I'm looking forward to the board's comments on these articles. If I were in the market for a Panamera, I'd surely buy the S, not the $4,000 more expensive hybrid:

German sports car manufacturer Porsche could soon face severe fines in the United States thanks to a proposed law meant to encourage greater fuel efficiency, daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Monday. [...]

Critics of the bill have also said that other German car companies, who tend to sell powerful cars with big motors in the United States, are being unfairly disadvantaged, the paper reported. Some experts believe this may not be a coincidence, because most US carmakers are able to fulfil the new rules. “Economically this rule will restructure the entire industry,” warned Walter Lewis, Porsche’s liaison to US lawmakers. “It’s not the task of the government to decide on the winners and losers in the auto industry. This is not environmental policy, it’s industrial policy.”

Rest at: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20100222-25419.html

and

Green Tech May Cost Ford and Porsche Customers

The automakers are spending millions to provide incremental fuel efficiency. It's what the EPA wants, but is it what consumers want? TOUGHER HURDLE FOR SPORTS CARS Before looking at the Porsche and Ford responses to new EPA guidelines, you first need to understand what's required, and how the guidelines are quantified.

The EPA math measures the "footprint" of a vehicle to determine target fuel economy. A bigger vehicle that seats more people gets a lower target EPA, while a small-footprint sports car—Porsche's erstwhile bread and butter—must meet a considerably higher fuel economy standard. And that's just the point: The regulations won't affect all carmakers equally. If you sell to a luxury customer who doesn't give a darn about the price of gas (hello, Mister Porsche 911 mid-life-crisis guy), you'll have a tougher time meeting the requirements than larger, mass players such as Ford, in great part because Ford sells a lot of tiny cars like the new Fiesta to offset less-efficient models in their fleet.

The rub for both automakers is zero lawmaking to create incentives for customers to buy nonhybrid-but-still-fuel-miserly cars vs. gas suckers. This, by the way, drives Porsche's top management nuts. In Europe, gas is heavily taxed; if a gallon of fuel (gasoline or diesel) costs $6, the consumer will chase a more efficient car, which forces automakers to innovate while simultaneously nudging buyers.

Rest at: http://www.businessweek.com/print/lifestyle/content/aug2010/bw20100823_481171.htm