Porsche 918 Heads to Production

[ahmed_7erzon]

Get your order in, quick. Porsche will build 918 examples of the plug-in hybrid Porsche 918. The car will do 0-60 mph in about 3.1 seconds, top out at 199 mph and achieve 78.4 mpg equivalent on the European fuel economy cycle. (The mpg estimate is converted from 3.0 liters per 100 kilometers, and will likely be lower on the U.S. EPA label.)
Price in the U.S. will be $845,000, plus destination and handling. How many 918 copies we'll get in the U.S. is unknown, though 40 to 50- percent of the total wouldn't be unprecedented. Power will come from the RS Spyder's 4.0-liter, mid-mounted racing V-8 rated 500 horsepower that feeds the rear wheels, plus an electric motor for each of the front wheels energized by a lithium-ion battery. The electric motors add about 218 more horses and will offer more than 16 miles of gasoline-free driving.

The 918 will go up to 94 mph, full electric, for limited distances. A full recharge is expected to take about 7 hours on a 110-volt, 10-amp U.S. system.

The production 918 will come with a manual, removable roof panel that stows in the front luggage compartment. And unlike other low-volume supercars, the 918 plug-in was not sold out by the time Porsche officially announced production (the result of a super-secret development program), which begins in time for the first U.S. imports to arrive in late '13. Worldwide 918 Spyder customers also are invited to order a special-edition 911 Turbo S coupe or cabriolet with exterior and interior "design elements" echoing the carbon-fiber-bodied supercar. Price is $160,700 for the coupe and $172,100 for the cabrio, excluding destination. Beats an Aston Martin Cygnet, no?