Aren’t you glad Porsche made a $600,000 hybrid so its owners can save on fuel costs?

Who cares?

Actually yes, I am. Us Petrol heads should be thanking the hybrid drivers. With CAFE and the other regulations that force manufacturers to increase mpg and decrease emissions, it is hybrid drivers, ironically, that will save our hobby by bringing up the average that we are able to enjoy sports cars as they were meant to be.

Think of it this way. Which would you prefer some other guy buying the 600,000 hybrid while you buy the untouched 911, or having everyone buy a porsche with a downsized boxer-4 engine that gets 35 mpg? I’ll take the latter.

i guess i’ll have to marry a pro hockey player. thats the only way i’ll be able afford it.

“Porsche….there is no substitute”

I’ll wager a weeks pay that if you look under all the techno stuff that you will find a $50,000 Boxster Chassis.

Not entirely sure what your question and/or point is? Obviously with any car in this price range the issues around why someone buys it is about what the car does, not about things like saving fuel costs. No one asked why Ferrari makes a million dollar car like the Enzo so people can get through the morning commute quicker or why McLaren made the F1 so people can run to Home Depot? Likewise, when Porsche introduced the 918 as a concept car and then began inquiring among potential buyers if they were interested shoudl the company put it into production, no one was thinking “oh yes, just think of the saving in gas costs!”

And likewise, you will not find buyers of this kind of car making car payments in the traditional sense… you may find creative financing, but it will be through ownership by personal corporations or such; most will just be bought outright. This is a $600k toy, and buyers will be those that can afford it.

So what does it mean? Like the GT3R Hybrid, it’s an introduction of a technology that will almost certainly play a key role in future performance cars. Like the 959 and the Carrera GT, the 918 appears to be another car that will add to the technologies available for future production cars, while hopefully providing a halo effect for the company in the shorter term.

And while issues like CAFE and such loom large for most manufacturers, it’s unlikely to have much impact on a company like Porsche. Considered on it’s own, it’s volume is low, and price points more than high enough to offset any potential premiums needed to pay for the mileage differences (or if considered as part of VW with the merger nearly done, it’s a small impact to a much larger whole). Though a potentially importent step as future regulations are likely to increase and lacking experience in this area could prove the undoing of some companies in the future.

All that said though, this is really about the performance of the car, which reaches the levels it does through the use of the hybrid technologies (same as the hybrid GT3R). And for a performance car company, that’s really what it is all about.