Porsche gives up on diesel to set sights on electric and hybrid future

Luxury sports carmaker Porsche has announced that it will no longer invest in vehicles fueled by diesel, preferring instead to concentrate its efforts on the growing electric mobility market.

Currently Porsche offers three models of diesel vehicles in Australia – the Cayenne and Macan SUVs, and the Panamera sedan – with the Cayenne and Panamera also offered as plug-in hybrids.

The sports carmaker is also introducing its first all-electric car next year- the Taycan, the manufacture of which the company says is totally carbon neutral.

By 2025, the company also says one out of two new Porsche’s ‘could’ have an electric or hybrid drive.

In the carmaker’s home country of Germany, there are already many cities where diesel bans for older vehicles have commenced, with Hamburg leading the way.

Despite a European emissions study released earlier this year suggesting that even newer diesel vehicles are ‘bad polluters’, the German automaker diplomatically stated to the press they are not ‘demonising diesel’.

But then, diesel has only ever played a smaller role in Porsche’s sports car offerings, with only 12% of their worldwide portfolio consisting of diesel-fueled cars.

Bridie Schmidt

Bridie Schmidt is lead reporter for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She specialises in writing about new technology, and has a keen interest in the role that zero emissions transport has to play in sustainability.