Porsche’s Panamera hybrid in India soon
MUMBAI: Porsche India Pvt Ltd will be launching the hybrid version of the Panamera Turbo in a month, said Pavan Shetty, director of the Indian arm of the super luxury German carmaker, at the launch of the new-generation Panamera Turbo on Wednesday.
“We will be making an announcement in the next 30 days,” said Shetty. The plug-in hybrid will drive 100 km on just 2.9 litres of fuel and is capable of going from 0 to 100 kmph in 3.4 seconds. It will command a premium of 8% (on the ex-showroom price) on the regular petrol model. The Panamera Turbo is priced upwards of ₹1.93 crore (ex-showroom, Maharshtra).
A plug-in hybrid can run on both the electric motor and a combustion engine.
The Panamera Turbo is more powerful than its predecessor, and is powered by a new 4-litre twin-turbo V8 engine.
With the hybrid, Porsche will join other luxury carmakers in India that have either launched such models for the Indian market or have plans to do so.
In September 2016, Volvo Auto India launched a plug-in hybrid version of its XC90 sports utility vehicle. Encouraged by the response to the model, the local unit of the Swedish carmaker plans to launch a hybrid variant for most of the cars it will sell in India.
The local arm of Nissan Motor Co also plans to bring the X-Trail hybrid to India in the first half of this year, Mint reported on October 20.
Porsche’s hybrid will, however, have no direct competitor in India.
Auto firms are encouraged by the government’s push to drive in cleaner technology vehicles, said Shetty, adding that even as the market for such models is nascent in India and globally, growing awareness and legislation will drive sales.
These models, on account of being fully imported, will not qualify for incentives under the FAME (faster adoption and manufacturing of electric and hybrid vehicles) scheme. Therefore, barring some discount in registration charges in the NCR, buyers will not get any benefits and will have to pay a premium to own one.
The luxury car market in India (vehicles priced above ₹30 lakh) declined by 6% in 2016 over the year ago, said Shetty, adding that he expects the current year to be better.
Porsche sold 401 cars in India in calendar year 2016 against 408 the previous year.
The Volkswagen Group company expects to reap the benefits of the models launched in the recent past—the new generation models of Macan in November, starting at ₹76.84 lakh (ex-showroom, Maharashtra), and new mid-engine sports cars 718 Cayman and 718 Boxster, at ₹81.63 lakh and ₹85.43 lakh, respectively (ex-showroom, Delhi).