Not least, it qualifies for 100 per cent first year capital allowance under government rules extended to end-March 2015.
These are on top of the vehicle’s intrinsic attractions as a spectacular driver’ s car: 0-62mph in 5.5 seconds, top speed of 167 mph, 3-litre V6 in combination with lithium -ion battery and 95 bhp electric motor giving a maximum 416bhp – and all on an official combined fuel economy figure of 91mpg.
The Panamera S E-Hybrid’s company car tax rate is a mere 5 per cent
Porsches may be seen as exclusive but the passage of time and the vehicles’ longevity have turned the brand into slightly more than an outer fringe market player. Its UK car park is now close to 140,000.
Porsche’s hitherto ambivalent attitude towards understanding properly the nature and needs of business users is thus likely to surprise many. Maynard acknowledges, indeed, that “actually, we don’t even have any reliable data” [on Porsche business sales].
“We have traditionally had a coding system which categorises most cars as retail, even if at the end of the day they are business purchases.
“We’ve never measured them as such and we’ve never tried to understand.
“Sure, we can look at our databases and get some broad ideas – such as the big companies which have got multiples of cars on the database – but our cars are sold only at the senior levels of SMEs and other companies, so whether that is truly a business car sale or actually going through as a retail sale is not what’s been important to us , nor is it the way it’s been categorised.
“In fact, it’s a very tight balance between ‘is it corporate or is it retail?’.
“We have lots of customers who are in cash allowance schemes who are effectively retail. Then there’s the major leasing company which has lots of cars on its account but which also provides a fleet management service for such (cash allowance) cars to senior executives or self-employed within a business . There seems, in short, to be ever more muddying of the waters.”
