, which starts in the US at $99,000, accelerates to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 167 mph. Porsche expect Panamera sales to more than double this year with the hybrid model, and with so many buyers opting for the plug-in hybrid version, it would make sense that Porsche want to add that capability to its best selling vehicle, the Cayenne.
Are you listening, Porsche?
