Porsche’s Boxster roadster: subject of an all-electric evaluation in Stuttgart next year
Business Car Manager: Editor’s Blog
THE movement towards electric cars and hybrid technology seems unstoppable at the moment. While Toyota is trialling plug-in Prius hybrids in London, sports car maker Porsche has been developing both electric Boxster roadsters and the next cars in its hybrid line up.
At the moment, Porsche is preparing three all-electric drive Boxsters to undertake practical tests as part of the Stuttgart Model Region for Electromobility – Stuttgart being Porsche’s HQ. The trials commence in 2011.
Porsche says it wants to use the test vehicles provide further findings on the infrastructure required for electromobility, user behaviour and the demands made of future products.
According to Michael Macht, Porsche’s president and ceo, this electric fieldwork evaluations is critical: “We will definitely be offering an electric sports car in the future. But such a concept only makes sense if it offers product qualities typical of a Porsche.”
We’ve already seen some of Porsche’s thinking in the astonishing 918 Spyder concept it showed at the Geneva Show earlier this year. The Porsche 918 Spyder combines a high-performance mid-engined sports car with plug-in hybrid technology: the result is 600hp but emissions of just 70g/km of CO2 and fuel consumption of 94.1mpg (three litres per 100km).
Of course, the 918 Spyder was a technological showcase, but being Porsche, the company then put hybrid technology into a racing version of the 911 – the GT3R Hybrid – which took part in the Nurburgring 24 Hour race. The GT3R Hybrid uses two 60 kW (82hp) electric motors on the front axle which boosts the 480hp six-cylinder power unit at the rear. Replacing conventional batteries is an electrical flywheel power storage system that is re-charged whenever the driver applies the brakes.
And, more recently, we’ve seen the first production hybrid in the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid 4×4 sports SUV. I’ve tested the car; it is brilliant to drive. Eerily quiet when you start up on the electric motor, it can be driven as a sporting SUV too making full use of its 380hp and crisply responsive V6. This same set up will also come to the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid four-door GT model next year, and promises exceptional performance and economy – I’m looking forward to it.
The future is looking increasingly electric. But it’s not just populated with those slightly odd vehicles such as the G-Wiz. On the horizon are genuinely interesting cars that, combined with hybrid technology, will make excellent business cars.
If you wish, you can read more about Porsche’s Cayenne S Hybrid, and a conversation with Porsche’s Wayne Darley, in this blog here: 457 – Rising VAT rates, efficient driving and Porsche Cayenne hybrids.
