Porsche formally

Porsche formally applies for judicial review in London C-charge scuffle

In the ongoing fight between Porsche and Transport for London over the increased emissions charges in that city (previous stories - in chronological order - here, here, here, here and here), Porsche has now taken another step towards requesting judicial review of the charge. Following TfL's rejection of an earlier request from Porsche about changing the congestion charge, Porsche is giving the Mayor's office three weeks to respond to this latest filing.Porsche's side of the story is being told at Porschejudicialreview, a Porsche website. There's more after the jump.
Upcoming Porsche Cayenne diesel to be a V6

Porsche is having a tough time sticking to their guns when it comes to not using diesel engines, as we recently reported. We know that the Cayenne is likely to get a diesel, but what we have not known up until now is what kind of diesel engine will appear in the Cayenne. According to reports, Porsche seems to have chosen the 3.0 liter V6 engine, not the 4.2 liter V8 from the Audi Q7, or the diesel V10 from the VW Touareg. In all honesty, we can't think of any problem with using a diesel in the Cayenne, which is already considered by many to be the anti-Porsche. Considering that the vehicle is already as far from a sports car as can be, what difference is there whether it's powered by a gasoline V6 or a diesel V6? Remember, too, that Porsche has already announced plans to offer a new hybrid version of the SUV.
Current information places the diesel Cayenne on the market in 2009, a year ahead of the hybrid model.

Porsche does about face on diesel, Cayenne TDI coming in 2009

In the past, Porsche has repeatedly played down the idea of offering diesel engines in their product line. The rationale is that oil burners don't fit the character of Porsche's sports cars. That may well be true for cars like the Booster and 911 but the Cayenne is a different animal. Porsche has also said that the relatively low volumes of their models would make it hard to financially justify the development of a new diesel engine. Porsche is apparently now ready to introduce a diesel-powered Cayenne as soon as mid-2009. The Cayenne, which shares a platform with the Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7, would take a diesel engine from the VW group. The Touareg currently offers a 5 cylinder, a 3.0L V-6 and a V-10 diesel while the Q7 is offered with both the V-6 and a 4.2L V-8 TDI. If a Cayenne diesel is launched it would most likely be powered by the 326hp V08 diesel.

Porsche polls Londoners on congestion charge, pretty much calls mayor a liar

Well, this Porsche-London fight certainly isn't going to end any time soon. Earlier today, London mayor Ken Livingstone told Porsche to butt out of local politics, but the German automaker isn't displaying any such intention. In fact, Porsche released a statement yesterday (available after the jump) that calls on Livingstone to make public the full tables of a poll showing that the public supports the increased congestion charge or else retract a mayoral statement that announced the support. Porsche, you see, says it's done its own polling and found 74 percent of Londoners think that the new £25 congestion charge is too high and various other majorities that are negative on the increase. You can read the letter Porsche wrote to the Mayor here and check out the company's statement after the jump.The next step happened today, when the mayor said at a press conference that the full details have indeed been published. Porsche - surprise - disagrees and I'll let you read their detailed reasons why in a second press release pasted after the jump if you're into the minutiae here. The general gist remains: Porsche is calling the mayor's facts into question. Again. There will be more to this sory, I am sure.

London Mayor to Porsche: butt out of England's elections, make cleaner cars

The war of words between the Mayor of London and Porsche is heating up. Thanks to Mayor Ken Livingstone (the guy in the black Prius), London's congestion charge will be increased, a move that sparked the threat of a lawsuit and even the creation of a website by automaker Porsche. At a news conference today, Mayor Ken Livingstone said "they [Porsche] should be redoubling efforts to produce less-polluting cars" and notes that Berliners would be annoyed "if a British company tried to intervene in a mayoral election" (remember, Porsche is a German company).Livingstone is standing for his third term May 1 and, wouldn't you know it, his two opponents don't support the fee increases. Porsche spokesman Andrew Davis says they "are not interested in the election at all -- we're not a political company. ... We are simply fighting on the issue of modifying the congestion charge." I don't know Porsche, this web page and this one look a little political to me.

Porsche gets detailed in attack on London's congestion charge

Once the new London congestion charges were officially announced earlier this month, Porsche started a legal process against the Transport for London group (TfL is behind the c-charge). London officials responded to the threat and in response Porsche has put out a slew of numbers to defend their stance that the congestion charge won't reduce CO2 emissions in the slightest. You can read their argument for yourself after the jump or check out the company's new website dedicated to the fight. Porsche's basic argument goes like this: the emissions the fees on gas guzzlers in London will prevent in a year will be equal to the emissions generated at Heathrow airport in anywhere between four minutes and four hours. What Porsche isn't tackling in this debate is that the name of the fee is a "congestion charge." While taking a car off the streets is a car off the streets no matter what comes out of the tailpipe, the Transport for London organizers have decided that swapping out dirty cars for cleaner ones is the right move. There's no question that a lot of CO2 enters the sky at Heathrow, but that's no excuse for spewing it in downtown London. Instead, it should be a call to clean up the vehicles at Heathrow.
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London officials respond to Porsche's lawsuit threat

Following Porshce's threat to start a legal process against the City of London for the city's upcoming increase in the congestion charge, a spokesperson for Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has issued a response, calling Porsche's action a "double attack on Londoners." The two prongs are an attack on Londoners democratic rights and an attack on clean air in the city. The statement ends with, "No one is allowed to throw their rubbish in the street and Porsche should not be allowed to impose gas guzzling polluting cars on Londoners who do not want them." Doesn't sound like the city is willing to back down in this fight. More to come, I'm sure.

Porsche officially starts legal process against London's congestion charge

We've already seen Porsche make its case for an exemption from EU emissions rules. With the new, higher congestion charge announces the other day for London; it's no surprise that Porsche is fighting back there, too. It's just hard to be a car company that makes cars that spew CO2 like it's going out of style.Today, the upper-end automaker (that's upper end of the price and the emissions scales) announced that it will start a "judicial review process" against the Mayor of London and the Transport for London group (the city organization that imposed the charge) over what it calls the "unjust 3000% congestion charge increase."Officially, Porsche will write a letter to mayor Ken Livingstone this week, and the mayor's office will have 14 days to respond. Based on the mayor's reply, Porsche could apply to the Royal Courts of Justice to plead its case that charging drivers of dirty cars £25 to enter the city is "completely unfair."Details in the Porsche release after the jump.

Picking out the most fuel efficient luxury carsThe autos section at business magazine Forbes has compiled a top ten list of most fuel efficient luxury cars. While some of the vehicles on the list seem obvious - the Mercedes-Benz E320 BlueTec diesel and the hybrid Lexus GS450h - there were some surprises. Giving Porsche's complaints about European Union plans to impose limits on carbon dioxide emissions, finding the Boxster sports car on the list might come as a shock. However, driven tamely, it can achieve pretty decent mileage. Of course like many sports cars, it thrives on being driven quickly and doing so can easily drive the mileage into the single digits. On the other end of the spectrum most might not consider the Volvo C30 a luxury car. The little hatchback is based on the same platform as the European Ford Focus and, although well appointed, calling this a luxury car might be a stretch. Also, the 19/27mpg rating for such a small car is hardly exceptional and barely matches the 19/28 of the Porsche.