The Porsche Cayenne Hybrid concept from 2007 is now back as the Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid! The S moniker indicates the gaso-electric Cayenne will not just be for celebrities who’ve outgrown their Priuses, it’ll also be fast! S could also mean Supercharged, as the engine under the hood is the same 3.0 TFSI V6 from the Touareg V6 TSI Hybrid Prototype, so you can’t really call it a Cayenne Turbo Hybrid, and Cayenne Super Hybrid just sounds silly.
In fact if you sit down and compare specifications the Cayenne S Hybrid looks like a reskinned Touareg V6 TSI Hybrid Prototype, since the Cayenne and Touareg share a similiar chassis. It’s got the same 333 PS and 440Nm 3.0 supercharged V6, same 52 horsepower electric motor, and the same 8-speed automatic transmission! The hybrid SUV can reach top speed in 6th gear, and uses the 7th and 8th ratios to lower engine revs for better fuel economy, since there is already so much grunt.
Like its Touareg equivalent, the Cayenne S Hybrid has an electric only mode with a maximum range of about 2km. This is used primarily for coasting along the highways on the 8th gear of the transmission (max speed of 140km/h) as the pressure on the accelerator pedal will restart the combustion engine within 300ms, and Porsche says the restart process together with reengaging the clutches is so smooth that the occupants won’t notice it.
Porsche says a similiar system will find its way into the Porsche Panamera so expect the currently V8-only Porsche Panamera 4-door to also offer a V6 Hybrid version called the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid.
After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
a very cool machine~!!! i love it
Seriously, is this kind of performance hybrid has tax similar to Civic Hybrid too?
With over 300 horses packed under the hood, seem like fuel saving is not much of the concern here.