Imagine a Chevrolet Volt built to Porsche specs: faster, sleeker, and more expensive. Now the dream is real: The Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) will come to market in the fall of 2013 with a price of $845,000. That?s for a supercar that reaches 60 mph in three seconds; at three seconds, the Volt is still coming up on 30 mph. The 0.1% of the world population that can afford a Porsche 918 is underwriting R&D that will make PHEVs practical over the next decade. Most people know Porsche for race cars, sports cars, and sunglasses. Porsche also is a consultancy that provides engineering and design services to the auto industry. A prototype car was announced at the 2010 Geneva auto show. This month Porsche showed off three development mules at the Nardo, Italy test track and provided technical details and the tentative pricing.
The Porsche 918 specs are jaw-dropping. The gasoline engine is a 570 hp V8 (compared to the Volt?s 80 hp three-cylinder). There are two electric motors: a 90 kW motor connected to the rear engine and transmission, and a second 80 kW motor on the front wheels that makes this an all-wheel drive car. (Lexus does the same thing in reverse with some front-engine, front-drive hybrids, adding a rear electric motor.) With all three powerplants chugging in unison, Porsche claims up to 770 hp combined output and 553 pound-feet of torque. Not familiar with torque, the vehicle?s get up and go power? In everyday terms, the Porsche 918 has enough torque to pull down a Muammar Gaddafi statue and then scoot out of town before the palace guards react. The two electric motors will act as turbochargers and it?s a good match since electric motors produce the most torque at low rpm, the opposite of where most gasoline engines produce torque.
Porsche says the 918 will run for about 16 miles on electric power alone. That?s about half the endurance of a Chevrolet Volt. The more battery cells you add to extend range, the more weight you add. For driving around town or to check in with your wealth management team, 16 miles is more than enough, and for long trips, the Volt?s 30-40 real-world electric miles isn?t enough, and both will keep on going long after an electric-only Nissan Leaf or Tesla Roadster use up their 75-100 miles of battery power. But the Porsche?s competition is more the world?s supercars such as the $231,000 McLaren MP4-12C.
Porsche says the combined gas-electric fuel economy is on the order of 77 mpg in European-spec testing. The cost to drive a mile on electric power can be as little as half what it costs for gasoline power. The combined rating depends on the fraction of miles allocated to electric power for the typical user. To counter some misconceptions about the Volt, possibly inspired by a Fox News slam dunk, Chevrolet started running TV ads noting the Volt also has a gasoline engine (a fact missed by the Fox News lawyer/ex-Victoria?s Secret model panelist) and that the typical owner drives 900 miles per gasoline fill-up, meaning about two-thirds of the driving is local, on battery power.
Porsche also makes a race car version of the 918. One variant uses a kinetic energy recover system (KERS) flywheel to capture and then discharge power. The Porsche 918 KERS racer can deliver up to 10 seconds of boosted power.
Porsche was the company that unleashed a nearly-three-ton SUV in the form of the Porsche Cayenne. With the Porsche 918 PHEV, every body panel is carbon fiber. It will weigh about 3,700 pounds (1,700kg). Compare that to the Fisker Karma PHEV at 5,300 pounds (2,400kg).
Porsche says it will build 918 of the Porsche 918 PHEVs. They?ll sell for $845,000 or the equivalent in euros, and to secure a place in the line, they?d like a $200,000 deposit. Even the affluent have to watch their pennies at times, so don?t forget the $7,500 tax credit available to US buyers of alternative energy vehicles.
Read more at Wired
randy travis unclaimed money godspell heart attack grill media matters whitney houston news hana
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.