The Porsche Pajun – aka the PANamera JUNior – has been delayed as part of a thorough overhaul of Porsche’s future product plans.
CAR understands the Pajun, a baby Panamera sports saloon to rival the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E-class, Audi A6, BMW 5-series and Maserati Ghibli, has been put on ice in a comprehensive shake-up of the so-called Porsche Product Strategy 2018.
Porsche Product Strategy 2018: what’s new
The internal plan dubbed Porsche Product Strategy 2018 had mapped out seven different car lines that would have been in place by 2018 – including new sports cars, SUVs and saloons wearing the Porsche badge.
In it, the Pajun was scheduled for launch within the next four years, but the plan is no longer valid. CAR understands that the Volkswagen parent in Wolfsburg needs all the support its Porsche satellite in Stuttgart can summon, so investments in future products have been pared to the bone.
As a result, the only additional Porsche model range that has so far made the transition from drawing board to dealer showroom is the Macan. But there is hope for sports car fans – last week CAR revealed plans for a new Porsche 718 sub-Boxster sports car, a blueprint for the cheapest and purest Porsche roadster for generations.
The remaining proposals have been decontented, delayed or dropped. And CAR has learned that the downsized Pajun is now unlikely to materialise before 2019.
Porsche Pajun: the spec
The Pajun is described as a five-door coupe – expect it to be positioned as a mini-me Panamera, in the same way the Macan takes the Cayenne aesthetic and shrink-washes it to fit the more compact, mid-sized SUV market.
The first picture in our Pajun gallery shows a flavour of how the new five-door could look; it’s an official Porsche sketch of the Panamera Sport Turismo concept car, which previewed a shooting brake version of the Panam.
Porsche’s Pajun is set to stick with V6 power at launch; the Audi-related 3.0-litre V6 TDI is likely to become the mainstay in the executive sector though, this being a Porsche, a raft of petrol engines will be available, some in loonier states of tune upwards of 500bhp.
Porsche: business is booming in 2014
The news of the Pajun delay comes as Porsche announces booming sales in 2014. It has delivered 87,800 cars in the first half of 2014 – up 8% on the same period last year.
And one of the biggest sellers was the refreshed Panamera: sales of 13,500 were up 28%, and one in 10 of those models was the Panamera S E-Hybrid.