Porsche has released official details about the new Cayenne diesel, the first oil-burning car from the famous sports car manufacturer.
It’s powered by a 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel powerplant, borrowed from stablemate brand Audi and will be going on sale in February next year. The 3.0 TDI engine offers 240bhp and returns a combined 30mpg in the Cayenne, according to Porsche’s official figures. That equates to CO2 emissions of 244g/km.
A Porsche statement said the decision to offer a diesel Cayenne was “taken in response to changed legal regulations, especially in European markets, resulting in tax incentives for vehicles with diesel engines… Porsche’s stake in the Volkswagen Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of modern diesel engines for passenger cars, has opened up new opportunities to utilise diesel technology.”
The statement also acknowledged that Porsche is working on a hybrid version of the Cayenne, which it claims will offer fuel consumption ‘in excess of 30mpg’. It’s all part of an effort to boost the Cayenne’s dwindling sales as the economic crisis takes hold.
The diesel model will be offered with the Tiptronic-S automatic gearbox as standard. It'll cost cost £40,250 when it reaches British showrooms in February 2009.
