Porsche Panamera S E-hybrid

You’d have thought the last thing a buyer wealthy enough to afford an £89k Porsche Panamera needed was a £5000 discount on their mammoth new supersaloon. But, thanks the Panamera S E-hybrid cracking the eco numbers, that’s exactly what the UK government is offering.

The Panamera S E-hybrid has joined a list of just 15 cars eligible for Britian’s ‘ULEV’ (ultra low-emission vehicle) status, approved by OLEV (the Office for low-emission vehicles.) Yes, in real life, it’s ridiculous, but on paper, the S E-hybrid is a wunderkid of low-emission motoring.

How has the Porsche Panamera S E-hybrid qualified as an ultra low-emission vehicle?

Because of the new hybrid’s ability to run for up to 22 miles at up to 84mph on electric power alone. Its official economy test figures stand at 91mpg and 71g/km of CO2, despite the car also packing a 3.0-litre V6 engine. It develops 316bhp that pushes this Panamera to 62mph in just 5.5sec. Combined output from the petrol engine and electric motor is a BMW M3-bothering 410bhp.

UK government rules state that to qualify for OLEV status, a vehicle must emit fewer than 75g/km of CO2 (tick) and be able to exceed 60mph (the Porsche will blast all the way to 167mph.) And, because there’s a throaty V6 to fall back on when the batteries are flat, the car’s range easily beats the required minimum of 110 miles.

Other OLEVs include the all-electric Nissan Leaf, BMW’s new i3 and the Renault Twizy. The closest in terms of size to the Porsche is the decidedly tardier Vauxhall Ampera, which creates a not-so-mighty 84bhp.

And what’s the benefit?

OLEV-certified cars score a 25% purchase price discount, up to a maximum of £5000. That means your Panamera S E-hybrid drops from £88,967 to £83,967 – saving almost enough money to spec carbon-ceramic brakes at the Exchequer’s expense…

That’s not all. As an OLEV-certified machine, the Panamera S E-hybrid also sidesteps the London congestion charge, road tax, and the initial registration fee. Those perks alone would save S E-hybrid buyers a minimum of £350, versus a regular Panamera S. Enough change for coloured seatbelts!

Greenpeace company car, anyone?

Maserati Ghibli vs BMW 6 Series : Which Will You Buy?

When considering vehicles like Maserati Ghibli and the BWM 6 Series Gran Coupe, both reflect an effort toward blending dignified luxury with exhilarating performance. Though beholding vehicles of this caliber is always an exercise most fruitfully left to the natural eye, the image above serves as a simple example of each sedan’s inherent dignity. In lieu of experiencing each vehicle’s performance profile from behind the wheel, the table provided similarly works to demonstrate what both Ghibli and BMW’s 6 series have been engineered to accomplish. Comparing the Maserati Ghibli vs. BMW 6 Series in this regard yields a number of important emphases. Local clients will notice that both vehicles develop their identity around six-cylinder engines with a pair of strategic turbochargers. Yet regardless of identical displacement and analogous induction technology, Maserati serves its Ghibli clients with significantly greater quantities of horsepower and torque. In addition to t...

McLaren 650S Sprint

McLaren’s new 650S model now comes in three flavors, the standard road going 650S, the competition-spec 650S GT3 for serious racers, and now there’s the 650S Sprint which is aimed at track enthusiasts who still want a little bit of comfort. The 650S Sprint also replaces the MP4-12C-based 12C Sprint as McLaren’s track toy for the super-rich. Compared to the road model, the 650S Sprint features increased downforce and better cooling airflow to the 3.8 litre twin-turbocharged V8. It also features a competition-spec fuel tank and quick-fill cap, a larger radiator borrowed from the GT3 car, a new hood with additional cooling ducts for the radiator, front wing louvres for improved airflow, reduced ride height and recalibrated damping and spring rates, 19-inch center-locking race wheels with either Pirelli slicks or wet tires, onboard air jack system, and an upgraded braking system. On the inside the McLaren 650S Sprint features a stripped-out design with a FIA-approved rol...

Porsche 913

Forgetting the Panamera, Cayenne and Macan, Porsche offer a pretty well-rounded sports car range. Starting with the Boxster and Cayman, and moving up the multitude of variations of the Porsche 911, all the way up to the 918 Spyder supercar. But there is a HUGE price gap between the top of the range 911 Turbo ($250,000 will all the options ticked), to the 918 Spyder ($800,000). Somewhere in that range Porsche could surely offer something to compete with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. Something like the 913 possibly? Conceived by the fertile mind of Rene Garcia, a professional 3D modeller who has created conceptual vehicles and highly detailed models for some of the biggest movies of the past decade, including the Matrix Trilogy, Transformers, the latest Star Trekthrillers and The Avengers, the Porsche 913 is an exquisitely rendered design in every detail. It has a bit of the 918 Spyder about it, but there’s also a lot of originality to the design. It looks like a Porsche, ...

Road Strikers

Search This Blog