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This striking vehicle is the Porsche 918 Spyder concept car which was a secret that revealed and amazed every one a little ahead of its official debut at Geneva Motor Show, while others under the Porsche flag like the new Cayenne had been leaked already with less than rave responses. The brand new spider concept debuted alongside the Cayenne and the 911 GT3 R Hybrid at Porsche’s stand at the Geneva Motor Show.
If you look at the 918 Spyder closely it doesn’t seem to be a brand new concept as it reminds us of the Carrera GT. Powered by a hybrid powertrain, it can hit 100km/h in under 3.2 seconds and can also do the Nurburgring in less than 7 minutes and 30 seconds, which according to Porsche is faster than the original Carrera GT. And the surprises doesn’t end there, as with these remarkable figures the Porsche claims an average fuel consumption of just 3 litres per 100km, yes thats lesser than the Toyota Auris HSD Hybrid!
The Porsche is built on a modular monocoque bodyshell made of carbon reinforced plastics as well as magnesium and aluminum, which makes its curb weight only 1,490kg, despite carrying the entire hybrid system. Being a performance car it has a large and powerful combustion engine and also batteries and multiple electric motors to match.
The hybrid powertrain of the car combines a 9,200rpm redline high revving V8 producing about 500 PS together with electric motors on both the front and rear axle. This makes the combined output of 218 PS, while the peak combined output is 718 PS.
Rear wheels of the car are driven by the V8 and an electric motor through a 7-speed Porsche PDK dual clutch transmission. Electric motors drive the front axle and the wheels via a fixed transmission ratio. The power is transmitted to these motors from a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery mounted behind the passenger area, which is able to accommodate two persons.
The four modes of the Porsche 918 Spyder:
- Hybrid mode: the 918 Spyder uses both the electric motors and the combustion engine but shuts either off depending on conditions, just like Prius or any other regular series-parallel hybrid.
- Sport Hybrid mode: turns on both electric and V8 power all the time, focusing rear wheels to get more drive power. Due to the torque vectoring, power is distributed well between the left and right wheels.
- Race Hybrid mode: also combines both power sources, with an added option of the “push to pass” button that feeds in extra power for overtaking.
- E-Drive mode: that allows the car to move on electric power but only up to 25km.
