News in brief
Porsche Cayennes sales success in Russia, VW hybrids and new transmission for Mitsubishi's evo
Porsche is selling plenty of Cayennes in Russia, sales figures reveal, but practically no sports cars. Apparently the Russians just aren’t interested in 911s and Boxsters. It’s the same story in China, where everyone with money has their own driver (an important status symbol). Porsche knows of one 911 owner who squeezes himself into the back of his 911 so that he can be chauffeured to work.
ALTHOUGH VW will be launching hybrids in the future, much work is going into engines that combine the best qualities of petrol and diesel units to reduce CO2 emissions. Two versions are on trial, the Combined Combustion System which uses air-fuel mixing like a petrol engine but with a diesel-like synthetic fuel. The other is the Petrol Compression engine which has no spark plug and relies on high compression to spark the fuel mix like a diesel. Fuel economy is said to be 17 per cent better than with a normal petrol engine.
THE NEW Mitsubishi Evo, due next year, will have a twin-clutch gearbox to go with its all-new 4wd. Similar to VW’s DSG system, it has been dubbed SST or Sport Shift Transmission and will have three different shift modes – Normal, Sport and Super-Sport.
