The Volkswagen group has been at the forefront of making a transition towards sustainable propulsion for vehicles. It has made the biggest investment towards this transition than any car manufacturer in the world in part to reform its image after the diesel-gate fiasco where it also had to pay billions in fines to regulators across the world. Porsche its sports car brand has dabbled in EVs with the super successful Taycan, it has experimented with synthetic fuels and now it is also testing a hydrogen-powered engine.
Porsche has completed a virtual test of a large luxury vehicle driving around the iconic Nurburgring Nordschleife where the car lapped the track in 8 minutes and 20.2 seconds. The car used a 4.4-litre V8 engine something that Porsche is known to use in its Cayenne luxury SUV.
In the test, the car reached speeds of 261 km/h. During the test, Porsche’s engineers discovered that turbochargers needed twice the amount of air mass. The lower exhaust gas temperatures made this a problematic thing which forced it to install electronically assisted turbochargers.
Porsche says that its new powertrains produce 590 bhp of power and are comparable to the petrol-based equivalent. The car Porsche tested this powertrain on is over 2,650 kg which is in the territory of the Cayenne.
The good news for Porsche is that the engine could meet Euro 7 emissions standards. While the hydrogen engine is more expensive than the petrol one, it doesn’t need after treatment for the exhaust gas which makes it comparable in price over its lifespan.
As of now, this was only a simulation and Porsche has no plans to put this power unit in its current form. This was more of a study to test the potential of the technology. Ford, GM and Toyota have also dabbled with hydrogen propulsion systems.
