The Porsche Panamera is celebrating 10 years since its first appearance

It was ten years ago that the German brand, Porsche, decided to take a very important step that left some disbelievers astonished. It was ten years ago that the people from Stuttgart presented their first conventional saloon, the Panamera. That name sat on a luxury five-door vehicle capable of keeping intact the DNA that Porsche had always given to its sportiest models. Now, with its second generation on the market, the Panamera has looked back at its history to commemorate the ten years it has been part of the automotive sector, a place it has no intention of leaving.

It was in April 2009 that the German brand set out to show the world that sportiness and practicality are not two concepts that cannot go hand in hand. They had already done so with the Cayenne, but it was with the Panamera that they dramatically expanded their customer base, since they offered them the possibility of combining space with performance worthy of a 911.

However, the Panamera was not the first attempt by Porsche to create a sporty saloon, since in the 1950s they created a prototype based on the 356. It was called Type 530, but it was not the only one to try to establish this concept within the German family, as various proposals were also presented, taking as their starting point the 911 of the era and the 928.

The company tried again later with the Type 989, a four-door coupé powered by a V8 engine, but the project was finally abandoned in 1992 due to financial problems. But it was at the beginning of the 21st century that Porsche carried out a series of market studies and concluded that it would be a good time to begin developing what would later become the Panamera we all know.

Three concept cars were created, the Mirage, the Meteor and the Phantom, but in the end the second one was used as the main source of inspiration for developing the production variant. It was in April 2009 that Porsche already had everything ready to unveil the Panamera, a model that debuted in Shanghai before the eyes of thousands of journalists from around the world.

After a resounding success, a facelift in 2013, and having housed both diesel and petrol engines producing up to 570 CV, Porsche decided to introduce the second generation. This one saw the light of day three years ago and, having inherited the legacy of the first Panamera, is poised to keep earning the good reputation that the first conventional saloon from Porsche enjoyed and generated, and which could receive a coupé variant very soon.

Technical specifications of this car

HatchbackPorsche Panamera9 versions · from 134,887 €