2017 Porsche Panamera REVEALED – new looks, new interior, new platform & new engines

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The new 2017 Porsche Panamera has been revealed with new looks, new engines, a new platform and a new interior. On sale in the UK November 2016.

The new Porsche Panamera is hardly a secret, what with Porsche running it up the Goodwood hillclimb at the weekend with camouflage limited to a couple of bits of black tape round the lights, and a leak of some the new Panamera’s official photos last week.

But the official reveal of the new Panamera is still big news, if nothing else because it probably tells you what direction Porsche interiors are heading.

What is remarkable about the new Panamera is that, just like every other new Porsche, it looks just the same…but different.

It’s longer by 35mm and wider and taller by 5mm, sits on a new platform and probably doesn’t share a single panel, nut or bolt with the current car and yet looks completely familiar, but where the current car looks ungainly from a lot of angles the new Panamera doesn’t thanks to some clever new lights and bumpers – tying the Panamera’s looks in to the latest 911 and 718s – which transform the Panamera from proper ugly duckling to something almost pretty. Well, almost.

Inside is new too, and where the current Panamera with its button-fest and rising centre console set the template for Porsche interiors to come, this new Panamera will probably do the same.

The rising centre console is still there, but there are touch-sensitive zones for stuff like climate and adaptive driving around it instead of buttons, and a new gear lever looks like it’s borrowed from Audi.

The dash itself has a big centre rev counter surrounded by 7″ LCD instrument screens you can configure, and the centre of the dash is dominated by a 12.3″ touchscreen that will probably deliver you anything you want.

Under the bonnet of the Panamera all is new too, with the old 4.8 litre V8 turbo ditched in favour of a new 4.0 litre V8 which comes with 542bhp in the Panamera Turbo (leaving room for something up to 600bhp for a Turbo S later) good for 0-62mph in just 3.6 seconds if you opt for the Sport Chrono Pack, and official economy of 30.3 mpg (not that you’ll get that, and not that you’ll care).

If the turbo is a bit too much of a financial stretch, the Panamera 4S with its 2.9 litre bi-turbo V6 kicking out 434bhp and hitting 62mph in 4.2 seconds (with Sport Chrono) is hardly having to slum it.

But if you want the world to think you’re being parsimonious and buying a diesel Panamera, probably best you don’t let on that the Panamera 4S Diesel gets a V8 Turbo with 627lb/ft of torque and 416bhp (thanks to the Audi SQ7, no doubt), enough for 0-62mph in 4.3 seconds and official economy of 41.5mpg.

The new Porsche Panamera will arrive in Porsche’s UK showrooms in November, but with Brexit in play don’t expect Porsche to deliver a UK price just yet. If it helps, the Panamera 4S will cost from €113k in Germany.