A short blurb in my newspaper's wonderful driving section:

Porsche Cayenne going hybrid?

It's strongly rumoured that Porsche is about to go all environmentally conscious on us. Porsche is said to be planning to join the race to incorporate hybrid engines in model lineups by introducing Toyota's version of the gas-electric technology to its Cayenne SUV. The German sports car manufacturer is apparently about to purchase drivetrains similar to those going into the Lexus RX 400h. The Lexus goes on sale early next year and Porsche is figuring out how it could re-engineer the popular Cayenne to accommodate the hybrid powerplant.





I've never liked the Cayenne, or the RX for that matter (Acura MDX goes in the same group), i find them all pretty ugly, and I'm not so into the idea of SUVs so expensive that owners wouldn't dare get 'em dirty. I'd be much happier to hear about a hybrid boxster, like say something at least as quick as the base boxster or maybe somewhere between that and the S. But hybrid tech makes more sense in bigger cars, the electric motor has tons of low end torque, and it also adds weight to the car, and that added weight'll probably be more noticeable in a small car like the boxster.
Germany is supposed to be the most environmentally conscious country in the world, lots of renewable energy projects. Lets see that attitude translate to their awesome cars!

 

hmmm, if u can afford a cayenne, why would you care about your mileage? lol. but i guess its a good idea, from an envirommental standpoint

 

Hybrid technology is the future. We had a long thread on this not long ago. I'm all in favor of it. Why not enjoy the benefits of a rechargable electric motor in daily around town driving while still having the ability to romp on when you want?

 

i beg to differ. sorta. hydrogen is the technology of the future

but hybrids are ok, say if they put an electric motor on a stang for a larger torque band. :thinks about an electric motor with gobs of torque that hands power over to the b-e-a-utiful V8 @ 25mph, geezus that would be good:

 

alright! Arin gets it! now we just gotta think of a name for a hybrid stang, something to do with electricity but that's still cool.
I know! Mustang Lightning!

stupid pick up truck, stealing my names...

 

Hybrid technology is not the future and is a poor excuse for a long term solution. In the end it only serves as a short term solution to a potential long term problem and despite what the lefties say, we are not running out of oil any time soon.

The only thing hyrbids are good for is creating complication in design and construction. You aren't helping mother earth either because god forbid, when thoose massive batteries corrode, you are going to harm mother nature more than any fuel gargiling SUV. Hybrids never devliever on suggested MPG either. Ethanol and other types of very high proof alchol are the future. Too bad that option keeps getting ignored. Afterall, why do we want everyone driving around in an h-bomb? I hope that day never happens when cars all run on hydrogen. The last thing we need is someone turning their car into a bomb that can take out city blocks. Don't forgot, hydrogen is the most unstable element there is!

 

dude, if you could set off a fusion reaction by crashing a car with a tank of H2 gas in it, H-bombs would be a heck of a lot cheaper. Hydrogen is flammable... so is gasolene. THe difference is that hydrogen is a lot lighter. With a ruptured tank, gasolene leaks out and burns, hydrogen goes shootin straight up into the air. The dangerous part about hydrogen powered cars is not the instability of hydrogen, but its the crazy pressures required to keep the hydrogen compressed to a small enough volume so it can contain a useful amount of energy in not too big a tank.

I hear you about batteries being dangerous for the environment though. No matter what though, we can't expect to use the amount of energy we do to move around and not expect it to have an impact on our surroundings.

 

I'm all for cleaner air and cars and would probably buy one in a minute if I saw one that looked nice and sporty. Havn't really seen one I liked yet.

 

i think hybrids do less damage than regular gas engines, so instead of just waiting around till we find the perfect solution, i think we should switch over to hybrid stuff in the mean time, cause the technology is here now.

 

So why not use alchol? It is clean burning and is good for high performance. Plus it's cheap to make, and all the technology is right there and not 15 years away. All cars can easily be made to run on it too. Don't forget, ethanol has the power to make a enivormentally destroying Chevelle 455 into a fire breathing environmentally friendly tree hugger that can burn rubber. Still burns fuel like crazzy, but who cares? Alchol is renewable.

 

Hybrid technology is here today and we're going to see a lot more of it in the next ten years. There is almost no downside to it other than slightly increased costs, and those will come down as more are produced. I'm old enough to remember when a Texas Instruments four function calculator sold for $150.

I get an alternative energy email and it keeps me current on what's happening in that arena. Hydrogen may be a long term solution, but think of the infrastructure cost to have gas stations safely store hydrogen. I know Arnold talks about the hydrogen highway in California but I can't see it happening in the next decade.

Solar power may be good, if you live in Arizona, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop up as an accessory to hybrids or other vehicles down the road.

Any vehicle can be adapted for hybrid technology. Lest you worry about a loss in performance, check out www.toyota.com/vehicle/future/volta.html The car is the Toyoya Alssandro Volta hybrid concept. Believe me, you'll soon see cars like this on the road, and I applaud that.

When hybrids become mainstream cars and we reduce our dependence on imported oil, you'll hear less squaking from the greenies and you'll be able to read interesting cook books from the Middle East with titles like "Cooking With Crude--Oil Tastes Good On Your Corn Flakes."

 

Yeah by why not use Ethanol instead of investing money in useless technologies like hybrids that if anything, keep us dependent on foreign oil. Also, there is now renewable oil that can be made with dead animals and such. Take a look at this, http://www.changingworldtech.com./home.html . You may say hybrids are in but it's only a small distraction. I am not happy with the Volta concept number one because it's a Toyota and they are an evil empire, and number two, because it's too much weight and too complicated.
All gasoline engines can easily be tuned to run ethanol. It's clean burning, meaning that it is enviormentally friendly, and performance proven. Heck, look at Monster Trucks, and the NHRA drag cars. If that isn't performance proven, I'd like to know what is. Plus it's cheap and inexpensive to produce. Sure it burns faster than gasoline but who cares? It's enviornmentally friendly and easy to produce. I mean, heck, how long have we been making alchol? I mean, it's just the equivelant to making 100 proof alchol widely availble. Not only that but it would increase our nation's farming output with would add growth to another sector of our ecconomy and oil companies can still benifit from it too. Alchol does need to be refined for weeks before it can be used afterall. No reason why thoose refineries can't be switched over to purifying alchol. http://www.ethanol.org/usingethanol.html

 

There's no reason hybrid tech has to be associated with gasoline. Why not a hybrid ethanol-electric vehicle? All "hybrid" means really is that you're not burning fuel when the vehicle isn't moving and that you recapture braking energy.
I guess what i meant when i said hybrid tech is available now is more that the technology doesn't require any major changes aside from making the vehicles themselves. Gas stations don't need to switch over (during the transition period they would need both fuels, so they'd need to install more tanks everywhere). The network for producing and transporting would need to explode in growth. Basically it requires a transition. I'm all for that transition, i think it would do a lot of good, but it will take a lot of time, much less time than hydrogen power of course, but still a good couple years before you could fuel all the cars in the country with ethanol. In the mean time, lets make hybrid cars that you can fill up at the gas stations we have now.

I think ethanol is awesome, I'm all for it, but i don't see how you can call hybrid technology useless. The heat energy in your brakes is useless. So is an engine running at a stop light.

 

Good point about ethanol. For some strange reason, we don't hear much about it, and it doesn't seem to be in our near automotive future. I don't understand your resistance to the Toyota hybrid, much less understand your comment about the evil empire.

I certainly don't don't want to start a war here like you see on that other site, so could you please explain why you said that?

Oh--good websites. Thanks.

 

Oh nothing. I just think that they are a bit, well arrogant. Kind of like how GM was back in the 60's before they went down hill. That was meant sarcastically.

 

I agree that they're arrogant but then again, they do sell of good but uninspiring cars. That's why I was excited by the hybrid concept car. Years ago I had a first generation MR2 and that car was great. It wasn't Mustang fast, but it handled like a slot car, got 37 mpg on the freeway, and nothing ever broke in over 70K miles. Because it was so light, the original tires were still in good shape when my beloved ex wife drove it out of my life. Dang, I miss that car.

 

A Hybrid Porsche?

Anybody recall that the first car with the Porsche name was an electric powered, four-wheel drive car? (Just me...Ok, then )

Lohner-Porsche

 

I didn't know that, and what a great link. Thanks.

 

I think it is silly for Porsche to do dthis. First, people wealthy enough to own a Porsche probably dont worry about mileage. But the really silly thing is that Porsche is BUYING technology from Toyota and not trying to develop their own system.

 

Porsche sold out when they made the Cayenne, imo.