900 Potential Customers for the Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid

Porsche revealed it had almost 900 potential buyers for its 918 Spyder hybrid concept car. Porsche unveiled the 918 Spyder at the Geneva Auto Show last month and said at the time that it would consider building the car if it had enough requests to make the project viable.

Porsche will probably decide to build the car once 1,000 potential customers will have expressed their interest, said Wolfgang Duerheimer, Porsche's development chief, in an interview at the Beijing auto show. “I'm confident that we will soon reach the threshold of 1,000. We need 1,000 seriously interested people to make a sound business case,” he was quoted as saying by the Automotive News.

Porsche plans to add new models to its range with the goal of doubling yearly sales to as many as 150,000 vehicles over the medium term and benefit from savings from a merger with Volkswagen AG. The two carmakers will finish their talks on a future model strategy and sharing platforms in about six months, Duerheimer said. “We're very optimistic that we'll be able to further expand our leading position in the sports-car segment,” he added.

The 918 Spyder is powered by a 500-horsepower V8 gasoline engine and electric drive systems which add 218 horsepower and allow the vehicle to go up to 25 kilometers on electric power alone. Porsche claims the car’s average fuel consumption is 78.4 mpg (3 liters/100 km) and that the car emits 70 grams of CO2 per kilometer. And, since it is a Porsche, it can accelerate too. The 0 to 62 mph sprint takes 3.2 seconds and the car is capable of a top speed of 198 mph (318 km/h).