New Porsche 918 Spyder plugs in
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 7:44 AM
The new Porsche 918 Spyder adds a greener tint to supercar with a petrol/electric hybrid powertrain that's good for 770bhp, and 94mpg!
Not content with the likes of Fisker and Tesla cornering the market on sexy, eco-friendly cars, Porsche has joined the fray, confirming that it is all systems go when it comes to the development of the plug-in hybrid Porsche 918 Spyder "super sports car". And the future of naughty yet nice motoring isn't that far away with production of this clean, green stunner slated to start in September 2013.
With prototypes featuring colour schemes inspired by Porsche 917 racing liveries, we're pretty certain this car is going to look the part, while still offering the option of being charged up from the mains. But what is going to be powering the newest Spyder and will it still offer blazing, Porkeriffic performance?
It looks that way with the powertrain being a combination of a high performance 4.6-litre V8 combustion engine and sophisticated electric motors, a hybrid module on the front axle and an electric motor on the rear axle. The promise is a mean machine with more than 770bhp - a split of 570bhp from the combustion engine and the rest from the electric motors - yet still offering fuel consumption in the region of just three litres per 100km. That's a rather astounding 94mpg. Ha! Take that, Prius!
As well as the gobsmackingly good fuel economy, this is one beast of a car that will actually beat the Congestion Charge with CO2 emissions at just 70g/km. And you can drive it for 15 miles in pure electric mode for zero emissions. Could this be too good to be true? Well, top speed is 201mph or a still-respectable and certainly-fast-enough-for-public roads 93mph in pure electric mode and acceleration is 0-62mph in just three seconds. What is the catch? Well, apart from the fact that many of us won't be able to afford it, of course.
Other fine features of the 918 Spyder include a full carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) monocoque, adaptive aerodynamics, adaptive rear axle steering and upward-venting top pipes exhaust system. The high performance brakes have adaptive recuperation and ceramic discs. All in all, it is definitely one that is riding high on the TotallyMotor dream test drive list.
By Georgia Lewis
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