Leaked pictures of the new Porsche Panamera four days out from its official unveiling in Berlin show it’s lost its bloated look and become more 911-like.
There’s an elegance about it that was missing with the outgoing model, largely because the 2017 Panamera rides on a flexible modular architecture that helps it shed weight.
But the real story of this new car is what’s going on under the skin rather than on the surface. For starters, the new platform allows Porsche to add battery-electric and plug-in hybrid models.
The Panamera will be unveiled at the Paris motor show in September, where it’s expected to be introduced with a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine. The plug-in hybrid will appear later, using a six-cylinder unit.
A station wagon/shooting brake variant of the Panamera is likely to break cover next year at the Frankfurt show, before going into production in 2018.
The so-called Porsche Sport Turismo has been spied testing on the Nurburgring circuit. The name itself comes from a concept unveiled at the 2012 Paris motor show.