Tuesday 13th July 2010

Porsche 918 Price Leaked

New hybrid supercar will cost 500k euros if it gets the go-ahead

---

The new Porsche 918 hybrid supercar could cost a cool 500,000 euros (£416k) if it reaches production.

The super-green supercar, which can hit 62mph in 3.2secs and 198mph flat out, has not been officially confirmed for production, but US business website Bloomberg Business Week has claimed that the revelation of the price comes from sources close to the project.

Porsche says the 918 Spyder - whose 500bhp V8 and 218bhp twin electric motors also help it deliver a thoroughly green figure of just 70g/km CO2 - must have more than 1000 firm deposits before it will commit to the car.

The company has so far received '2000 non-binding expressions of interest', however, so things are looking good for the Porsche flagship-in-embryo.

Meanwhile, in case you haven't got half a million to splash on your next Porsche, why not take a look at these?

[Mr Gear]

Even at that price, they will sell a fair few.

[TUS 373]

Wow - that is nice. I think the future has just arrived.

[Rusty-C]

I'd love to know how often it can hit this 'green figure.'

[einstein75]

And the bonus of free road tax.

[Twincam16]

Porsche 918 Spyder, welcome to my all-time top-ten wish-list.

Edited by Twincam16 on Tuesday 13th July 11:42

[LukeBird]

Gorgeous!

[teen_cerbera]

einstein75 said:

And the bonus of free road tax.

few extra pints then...

[chazwozza]

But really, are you going to drive it in such a way as to actually hit that CO2 figure... Anyone know what the day to day realistic figure is??

[DJC]

Rusty-C said:

I'd love to know how often it can hit this 'green figure.'

Why would you possibly care?

The only "green" figure that matters dynamically is how it improves the mpg figures throughout the range of driving. The pollution figure is irrelevent to everybody except what some dictat says, but it doesnt actually affect anyone. So why would you care how or when it hit that random figure?

[Twincam16]

chazwozza said:

But really, are you going to drive it in such a way as to actually hit that CO2 figure... Anyone know what the day to day realistic figure is??

Does anyone care? It's a 200+ mph hypercar that somehow, using clever technology, cannot be in any way hated by greenies. Also, you can bet that via VAG it's technology will 'trickle down' so you'll end up with similarly low-emission Golf GTIs, Sciroccos, RS-series Audis and the like.

[Dagnut]

Rusty-C said:

I'd love to know how often it can hit this 'green figure.'

that's not the point it only has to be capable of doing it, I don't see how anyone can complain about this, it satisfies the green laws and does 200mph....what kind of car enthusiast doesn't welcome a positive solution to an inevitable hurdle to performance motoring?

[Snoop Bagg]

That's one of the nicest looking cars I've seen in years!

[Robert80]

Rusty-C said:

I'd love to know how often it can hit this 'green figure.'

Probably as often as it'll hit the 198mph figure... sounds good though ey!

[alock]

chazwozza said:

But really, are you going to drive it in such a way as to actually hit that CO2 figure... Anyone know what the day to day realistic figure is??

Very unrealistic, just like all emission testing. I'm sure I read somewhere that is had been designed to get through the testing on battery power alone so the engine is never started. This should however score 0 so it cannot be quite that simple.

This is the problem with any test, people learn how to pass the test instead of learning how to achieve the original objective behind the test.

[Twincam16]

Dagnut said:

Rusty-C said:

I'd love to know how often it can hit this 'green figure.'

that's not the point it only has to be capable of doing it, I don't see how anyone can complain about this, it satisfies the green laws and does 200mph....what kind of car enthusiast doesn't welcome a positive solution to an inevitable hurdle to performance motoring?

It's a massive irony isn't it? The green lobby harass and harangue owners of high-performance cars and the motorsport industry in general for not being 'green', and yet all the really effective solutions to cut emissions, tyre wear, fuel use and reduce material consumption have come from motorsport, more often than not the Le Mans 24-hours. All the most effective safety measures have come from Formula 1 and world rallying. Thanks to motorsport, cars are more aerodynamic, use less fuel, components last for longer, they're more reliable and safer to have an accident in.

And what have the anti-motorsport, green-lobby technology/safety inventors come up with in response? '70s-style impact bumpers, pillars you can't see round, lumpen pedestrian-protecting measures to make cars heavier and less aerodynamically efficient, and above all, the wretched G-Wiz...

[snorkel sucker]

alock said:

chazwozza said:

But really, are you going to drive it in such a way as to actually hit that CO2 figure... Anyone know what the day to day realistic figure is??

Very unrealistic, just like all emission testing. I'm sure I read somewhere that is had been designed to get through the testing on battery power alone so the engine is never started. This should however score 0 so it cannot be quite that simple.

This is the problem with any test, people learn how to pass the test instead of learning how to achieve the original objective behind the test.

nope. this is the beauty of the world being possessed with such genius so as to allow the supercar to flourish even in these "CO2 is evil" times

You only have to look to F1 to provide the perfect example as to how rules are there to be worked within, rather than restrict what you can/cant do

Well done porsche - this might well eclipse my all time fave fantasy must have one day car; the carrera GT

Edited by snorkel sucker on Tuesday 13th July 12:28

Edited by snorkel sucker on Tuesday 13th July 12:29

[lazyitus]

Beautiful looking car.

[russy01]

Snoop Bagg said:

That's one of the nicest looking cars I've seen in years!

and me

[red_slr]

If you think about it the Govt is going to have to have a major re-think of CO2 tax.
Its not next year - but in 20-30 years they are going to have the vast majority of cars on the roads from normal rep / family cars upto 300+mph cars which put out no CO2. Petrol and Diesel will become a thing of the past and that leaves a heck of a hole in the budget!

The Govt might well have just taxed themselves into an unrecoverable position... what next tax on wind farms???

[ctallchris]

Ok porsche really cannot design cars to look good. Every time they stray from the 911 shape things go horribly horribly wrong. It's ok from some angles i guess but it doesn't look as good as the carerra and at that price it is competing in the hypercar market and they all look better.

for the price you could have a 458 (best looking ferrari for a while) and the SLS (best looking merc for a while) and have the best part of 80,000 left over.

To sell for 100k a car has to be either exceptionally comfortable (rolls / bentley) Exceptionally fast (v8 ariel atom)
or exceptionally good looking (aston ferrari)
on top of this the other two must rate at least a "very good"

By 200,000 you have to have at least 2 exceptionals

for 400,000 it must be exceptionally comfortable, exceptionally good looking and exceptionally fast.

I don't doubt the speed and i'm sure they will get the comfort there but it just doesn't have anything like the looks you need for a car in that market.

Remember it has to be £140,000 better than a Pagani Zonda. look at the pictures next to each other and you will suddenly see it as the pimped boxter it is.