Porsche releases environmentally responsible, expensive hybrid – Salon.com

2014 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid
Courtesy Porsche

Most hybrid-auto makers have the efficiency thing down, but they still can’t build a high-performance car that’s both fun to drive and efficient. At least, not until now. To create the Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid engineers married a supercharged V6 with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. The car’s three driving modes—electric, hybrid, and recharge—give drivers the flexibility they need to scream down the highway and then flip to electric power for short-range cruising.

Electric
A 9.4-kilowatt-hour battery powers the 95-horsepower electric motor, which delivers its full 229 foot-pounds of torque the instant the driver hits the throttle. Porsche says the battery will run for 22 miles (we clocked 33 on our test drive) before dipping below a 15 percent charge, at which point the gas engine kicks in. The engine will also fire up if the driver throttles past a certain threshhold, allowing him to blast from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds.

More http://www.salon.com/2013/11/04/porsche_releases_environmentally_responsible_expensive_hybrid/