Porsche accelerating fuel economy efforts

Porsche accelerating fuel economy efforts

Based on the claims Porsche as made about the hybrid system that they have developed for the upcoming Panamera and next generation Cayenne, they seem to be pretty advanced as far as parallel setups go. However, Porsches currently burn enough gasoline to be a serious problem with the new European CO2 limits. As a result the German manufacturer is actively recruiting engineers with experience on hybrid systems to help develop new state of the art hybrid technology. The company is evidently running want ads in Britain's Financial Times.Porsche is also looking at other ways to reduce fuel consumption including weight reductions like the magnesium doors on the new Panamera. They are also adding direct fuel injection to their engines which should provide a boost in both power and efficiency. In the past Porsche has been openly dismissive of diesel engines saying their weight and torque characteristics was incompatible with its cars. However, the success of newer high-performance diesels such as the Audis and Peugeots at Le Mans - as well as on the road - may be causing them to revisit that attitude too.

Another Porsche 914 gets the plug-in treatment

Back in the early 1970s when Volkswagen and Porsche collaborated to create the 914 sports car it's unlikely that either company imagined that the little roadster would someday become a popular platform for electric drive conversions. Nonetheless after reporting on a 914 battery conversion by a group of MIT students and their professor last summer, we now have found out about two more such tear-ups. Ross Cunniff of Fort Collins Colorado picked up a rusty 1975 914 a couple of years ago. He then installed an EV conversion kit that included 1,200 pounds of deep discharge lead batteries. He now has a Porsche that cruises easily at 65mph and can reach up to 90mph. Ross has a blog where he's tracking the progress of his project that you can check out here. Then there's this blog covering a similar conversion in Oregon. Given Ferdinand Porsche's pioneering efforts with electric cars and hybrids, it's probably only fitting that people are going back to electron fuel with somewhat more modern Porsches.

Porsche confirms Panamera will be hybridized

While we've been expecting a hybrid Porsche Panamera for a while now, Porsche today made it official that such a vehicle will indeed be coming. The hybrid powertrain in the Panamera will be the same full parallel system as is in the Cayenne hybrid, which should reduce fuel consumption by 30 percent. And let's not forget that the Cayenne hybrid can go 75mph on battery power alone. The batteries in the Panamera will be below the luggage compartment. What's real nice is that, depending on driving style, either the gasoline or electric motors can propel the SUV alone; alternately both can work together for "fuel savings in both city and highway driving and maximum performance when desired." The Panamera will be unveiled in 2009, and the hybrid version will follow the gas-only model to the showrooms at a date yet to be specified.

Porsche pushes back Cayenne hybrid delivery date to at least 2010

Porsche representatives were pro-hybrid at the recent LA Auto Show, promoting the message that the company's hybrids will go 75 MPH on battery power alone. The news since then has been a little more tepid. Today, Automotive News (subs req'd) is saying that Porsche's skepticism about hybrid sales means that the release of the Cayenne hybrid has been pushed back to 2010. One Porsche manager told ANE's partner Automobilwoche that "Though there is still no decision on the planned introduction date of the hybrid version of our Cayenne SUV, I'm sure we'll only introduce the new system with the start of the next SUV generation in 2010." The possibility that Porsche hybrids in the U.S. is "also apparently smaller than initially thought," ANE writer Henning Krogh says, so all of you waiting for a hybrid Panamera can keep on waiting until 2011 (at least).

European carmakers support Bali's Conference on climate change

This can be called a case of green washing or simply an honest declaration of good intentions. The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), has issued a formal declaration supporting and encouraging the UN-sponsored ministerial talks on climate change in Bali, In the ACEA's press release (which you can find after the jump), the group describes their efforts to make more efficient cars and hopes for a collaboration with legislators to create policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The CEOs clearly ask for policies that encourage the purchase of cars with "carbon-lowering technologies," advanced technologies and sustainable alternative fuels. The also say that they spend a lot of money on technology (20 billion EUR), so they also ask for R&D support.The ACEA was founded in 1991 and represents the interests of the thirteen European car, truck and bus makers: BMW, DAF, Daimler, Fiat, Ford, GM, MAN, Porsche, PSA, Renault, Scania, Volkswagen and Volvo

BMW, Daimler and Porsche win "Worst EU Lobbying Award"German car manufacturers BMW, Daimler and Porsche have won quite an unsympathetic award: Worst European Lobbyists of the year, right after the German Atomic Energy Forum.These automakers' campaign was awarded "excellent" (say it in a high-irony voice) to press for "the delay and dilution" of the introduction of lower CO2 emission limits. They were voted in by almost one-third of the 6,700 voters for the award. The original draft of the EU Commission stated that new cars should lower their average CO2 grams per kilometer from 160 to 120. The manufacturers and their associations claimed that it was going to be runious for their industry, which would lose thousands of jobs, so they got Ms. Angela Merkel's help to raise the limit to 130 g/km, with exceptions for certain classes.The video above shows a group of Belgian environmentalists (I couldn't get their name from the video or user) giving flowers to the winners, whose offices aren't far from the European Union headquarters in Brussels.