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Porsche Panamera vs Tesla Model S

What's the difference?

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Porsche Panamera
Porsche Panamera

2021 price

Tesla Model S
Tesla Model S

$54,990 - $65,981

2017 price

Summary

2021 Porsche Panamera
2017 Tesla Model S
Safety Rating

Engine Type
Twin Turbo V6, 2.9L

0.0L
Fuel Type
Premium Unleaded Petrol

Electric
Fuel Efficiency
8.8L/100km (combined)

0.0L/100km (combined)
Seating
4

5
Dislikes
  • Rear room compromised
  • It gets expensive
  • V8s are thirsty

  • Sadly, it's not a sports car
  • It's a lot of money
  • Lack of convenient charging
2021 Porsche Panamera Summary

It’s a good thing the Porsche Panamera doesn’t feel emotions. Otherwise it might be feeling like the forgotten member of the Porsche family.

While the 911 remains the evergreen hero, the Cayenne and Macan the popular sales darlings and the new Taycan the exciting newcomer, the Panamera simply plays its part. 

It fills an important but small role for the brand, giving Porsche an executive sedan (and wagon) to compete against the big players from the other German brands - Audi A7 Sportback, BMW 8-Series Gran Coupe and Mercedes-Benz CLS

However, while it may have been overshadowed of late, that doesn’t mean Porsche has forgotten about it. For 2021 the Panamera has been given a mid-life update, after this current generation launched back in 2017. 

The changes are subtle in isolation but add up to some big improvements across the range, most notably extra power has seen the previous range-topper, the Panamera Turbo, become the Turbo S. 

There’s also a new hybrid model and tweaks to the air suspension and related systems to improve the handling (but more on that later).

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2017 Tesla Model S Summary

If you have even a passing interest in the Tesla Model S, you'll have seen the endless internet videos where someone has lined up a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or another fast exotic car you could name, to race against it.

There's a long build-up, usually involving men who can't operate a baseball cap, a drag strip and idiotic words in the headline like "destroys" or "rips", or whatever. There's usually a bunch of honking bros with bad haircuts watching on, already planning their next viral video where they set a perfectly good mobile phone on fire.

It's facile and idiotic and doesn't give you any real clue as to the depth of whatever supercar it has "humiliated" or, just as importantly, the depth of the Model S and its spectacular engineering.

So, I won't be spending the next thousand words building up to the conclusion that the Model S P100D with Ludicrous Mode is up there with the world's fastest production cars from 0-100km/h, because I'll tell you now that it is, and it does it in a claimed 2.7 seconds.

Now that's out of the way, there's quite a bit more to the Model S than a "broken" Nissan GT-R owner weeping into their bento box.

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Deep dive comparison

2021 Porsche Panamera 2017 Tesla Model S

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