Sunday, May 6, 2012

Porsche Boxster Diesel Possible Admits R&D Chief

2012-porsche-boxster An interesting report has surfaced from the 33rd Vienna Motor Symposium that revealed Porsche has diesel powerplants firmly in its strategy, while electric vehicles are not.

Speaking at the conference, Porsche R&D chief Wolfgang Hatz revealed that the German automaker believes that pure electric vehicles are “not even close to series production with the current battery technology.” It’s a peculiar statement since Porsche announced that it would begin testing its Electric Boxster prototypes last year.

Perhaps Porsche isn’t pleased with the results so far, with Hatz stating that internal combustion engines will remain dominant in the foreseeable future and that the diesel is a firm part of the VW Group’s strategy currently. More importantly however, Hatz said, “There will be more powerful variations with Porsche-like performance.” He went on to add, “It would be wrong to say no to a Boxster diesel for all times.”

This of course raises questions about what Porsche’s diesel car strategy might be. There is, of course, the conventional fuel economy and budget-minded direction. Porsche, however, could look at diesel’s as a performance option, much like how BMW has just introduced a new M line of performance diesels.

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