PORSCHE

Porsche 918 Spyder Priced, Matching 911 Turbo S Will Be Optional

In the wake of the luxury car Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid's surprise launch at the 2010 Geneva auto show, Porsche made little secret of its plans to put the car into production. In fact, Porsche’s erstwhile R and D chief, Wolfgang Dürheimer—who now heads Bentley and Bugatti—personally handed this writer a form to sign up and register his interest in the car. I declined the offer, but others didn't, and official production plans were confirmed last summer thanks to “outstanding customer response.” Now, we have a price: a cool $845,000, not including destination and handling. (We suspect the destination charge will affect few people’s purchasing plans.)

The buyer also stated that the 918 Spyder will be a targa model and "will travel at 150 kms on electric alone." This can be taken one of two ways. The first way is that he means it delivers an electric-only range of about 150 kilometers (93 miles) — a rather stout number. The second meaning is that it has a top speed of 150 km/h (93 mph).