The Porsche Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo—to hybrid or not to hybrid?

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  The range-topping Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo.

If everything had gone to plan, you’d have read our review of Porsche’s mighty Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid Sport Turismo last summer. Maybe one of the longest names of any car on sale today, it has the specs and a price tag to match. How does 680 horsepower (507kW), 626lb-ft (848Nm) and a starting price of $190,200 sound?

But things didn’t go exactly according to plan. Somehow, other drivers kept driving into the back of the range-topping hybrid on Porsche’s East Coast press fleet, necessitating some continued rescheduling that meant we didn’t actually get any seat time in it until the last clutches of winter, hence, the snow in the pictures.

However, it wasn’t all calamity. To ameliorate one cancellation, the people at Porsche sent us a non-hybrid Panamera Turbo Sport Turismo (MSRP $155,500, 550hp/410kW, 567lb-ft/768Nm) as a stand-in. That provided the opportunity to make some comparisons between the two most powerful Panameras and explore what difference 14.1kWh of lithium-ion batteries and a 134hp (100kW), 295lb-ft (400Nm) electric motor make.