Porsche To Officially End Production Of Diesel Cars

Porsche has officially announced that it will no longer offer diesel vehicles. The Stuttgart-based luxury and sports carmaker said that it's intensifying its activities in the areas of hybrid technology and electromobility and will drop diesel powertrains for good. The company has seen a growing interest among Porsche buyers for hybrid models, in fact, 63 per cent of the Porsche Panamera sold in Europe were hybrids. Sale of Porsche's diesel models, on the other hand, have gone down, accounting for just 12 per cent in 2017.

(Porsche says 63 per cent of Panameras sold in Europe in 2017 were hybrids)

Commenting on the company's decision, Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche AG said, "Porsche is not demonising diesel. It is and will remain, an important propulsion technology. We as a sports car manufacturer, however, for whom diesel has always played a secondary role, have come to the conclusion that we would like our future to be diesel-free. Naturally, we will continue to look after our existing diesel customers with the professionalism they expect."

(The Porsche Taycan will have the ability to travel 500 km on a single charge )

Porsche has also announced that it will have invested more than six billion euros in e-mobility by 2022, and be ready for sustainable growth into the future. In fact, the upcoming Porsche Taycan, which is set to make its debut in 2019, will be the carmaker's first fully-electric sports car. The new Taycan's manufacture process is claimed to be CO2 neutral and it's also said to be supplied with green electricity via an ultra-fast charging infrastructure spread over Europe.

Porsche has also claimed that by 2025, every second new Porsche vehicle could have an electric drive - either hybrid or purely electric. In addition to electric and hybrid cars, the company said that it will also focus on improving its internal combustion engines as well. "Our aim is to occupy the technological vanguard - we are intensifying our focus on the core of our brand while consistently aligning our company with the mobility of the future," Blume added.