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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, July 29, 2007

Porsche will field a hybrid to revamp its image

By Matt Moore
Associated Press Business Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

This Porsche Cayenne test model is just like the sport utility version on the market now, except that it has has a hybrid engine.

Porsche AG via AP

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WEISSACH, Germany — Porsche AG's first hybrid vehicle will be ready within three years, the head of the luxury automaker's new hybrid program announced Thursday.

Leaders of Germany's auto industry have rejected criticisms that they lack the initiative to build more environmentally friendly cars, saying this week that they were working on new, fuel-efficient models.

Porsche's Cayenne hybrid is being developed in part with Volkswagen AG and Audi AG, and, when completed, is expected to reduce the sport utility vehicle's fuel consumption by almost one-third.

The four-door SUV is expected to be on the market by the end of the decade, the Stuttgart-based automaker said.

Michael H. Leiters, the head of Porche's hybrid program, said the move toward a hybrid is part of a wider effort to help Porsche customers shake off the image of being gas-guzzling planet haters.

"If you drive a Porsche in the neighborhood and everyone is ... saying you are environmentally unfriendly, that is not good for us," he said, adding that developing the hybrid is "for us, a good solution."

Criticism about Porsche's sports cars, which include the Boxster and 911, can be severe.

Greenpeace protested the company's production at its plant in Zuffenhausen on Thursday, accusing it of building cars the group called "climate pigs."

Porsche said in response that in Germany, less than 12 percent of all exhaust emissions come from passenger cars, with Porsche's share of that being less than 1/10th of 1 percent.

The hybrid Cayenne prototype emits just 240 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, compared with 310 grams from a normal gas-powered Cayenne.

Porsche won't say how much the hybrid version will retail for, but has said the United States is the key market for the car.

The hybrid will use about 2.4 gallons of gas per 62 miles, compared with 3.4 gallons for a conventional model.

So far, in testing, it gets about 24.4 miles per gallon compared with 17.9 miles per gallon for a conventional Cayenne.

Germany's auto industry, which includes Volkswagen AG, DaimlerChrysler AG and BMW AG, has come under repeated criticism that it has not built more environmentally friendly vehicles.

Heavy lobbying from Germany forced the European Union earlier this year to water down a plan for emissions reductions and sparked a debate in Germany over the industry's role in fighting global warming.

The plan that the EU adopted calls for drafting of lower emissions limits — of 130 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer — for new cars sold or imported into the 27-nation union by 2012.

It also calls for increased use of biofuels and cleaner fossil fuels, meant to reduce current car emission levels by 25 percent — even lower than the 130 gram limit.