Would Porsche Taycan EV buyers be better off with a 560bhp PHEV Panamera 4S E-Hybrid? 

Just have to explain to the police officer, when pulled over, that you were going through the sub-menus to adjust the air vents. Surely all these touch screen functions can't be safe to use.

Nice, but makes my 2nd hand under £30k 28k mile diesel Panamera that gives me 50 mpg seem like phenomenal value.

The dilemma we've all had to deal with! 😆👍🏻

Is it just me or does the Sport Turismo look so much better than the regular Panamera? Must be that wagon body style, looks so clean to me. Fantastic video as always Harry!

I've never been a huge fan of the "regular" Panamera, but the Sport Turismo is a very handsome touring car. Like many other enthusiasts, I'm not yet ready to fully embrace EV's, so my choice would be the Panamera Sport Turismo hybrid rather than the Taycan. (although I'd take the Panamera ST Turbo over both of them.) Thanks Harry! Happy New Year to you!

Spot on the same conclusion as I reached, after driving pure electric for 5 years (using my wife's car for occasional distance) I recently bought a phev 330e, and now distances are no longer an issue and I still get 125 mpg overall. And my reason was, as Harry said, inadequate infrastructure. Charging points that are wrong network, broken, occupied, or just non-existent sent me back to a hybrid. Lots of houses do not have dedicated parking/charging places, so hybrids will be here until electric cars can do 1000 miles on a quick charge.

Another great vid Harry, thank you for all of your time and effort, and for passing on you're knowledge. It's greatly appreciated. Stay safe and I hope you and your family have a great new year. Jon.

Happy 2021 Harry and thank you for the joy you have brought to us and for the joy you are going to bring to us. Stay safe!

Touch screen...how long until all these digital dashboards look like the 80s Aston Martin Lagonda?

Looked forward to this all day!

Another fantastic video from Harry to kick off 2021.

Looking forward to 2021 with Harry's videos.

Yes Harry- happy new year! 👍

Happy New Year Harry!....LOVE the tail light design Porsche is using now - thin tube lighting taking full advantage of technology. I've never driven a first generation Panamera but I did ride in the back seat and that was enough to add it to my bucket list - just sensational.

Harry I always enjoy your videos and watch them all, you're a great engaging presenter, your editing, different angles and views of the car, inside and out are fabulous..

Another good real world review, thanks Harry

Word to the wise- Try reducing the Title length. Something a little more concise. The Algorithms like it & it fills a larger search bracket. Eg - ‘Porsche Panamera e-hybrid: Better than a Taycan ?’

I miss the days when the sport saloon and sport estate were popular. Sporty SUVs just make zero sense to me, and the SUV coupes even less so.

Another great video Harry. Something to look forward to stuck at home in lockdown.

Illuminating! Happy New Year, Harry!

Agree with the vent control gripe, Harry is so right on.

I’ve had a Cayenne Hybrid on loan, you are right they are a lovely mix of silent easy driving in town or stop-start traffic and do the speed and range when you need too. I was very impressed. If I didn’t tow and off road the Pani would be top of my list. Don’t take either near a multi-storey car park however.

Great video look forward to the next one 👍

Thanks for another post for sanity Harry, as you say EV's are to early for the technology, they still have details to work out. Happy New Year Harry and Fam. Here's hoping for an exceptionally good spring on the farm, all the best!.

I see a Harrys Garage Video, I click without even caring what it is 😂👍

I realize the point of this episode is to discuss electric and hybrid-electric options, but I own a Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo (the non-hybrid one), and it's a joy to drive. Doesn't have all of that heft you were complaining about with the e-Hybrid, thanks to not needing to carry around all those batteries. It really does feel like a much smaller car. Would love to hear your take on it if you have the opportunity to review one.

Great video as always, I tested BMW I8 quire a few years back and that also ran on electric only up to 70mph I think, could be a good shout getting one of them back for a video to see how far hybrids have or haven’t moved on

Great review as always 👍🏼 I hope the new lockdown regulations ( as of 04/01/2021 ) don’t stop your channel, stay safe 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Not really a fan of the Panamera, but the colour is absolutely wonderful.

Excited to see the taycan estate, whenever that's out

Always a great video Harry 👍

Excellent as always Harry

I was never a fan of Porsche styling. As a child, I called the old rubber bumpered 911's dodgem cars. However I absolutely love the style of both the Taycan and now the Panamera. Absolutely lovely cars. Way out of my price range but very easy on my eyes.

It's a good day when Harry releases a new video

Great video as always!

Another nugget of pure gold from Harry. If only the RU-vid algorithm could put the irritating advert breaks in better places rather than mid-sentence... Also, is there not an affiliate link for CTEK? I'd have thought the sponsor would want to offer a discount to us viewers or a kickback to Harry and the team if it garners more business for them - added to which I need a charger!

The name is as long as the car, jolly good video as always.

It's been on my list of possible next cars for a while. I feel that for most of us PHEVs get us a long way towards being electrically powered for most of our journeys (EU average daily drive is 19 miles). And of course the Panamera provides an engaging driving experience!

Still good to see the excitement on your face in “launch mode” Harry 🚒👍

Whatever your opinion on it’s details, this is absolutely the definition of ‘all the car you’d ever need’ Space, comfort, tech, speed, handling, hybrid economy & a Porsche badge on the bonnet.

Harry’s wisdom. Well worth listening

Harry the definitive motoring brain ! Happy new year to you Sir. Could this be the ultimate cross Europe method? lol. It's funny Harry, when you were a student 0-60mph in 3+ seconds was considered racing car type performance !

Really enjoyed how you ranted away on that touch-screen controlled vent.

I don’t skip the ads when I watch Harry just so RU-vid know how a car channel should be done and to give harry a little ‘tip’ like I would for a good meal at a restaurant!

The green of the badging clashes terribly with the maroon paint.

I want one, love the look

Happy New Year Harry. Great content as ever. Any chance you’ll be trying the Mustang Mach E? Would love your point of view, given your experiments...

I would be prefer this one much more! Happy New Year Harry!

That back end si so 928GTS inspired

What about warming up the engine in a hybrid? I mean when you just used electric power till a certain point and then you want to really push on-don't you then have to wait for the engine to warm up first?

Amazing car, I went for the cayenne coupe e-hybrid eventually last year because this one is too long to fit in a modern garage. I also have reached the conclusion that you need to sit higher these days with so many other suv's and tall vans on the roads. I expect to keep it for the long term. great channel, thanks.

Great video as always, I think the Sport Turismo will have some stiff competition when the Taycan Sport Turismo is available though.

Is it good engineering to have turbocharged engines stop dead and restart to instant high revs? Sounds like really expensive engine repairs to expect down the time road and consequential massive depreciation continuing for the first seven years until it becomes a bargain basement heap that nobody wants to risk. Maybe I'm getting old?

It seems to me that certain cars cause more distraction for the driver, trying to figure out how to use essential things like heaters and radio than if the driver was illegally texting on their phone. They've all jumped on the touchscreen fashion bandwagon and forgot about ergonomics and safety.

I very much enjoy your videos. Thank you

Great stuff, Harry! Happy New Year! By the way, describing something as "grotty" always reminds me of George Harrison in 'A Hard Day's Night'! ;-)

I believe it was Bacon who said “There is no sublime hideousness without some small beauty in the proportion.” I am only watching to see if I can spot that small beauty ... I guess the bonnet badge looks nice.

Is there a tendency to abuse a cold engine if the start of all journeys are electric?

Great video Harry! I ‘quite like’ the looks of the Panamera, but looking forward to the ‘proper’ cars! Haha. I’m in Cirencester, so hopefully I will see you driving past in something beautiful soon!

Another sensible video from Harry, expected nothing else

Out of the two, it would be the Panamera for me for a multitude of reasons. Maybe in 10 years when the charging situation and battery technology have improved drastically, I may reconsider.

Doesn’t the engine need to warm up before jumping into life and hitting the Rev limiter ?

Excellent vid,thanks.

Fantastic video Harry

Harry, got a question. I was always taught to never rev a cold engine and yet this Panamera defaults to electric with the petrol engine cutting in when required. So, if the car is running hard on electric and suddenly the petrol engine cuts in (cold) isn't this wearing the engine out prematurely?

I love this channel; anyone missing the BBC?

Great video as usual harry.

I totally agree with your conclusions Harry. I drive a BMW 530e and it gives the best of both worlds. Since Lockdown in March, I have travelled 2,500 miles and averaged 75 mpg. The battery could do with more range and the newer model has been suitably endowed with a bigger battery. It's all the car I could ask for and I value the comfort over out and out performance. Keep up the good work, you have a new subscriber!

So, when accelerating out of the village up the hill, the ICE fired-up at 2000rpm and revved up to the red line - all while the engine oil was cold. Ouch! How many miles of such cold-start abuse before the ICE and its turbos need a costly rebuild - not many I suspect? Not a great used-buy, then.

It's a Porsche station wagon and I don't care about any of the rest of it.

Great vid Harry, as always! It would be lovely if you could test the SportTurismo GTS and compare the two. Cheers!

Superb video, many thanks for the work. That's re-focussed me away from the 4.0 V8 and on to the e-Hybrid. What amazing figures for economy and carbon emissions. Wonderful engineering.

Does it warm the engine on E ready for when it's need?

A feeling of heft ! That sums up most ev . I remember SAAB used to have a night mode button. All lighting turned off on the dash except the speedo. It was a good thing. Wish modern cars had the same button as I find the ‘iPad’ dashboards distracting when driving .

Thank you for that information very helpful

My third time with this video as I’ve had my eye on the Panamera hybrid for some time. Harry’s comments and opinions are the best in the business. I would buy this car tomorrow based on my experience with my Boxster S and two GMC Yukon XL’s. Thank you.

I've always wondered if hybrids have an integrated oil or block heater onboard, seems harsh to put the petrol engine under stress so quickly after firing up.

Still don’t understand why anyone would buy one of these over a used 640d/A7 3.0tdi or 3.0 Panamera diesel. You could use the £70K cash left over to fuel it for the next 30 years.

Nice video Harry. An interesting and worthwhile comparison for potential buyers. The jump to full EV is so expensive, PHEV’s seem like the best halfway house to me.

Another good video. Thanks and as usual your reviews reflect what people are thinking as they watch. It might of been just me but at the start when you where driving on electric power it sounded like there was a terrible drone coming from the tyres?

The one thing Harry this video neglects is the astronomical financial saving of buying the Taycan as a business owner. You can offset 15% of the Panamera cost against your business’s capital allowance in year 1, vs 100% of your capital allowance with the Taycan, added to which there are no BIK payments due to HMRC for either the owner or the business with the Taycan. For a high rate taxpayer who owns their business, that equates to a saving of around £30k for a profitable business for the Taycan vs the Panamera in year 1 of ownership alone. This has to be considered in reviews because it makes for a major consideration in purchasing decisions for business owners.

Great video again. As an engineer I often wonder how this sort of car is driven and the wear and tear on the engine before it's warmed up. Starting off in electric, driving from home, getting out of town, then the road opens up and "the beans" are used, thrashing a cold engine isn't good for it. I've not experience a hybrid, so don't know if the car protects itself. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts

very interesting, thanks for sharing!

Your comment on the (old) Panamera that it ”makes you feel like you’re going to a conference” is still valid in my opinion.

The one thing that I'm concerned about is when the ICE is suddenly asked to give full power on kick down. Harry came out of the 30 mph speed limit of the village, having driven it all the way to that point on electric. Then, booting it up the hill when the engine is stone cold. Can that be good for the ICE, with all lubricants no where near up to temperature? I'm wondering if there maybe some breakdowns and component failures, when so much could be potentially demanded from a cold engine..just a thought.

I've been driving in some of these new Hybrids that have this full eletric mode which is great however theres one little thing that really tingles my mechanical sympathy. The combustion engine only helps when you really want to step on it, but if you do the engine suddenly starts completly cold from 0 rpm to a very high rpm and demanding regime, can't this be damaging to the engine overtime? Or what have they engineered so these engines are made to rev high from the start?

You looked like a naughty boy when you did that launch Harry 😄

Porsche de fou.... Merci Harry's pour le partage ;)

I'm sure Porsche has thought it through but does the engine technically go from cold/freshly started to being required at 85mph if it's default is electric only?

I live in cold Scandinavia and I have always wondered what happens with these hybrids in the following situation: It’s 30 degrees minus. I drive the first let’s say 30 miles to the motorway and the battery is now empty. Now I need to overtake someone. Will it run the cold engine to it’s max and eventually break the engine or do the pre-heat the engine to a safe point or will it prevent me from getting the full power?

I’ve noticed something on the specsheet Harry. This particular car doesn’t have the Sport exhaust with the valves (PSE). It only has the sport (look) tailpipes. That’s probably why it didn’t sound as sporty as it should... your video proves that selecting PSE is a must for this car.

Another great video Harry. I used to love the Panamera and always thought I'd have one, but lately, the more I look at them the more I think they look ungainly and just a bit too big. Agree however, that the Panamera is the better everyday choice vs Taycan

No exactly a looker is it? And I don't remember seeing a car that makes 21" tyres look so tiny!

That curb weight though, 2300kg's is mental. One question about all hybrids that just came to mind. When you are driving in electric mode and switch to the engine on won't the engine be cold and not lubricated fully yet, so won't the engine wear and possibly a head gasket failure if you drive spiritedly straight away? Normally when you have an ICE engine you let it idle for a little bit and then drive like normal, you let the engine coolant come up to temperature and then you can give it the beans. That doesn't seem to be the case with hybrid vehicles because you can be driving and then the engine turns on and you rev the snot out of it. Or have the engineers thought of this and lubricate and warm the engine before it even turns on?

Fantastic video

Great video again as always Harry.. I've got a 2019 Merc C43 AMG Estate.... also 3ltr Bi-Turbo. Sports exhaust sounds AMAZING!! How come AMG can do noise but others can't??

Hi Harry , so when you have been driving in electric mode and need full power , is the engine cold ? If so how can this be any good for the engine ?

I’m not sure I like the idea of setting off under then bringing in a cold ICE somewhere down the road. Does it have any software to cope with that problem?

Worth mentioning Harry that another advantage of the Porsche system is that you can charge on the move and fairly quickly, on motorways is the most efficient and fastest way. It does affect the fuel consumption in Sports Plus whilst charging but again allows you flexibility if on a longer journey.

Great video. I just ordered that exact car in blue here in Minnesota. We get very cold and have very few charging options except at home. I have a 2018 Panamera 4e hybrid to sell/trade in and often times can go a thousand miles on a tank of gas because I live only 6 miles from work. But, as you noted, I can use this type car for long distance without range anxiety. Seriously considered a Taycan but, our electric charging infrastructure just isn’t there yet. Phil Little Falls, MN