Porsche Builds Hybrid SUV

Porsche has evolved (to the dismay of some and the excitement of others) from a company once known only for its sports cars into an automaker who is also building them in the forms of an SUV and a new sedan. In 2002, they released the ultimate performance SUV, the Cayenne. Later this year, the four-door Panamera goes on sale and, in late 2010, the company plans to market its first hybrid powertrain. Porsche says, "Using a parallel full hybrid design with the electric motor between the combustion engine and the transmission, Porsche engineers have been able to drive at speeds up to 86 mph without at all using the combustion engine."


Despite rumors that, due to Volkswagen's acquisition of Porsche, VW will force Porsche to cease production of the Panamera and Cayenne models when their product cycles end around 2015, Porsche plans to launch a Cayenne S Hybrid next year. “If you want to grow, you have to enter new segments,” said Klaus-Gerhard Wolpert, Porsche’s director of Cayenne operations. “We are strongly convinced we can reach a business case with this system.”


A desire to be socially responsible and a need to offer vehicles that could benefit from European tax incentives led Porsche to investigate developing a hybrid. Company management drove the competition to see if a hybrid system would fit with Porsche’s fun-to-drive character. They decided that hybrid driving has a fun factor all its own.


Coincidentally, Volkswagen saw a need for a hybrid as well. So, starting in 2006, the two companies sent about 100 engineers to work together to develop the system. (Note: Porsche has since acquired a controlling interest in Volkswagen). A working prototype was unveiled in 2007, and now Porsche has upgraded and updated the prototype.


A year or more before a Porsche hybrid will go on sale, Porsche provided two Cayenne S Hybrid test mules equipped with its hybrid system for journalists to drive in and around Stuttgart, Germany. We were part of that group, and this is what we learned.


The Porsche-VW hybrid system is unlike any on the market, but it’s closest to Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist (IMA). Porsche’s system is a parallel full hybrid system. IMA is a parallel system, but it is considered a “power assist” system, not a full system, because the electric motor can only aid the engine, not propel the vehicle by itself (except in some light cruising conditions). Honda’s is a parallel system because the engine has a mechanical link to the wheels.