Porsche to Debut Cayenne Diesel at Geneva
21 February 2009
The Cayenne diesel (earlier post) will be one of Porsche’s two world debuts at the upcoming Geneva auto show. (The other is the 911 GT3.)
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| The Cayenne diesel. Click to enlarge. |
The Cayenne diesel is equipped with a 3.0-liter V6 delivering maximum power of 240 bhp (176 kW), sufficient for a top speed of 214 km/h or 133 mph. Peak torque is 550 Nm (405 lb-ft) at just 2,000 rpm.
The diesel accelerates to 100 km/h in 8.3 seconds with a Tiptronic S transmission featured as standard. Average combined cycle fuel consumption is 9.3 /100km (25 mpg US), with CO2 emissions of 244 g/km. The Cayenne diesel carries a Euro 4 emission rating.
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| Hybrid components (red) in the Porsche Cayenne: power electronics, clutch actuator, electric motor with clutch (from left). Click to enlarge. |
Standard in the Cayenne, PSM Porsche Stability Management has been specifically geared to the characteristics of the diesel engine, while intelligent PTM Porsche Traction Management delivers a combination of very good onroad and offroad driving qualities, spreading out engine power appropriately between the front and rear wheels.
Porsche is also developing a parallel hybrid variant of the Cayenne. The new hybrid system, which combines a gasoline direct injection V6 from Audi with an electric motor and eight-speed automatic transmission, uses a NiMH battery pack and can cruise at high speed on electric power, although only for about 2 km.
The parallel hybrid sounds good - 2km on elsectic is actually useful, for crawling through traffic, which is what a lot of cars do.
In general, PHEVs with 2 km of EV would be a very good thing - for local pollution reasons - I live beside a main road with lots of cars idling away. I fantasize (SP?) about how much cleaner the air would be if they had "stop/start/crawl" hybridiisation.
I think this could be the initial sweet spot for PHEVs - 2-5km electric, mainly for use in congested areas.
With a smaller, cheaper, battery, ordinary people might be able to afford them.
Better still would be to have a modular battery system - (as many have already suggested in GCC) - start with 5KM, and go to 10 or 20 if you really need it or just want bragging rights at the golf club (or wherever PHEV owners might hang out).
Posted by: mahonj | 22 February 2009 at 02:01 AM