Daily Slideshow: Porsche Done with Diesel As It Looks to an Electric Future

Porsche is Pulling the Plug on Diesel

Amid the world's push for greener/cleaner vehicles, petrol and diesel engines are beginning to find themselves being edged out.  For a perfect example of this, one only needs to look at Ford.  A company that made its mark in the early days of auto manufacturing by inventing the V8, now only offers it as an option in it's most popular vehicle (and it's less powerful than their EcoBoost V6 at that).

It seems that now Porsche is heeding that call as well.  They have stopped production of their diesel engines following emissions compliance issues in their European markets.  Instead of trying to remedy their issues, they have dropped the diesel engines altogether.  Also, while Porsche is stopping diesel production now, it is important to note that Porsche hasn't offered a diesel stateside since 2015 when their EPA scandal first broke. 

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Affected Models

While Porsche hasn't made their name with diesel power plants, they were a fairly popular option for the Macan, and Cayenne SUVs.  I am fairly certain that I will not be the only one to miss the 422hp turbo v8 diesel.

On the flipside, one has to acknowledge that this is likely to become the norm amongst all manufacturers.  Unfortunately, it seems modern emissions standards and regulations are impossible to meet with a diesel power plant.  At least not with the power levels we all want. 

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So Where Do They Go From Here?

While Porsche has been making its way back towards electric for future models (Yes, back. Their first car ever was full electric). They still haven't decided to go all in quite yet.

Their 918 made waves for being a supercar and a hybrid at the same time and made a habit of beating the hybrid offerings from McLaren, and Ferrari as well.

Porsche is trying to anticipate the larger shift to full EV vehicles announcing a 7.4 billion investment into electric vehicles and EV technology.  A large chunk of that investment has already gone into the upcoming Mission E, which is expected to deliver a 0-60 time in less than 3.5 seconds so the expected Porsche performance will still be there. 

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Electric Future

Electric cars are making considerable gains in both range and popularity but they're still not quite ready to become the be all end all of the automotive world just yet.  Though Porsche does envision that one out of every four Porsche vehicles will be electric by 2025.  The cost and range of fully electric vehicles still put them into a niche market.  However, if some of the planned results of Porsche's aforementioned EV investment come to bear fruit, range and charging issues will become a thing of the past as they believe they can get the Mission E to charge in 15 minutes.  

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Conclusion

While some may not be ready to think of Porsche as an EV car company, this is the way of the future. Us old gearheads needn't fear though.  It has been proven time and again that EV will beat a gas powered (or diesel powered) car every time.

The past 10 years have been an automotive renaissance giving us both power levels and efficiency out of smaller and smaller engines.  These feats of engineering may have hidden the gas engine and diesel engine's swan songs.  

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For help keeping your Porsche running right, please see our how-to section in the forum.