Porshe cayenne hybrid

Porsche’s first SUV bowed in 2003, and it’s been the company’s top-seller ever since. Cayenne came about after Porsche nearly died of a sales meltdown in the early 1990s, an experience suggesting the need for a hedge vehicle against future downturns in sports-car demand. Apparently the pickets don’t know that Porsche sports cars are considerably more fuel-efficient than the cars they compete with. And they must not realize how close Porsche engineers are to releasing hybrid technology into the market in not one, but two cars: the Porsche Cayenne sport-utility and the Porsche Panamera sedan. Unlike any other gas-electric system currently on the market, our Cayenne S Hybrid tester has an additional mechanical clutch that decouples the engine entirely, temporarily removing it from the drive line equation. Doing so means the V6 is not a source of parasitic drag, and the modestly-sized 52-hp electric motor can nudge the Cayenne gently along as it does its inertial thing unencumbered.