Porsche plans hybrid Cayenne, Panamera

Europe’s emissions laws are tightening down on automakers, with huge penalties for failure to meet their requirements. Porsche hasn’t historically shown much outright concern for environmental impact, although one could argue its relatively low-displacement (for the class of performance) and lightweight vehicles, with or without turbocharging, are models of high-performance efficiency. Whichever way you come down on the issue, Porsche and every other European automaker has to cut emissions by 2012 or face costly punishment. That’s where hybrids come in, giving Porsche’s Cayenne and Panamera - two models less focused on outright performance - a shot at helping the fleet average CO2 emissions.

Although the Panamera isn’t scheduled for release until 2009 as a 2010 model, the hybrid powertrain layout is already known (pictured below). The hybrid version will not be available until some time after the debut of the petrol-powered version, although when, exactly, is still unknown, reports Automotive News. Also an unknown quantity is the actual nature of the hybrid powertrain - whether it’s a full-hybrid system like the Toyota Prius’ or a more mild-hybrid like the various Lexus models so equipped. If Porsche’s hybrid drivetrain is, as we surmise, intended to help lower emissions to meet EU regulations, the Panamera and Cayenne are more likely to be full-hybrids, capable of cutting fuel consumption and therefore emissions drastically.

However, we won’t know for another two years at least how the details shake out, as the Cayenne - which gets the hybrid drivetrain shared with the Panamera - won’t make its debut until 2010, with the Panamera hybrid to follow by 2013. The timing does sound right for a serious run at emissions cuts. With some luck, Porsche may be able to prevent its lineup from being gutted by the new regulations by offering the new hybrid pair as a sort of sacrifice to the emissions gods. Or so we hope.