Porsche Panamera GTS – Built for Drivers, Not Passengers

This is the 2025 Porsche Panamera GTS, Porsche’s offer in the executive grand turismo segment.


The first generation Panamera, the series 970, was launched in 2009, a project driven personally by the charismatic CEO back then, Wendelin Wiedeking. Porsche hat been absent from the gran turismo luxury performance limousine segment since the rather unsuccessful Porsche 928 was dropped in 1995.


But with the highly successful Cayenne, Porsche had seen that the brand could span wider than the 911 and the Boxster/Cayman sports cars and wanted to tap into the lucrative executive grand turismo segment. The planned annual Panamera volume was 20,000 units, a target which was even exceeded by 6,000 units in the first year.


The design of the first generation was a bit heavy, especially at the rear, and could not quite match the elegance of the comparable Audi A8, BMW 7-series and Mercedes S-Class. The design was much improved for the 2nd generation 971-series in 2016 and in 2017 the Sport Turismo was added to the lineup. This is the third generation Panamera, the 976-series which was launched in 2023. It is a masterpiece with beautiful design and lots of high-tech.


Porsche sold 29,587 Panameras in 2024, a significant number, but less than a third of what the Cayenne sold. The Panamera sales are up again in 2025.

What the Panamera does exceptionally well, is long fast motorway driving. I have driven 600 km in this car on a long trip through Switzerland and very few cars crunch miles at well as the Panamera. Most of the trip was late at night and I was very impressed by the Matrix head lamps which offer stunning clarity.


At the heart of the Panamera GTS is an old-school 3996cc twin-turbo V8 engine, generating a 500 horsepower and 660 Nm. 0-100 takes 3.8 seconds, 0-200 just 14.6 seconds. The engine is wonderful and powerful, and it sounds the part.


On long trips at 120 km/h or so, the consumption is around 10 liters which is impressive. Increase the speed to 200 or even 302 km/h which is the top speed, and the consumption doubles. Expect an average consumption of 12-14 liters per 100 km in daily usage.



Filmed in Switzerland in the summer of 2025. Produced by DNTS Productions.