It’s not hard to see why. This was a year of a fair bit of tumultuousness. From the boom of scrappage to the end of it, from the hype of the General Election to the uncertainty once it had finished. For several days, the entire ruling of the country was in limbo, and we even went back to The Queen calling the shots. Amidst all this, no wonder the new car market has been morphing.
Visit the motorshows and you wouldn't believe it. It was pretty plain and simple: from the severe austerity of the past 18 months, the car market had recovered to its previous highs. The status quo of garish, glitzy and glamorous new cars (and girls) had returned. Just like the days of yore.
Look more closely though, and there were differences. The cars that the ladies were sitting on were not hyperpowered big-engined monsters, but downsized turbo fuel-sippers that had green, not greed, at heart.
One of the biggest surprises came at the Geneva Motor Show - the Porsche 918 Spyder. It ticked all the usual supercar boxes: top speed in excess of 200mph, 0-60mph in under 3.2 seconds, drop-dead stunning looks. But there was a twist: it could also average 94mpg and emit just 70g/km CO2. How so? It was a petrol-electric hybrid. A sort of extreme plug-in Toyota Prius.
The Porsche 918 Spyder is powered by a combination of 500hp 3.4-litre V8 petrol, combined with three electric motors pumping out a total of 218hp. Porsche speaks of a large range of operational modes, including a 16-mile electric-only e-Drive setting, while it apparently is also capable of lapping the Nurburgring in less than 7mins 30seconds - faster, in other words, than the mighty Porsche Carrera GT. Whoa....
For more info- http://www.contracthireandleasing.com/car-leasing-news/2010-the-year-that-was-weekly-column/
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