High-end automakers touting fuel efficiency
Porsche, BMW unveil products
You know we’re making progress on the green vehicle front when luxury automakers such as Porsche and BMW start making noise about their fuel efficiency. It seems speed and pollution do not necessarily go hand in hand anymore.
Porsche unveiled its new $845,000 918 Spyder Hybrid at the recent Frankfurt Auto Show, with news that the elite racing vehicle can reach 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and gets the equivalent of 3.27 litres per 100 kilometres (72 mpg).
BMW’s new i8 plug-in hybrid racer, featured in the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie and starting at $122,000, will get 2.08 L/100km (113 mpg) when sales start next year.
Not too shabby when you consider the basic Toyota Prius hybrid gets 50 mpg and its plug-in counterpart clocks in at 2.48 L/100km (95 mpg). Not to be outdone, Toyota has said the next generation Prius will get “significantly better fuel economy in a more compact package that is lighter weight and lower cost.”
With more than five million hybrid vehicles on the roads today, Toyota says performance of the next generation of powertrains will reflect significant advances in battery, electric motors and gas engine technologies.
Let’s go back to those ultraefficient supercars for a moment, as Porsche and BMW aren’t the only automakers making waves with their push toward clean, mean speed machines.
Audi was wowing hometown crowds with its new Sport Quattro, a plug-in hybrid coupe concept whose combined combustion and electric motors push the car to 100 kilometres per hour in 3.7 seconds, getting 2.5 L/100km (94 mpg).
If you can’t make the financial commitment required to own one of these high end, hyper-efficient dream cars, you still have options. Well, sort of.
A handful of Tesla Motors Inc. electric cars are now available for rental through Hertz at the Los Angeles and San Francisco airports. Hertz has five Tesla Model S and Roadster rechargeable cars available between the two airports, with rental prices at about $500 per day, according to recent reports. Auto Notes: As you might expect, planning is well underway for the 2014 Vancouver International Auto Show, March 25 to 30, 2014 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Visit vancouverinternationalautoshow.com to take our reader poll. If you could have your first car back, would you? Let us know! We’ll share the results in an upcoming column.