Comments on: While Out of Reach, Porsche Hybrids Highlight Green Strategies

By: calvin

calvin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:10 +0000

LOL, I just noticed that someone complained about the Cayenne _not_ looking enough like a Porsche. (They’ve been out for nearly a decade–not exactly a new design.) The problem isn’t that they deviate too much from the classic Porsche sports car look. In fact, it looks like all they did was take a Porsche Carrera, elongated the cabin, and extended it vertically. That’s why it looks so weird–they just took a classic sports car design and slapped it on an SUV platform with minimal modifications. How anyone can look at that front end and not tell it’s a Porsche is beyond me.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:25:39 +0000

Veek, you have to start somewhere, and this is it. Porsche has said they are confident that they will meet the upcoming standards without resorting to trickery and I am sure that these ideas will make their way to the more mundane 997-998. You will see 998s with 400 plus horsepower but also the ability to get 35 mpg when needed. Watch and you shall see. They have done equally impressive things in the past. Porsche road cars get more powerful but with increased gas milage and lower emissions. There may not be that many to make much of a difference, but the owner will know that they have done their part to not add to the problem.

By: Night Guard

Night Guard — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:58:19 +0000

This porsche is still a good luxurious car. This is great they have the full hybrid technology.

By: calvin

calvin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:22:08 +0000

However hypocritical and hollow a sentiment it is, at least now you can add Porsche to the list of companies trying to offer a hybrid solution. Aside from cost (which will lower as battery prices drop), the biggest disincentive that is holding back the adoption of hybrids and EVs is many segments of society's negative perception of environmentalists and activists. It's uncool to care about things other than your personal image and materialism. Some way or another, we've turned into a society where it's lame to want to do good or be passionate about a cause.

But if every major automaker starts offering hybrids and EVs, especially heavily image-conscious brands like Mercedes and Porsche, then it will become trendy to drive a hybrid. Sure, people who buy these types of hybrids will be doing it for the wrong reasons, but it will make others who buy "real" hybrids not look like such freaks and encourage more people to drive hybrids or EVs.

All the environmental benefits in the world won't have nearly as much impact on boosting hybrid/EV adoption as someone like Paris Hilton or Bruce Willis being seen cruising around in a hybrid Porsche or Mercedes. So anything that reduces the social stigma of being green and makes hybrids seem more mainstream is a good thing.

By: TrasKY

TrasKY — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:43:34 +0000

And yet there are a group of people out there who want to drive high powered, high tech, luxurious status symbol cars and if they are willing to pay through the nose for some new technology which in two years will wind up in a Jetta, i say “Thanks” and look forward to buying that Jetta. The person paying 20 grand more for the hybrid version of the Cayenne is probably not deciding between that car and a Yaris.

By: JamesDavis

JamesDavis — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:38:00 +0000

I would’ve never known that was a Porsche and I will never own one — it is just too much of all the wrong things.

By: veek

veek — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 23:26:05 +0000

Sorry, Porsche can spin this all they want, and brag about the supposed engineering prowess of their patented Stuttgarter Globalwarmer Platform System, and their attempts to introduce greenery into the sub-20-mpg class, and how the low volume of these vehicles will not contribute all that much to extra global climate change, and how purchasers of these cars are somehow commendably pursuing some Higher Standard of Excellence, and how some of this technology will eventually trickle down into proletariat vehicles, and whatever else they want to obfuscate us about.

A massive, trinkety vehicle that will probably get 20 mpg (at best) under normal conditions is still an environmentally unfriendly Totally Unnecessary Bloatmobile that should not be perceived as some kind of environmental vehicle. Period. Dot. Ditto for a 700 hp supercar that makes people continue to desire the most hyper-performance vehicles, at whatever cost to the planet. Porsche fulfills some kind of automotive fantasy, and for that they can sell cars, but are they environmentally friendly because of some engineering gimmickry that still gets horrible mileage? Don't kid yourself.

If an American company had tried to pull some kind of similar egregious stunt and justify it as "Green," people would be all over them. The Germans do it, and they will probably be praised to high heaven.