Porsche will start official sales of the 918 Spyder hybrid supercar at the end of March and it will cost £672,000 with only 918 examples confirmed for production. But be warned as deliveries will only start sometime in 2013. So how do they keep buyers happy? They come up with a limited edition Porsche 911 Turbo S Edition 918 Spyder that will only be sold to buyers of the Porsche 918 Spyder.

So if the lucky 918 Spyder buyer decides to buy this interim toy before the real one comes, it'll cost him, or her, £125,865 for the Porsche 911 Turbo S Edition 918 Spyder Coupé (isn't that a mouthful?) and £133,553 for the Cabriolet version. So you add the initial £672,000 for the 918 Spyder and that toy Porsche 911, if the buyer decides to buy to occupy his time till 2013, it becomes an £800,000 total investment for the hybrid.

The Porsche 918 Spyder first appeared as a concept car at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show and now production is scheduled to begin in September 2013 with first delivery a month and a half after that. So far, Porsche have only released concept renderings but from what we can tell is that the car looks similar to the concept car. Another quirk about this car is that Porsche is only producing all 918 units in left hand drive form.

Technical specs of the Porsche 918 Spyder is that the hybrid supercar will have a petrol V8-based hybrid powertrain (a 4.0? We're just guessing here), with an electric motor on each axle that would add around 215bhp. The 918 Spyder's lithium-ion batteries can be charged from a domestic household socket with a charge time of 3 hours (utilizing Germany's powergrid as a guide). It can be a proper 'electric car' as it can travel 16 miles on electric power alone. The 918 Spyder is predicted to have a 0- 62mph in 3.2sec and a top speed in excess of 199mph. It will also return 94mpg and emit 70g/km of CO2. It's like eating a whole chicken, some spare ribs, a bucket of whipped potato and still losing weight at the same time!

The question is whether buyers can wait till 2013 for it and whether a Porsche 911, with the same color scheme as the 2010 918 Spyder Concept, an enhanced leather interior with carbon fiber trimming will satisfy its buyers till then. I mean, the interim car is 'merely' a 911 Turbo S with some new paint and trim. Oh yes, you do get a plaque stating the same numbering as the 918 Spyder's number the buyer ordered. 2013 in car years is basically half a Honda model's lifespan (or facelift time) if it were launched in 2011. And it would be a long wait and by then it could be outdated.

2013 porsche 918 spyder and 10 more...

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