porsche news
 

just a couple of articles i have come across that caught my eye:

1. porsche unveiled the "rolling laboratory" that is the first fully electric porsche, the boxster-e. 100 miles between charges, 240 hp provided by twin VW-sourced electric motors. 0-60 in 5.3 sec.

2. porsche ceo recently stated that they plan on building porsches in china and/or the us soon and owner VW needs to build another 5 or 6 plants worldwide to be able to supply the 10M-11M vehicles VW plans to sell in the near future, including an extra 10k 911s (last year they sold 20k).

3. RUF got in the e-game with 10 recently developed all electric 911 prototypes. includes models with a single 240hp electric motor and standard gearbox with a range of around 93 miles, top speed of 136mph. they are also working on another "beefier" model with twin engines and a dual speed gearbox producing around 355hp and a 120 mile range, 5 second 0-60 time and top speed of around 136 mph. expected to be unveiled at the geneva auto show in march.

none of things really interest me

i don't want an electric porsche...ever





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Interesting on the electrics . . . guess they will be optioned w/ Bose external sound system and speakers for the PSE experience :eek:




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Hope this does not come true...
 

Building them in either the US or china would be a mistake IMO. There is a certain cache about having an automobile built in europe regardless of where the parts may ultimately be sourced from. Call it snob appeal or whatever you like, but I would not expect to pay a premium (like new porsches sell for) for a vehicle built outside of europe and I doubt owners of any other exotic marque (ferrari, lambo, etc.) would as well.

This is all about meeting CAFE mileage goals. Each mfg has to sell a certain number of high mileage vehicles in order to offset their low mileage performance cars and still meet the mandated average mpg for the fleet. Same thing is happening at BMW with their upcoming 4-cyl engines. Aston Martin is going so far as to source an iQ and rebadge it.

I agree but some BMWs are built in South Carolina, VWs in Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico. Many people felt the same way about American made Toyotas during the 80's too but most people don't really think about it anymore.

I realize that there are several import
 

brands that are built in the US (bmw z4, camry, etc.) and I think porsche could source production of the cayenne and/or the smaller suv "roxster" they are planning on producing to the US and there would be no harm done but moving production of the 911 or something similar to somewhere outside europe would not be seen as favorably by the ever dwindling ranks of the "enthusiasts". In general, people that would purchase the SUV's, I think would be less likely to care where their porsche was manufactured.

Full Circle
 

The first cars developed by Ferdinand Porsche were electric.

Build location
 

Well, at least we'll be able to say ours were built in Europe. :cheers: