Same here Jim. I spent the first 45 minutes bored to death and unimpressed.

But then the 918 came on....... wow. Really looking forward to the P1/918 battle now - and the Christmas (March) special.

Ah, so many comments...."sigh" I just tune in, hang on & enjoy the ride. It is what it is....

I've changed my mind, the 918 please...although how they have managed to reduce the CO2 emissions and still produce blue flames from the exhausts beats me

Easy: the emissions are part of the mpg test cycle; it's only a few miles long. If you can run it on the batteries, that counts as no emissions...

All new cars in this league are just conning the system. Low tax, low emmisions, good mpg and supercar performance. Nonsense.

The 918 produces 74 somethings of CO2 and the Fiat coupe was I think above 240...which one pays to drive in London?

I feel the same about this. Hybrid technology is just tax dodging.
There's no way that carrying round a ton of batteries and running on electricity that was generated by burning fossil fuels is kinder to the environment.

84% of the UK's energy comes through burning fossil fuels.

Current taxes...
Petrol / Diesel - 58p/ litre
LPG - Around 31p / litre
Electricity 0

And obviously not having to pay congestion charge or VED is big selling point on a half-million pound car. Practically pays for itself.

If the 'tax dodge' encourages people to buy electric/hybrid vehicles then it also encourages manufacturers to put money into researching and developing them, and the problem of how the electricity is generated is moved to a government-level decision, rather than a individual one.

I'd imagine from a Govt. level it provides an excuse for increasing VED for the vast majority of motorists in the name of (but not actually for the benefit of) the environment.

London is one of the few places where running an electric car is a better idea (i.e. nothing moves, the fumes are nasty) but that doesn't mean it works in the rest of the UK.

Sorry, I'm struggling to see what your point is as you seem to be swerving between:

a. The government is wrong to offer tax incentives for running an electric car.

b. The government is just wrong.

c. Manufacturers are wrong to produce electric cars

d. Manufacturers are wrong to sell electric cars outside of London.

e. Fuel is taxed too heavily/electricity isn't taxed enough

f. Something to do with fossil fuels

Would you care to pick one of those, or are you going to add a new whinge to the list?

I would wager that the decision of these hypercar manufacturers to go down the hybrid route is more to do with the target audience rather than anything else.

Hollywood's a list likes to pretend to be environmentally conscious, hence the abundance of Prius among them.

They have a Prius for going to the shops/talking to chat show hosts and a supercar for revving down Hollywood Blvd.

Now they can have one car for both.

...and still feel prious

Except of course that they neither carry a ton of batteries or use power from the national grid it generated from wasted energy during braking etc. The MPG rate speaks for itself.

We recently skipped hybrid tech. altogether and bought a Nissan Leaf. It's the best car-buying decision I've ever made (Coupe aside!) and we are set to save over £3000 per year. Having a car which will never visit a petrol station is pretty weird, but in a good way.

Nice saving if that includes the cost of the car.

Does that include the cost of charging it?

Yes. A full charge costs less than £2.50.

That's a little selective. The main source of charge for the Prius is the on-board generator powered by the petrol engine or plugging into the national grid. Regenerative braking is small by comparison. If I had one it would be on plug-in charge every night to take advantage of the tax free electricity.

The Prius weighs 1325 kg compared with about 1050 kg for a car in that class. Not a ton, but the same as the combined weight of all the passengers.

As this seems to be some kind of personal attack I'll politely exit and leave you to have the last word.

A personal attack wasn't my intention, I was just trying to work out what you were arguing against.

Agreed you can charge them but it isn't required. Even if they are charging using the internal generator its still going to be included in the overall MPG (perhaps not the official figures though admittedly). If they are charged from the mains, a small proportion of the power could be attributed to renewables or other sources. Then there is in argument for (or rather against) diffuse pollution....

What cars are you classing as in the same class? Seems to me most cars of a similar size (Megane, Giuliette, Golf, Civic, Pug 308, BMW 1, Focus) are in around the same weight as the Prius. Obviously spec dependent but the gap in not as large as you suggest.

FYI tax (VAT) is applicable on electricity (but at a reduced 5% rate) but your fuel rates also only account for duty and not VAT.

You do all realise that this is waaaay too intellectual for a Top Gear thread, right?
Skins, is it wrong of me to think that Hell is the perfect place for an electric Nissan?

The point I was making is that the mpg figures the manufactures claim for these super car hybrids are so far from the truth. As Barnacle stated, these figures are obtained from the test route which can be done solely/mainly in electric mode from a fully charged set of batteries. The P1 can do what....7 miles electric. After that the gas guzzler has to fire up unless you only drive it a conservativen 7 miles per day.

It doesn't bother me at all. Just stating these low emissions and high mpg figures are all just a con. Would love to see the real world figures.

A big reason manufacturers of high performance cars are doing it is to bring the level of their average cars emissions down reducing their tax...I believe.

Yes you may be right. Anyway the Porsche left me rather cold. No doubt is engineering excellence but like the Veyron its a bit of an irrelevance.

Really guys, you're discussing a super car worth over £700.000 the whys & the what nots. Again this is exactly the same as Top Gear, it is what it is. At a rough guess I don't think anyone on here could afford such a car or even come close.

Stating the obvious the likes of these super cars are aimed at someone with money & who actually wants one. At the end of the day it really is an expensive toy. Hell who wouldn't want to rage the beast round a circuit. If I'm reading him right, I kinda go with AndrewR, car companies can make what they like, petrol,electric or what have you, in any shape or form.

Kinda broke a wee rule of mine, not to get involved with too much conversation about Top Gear..

I saw a review by Chris Harris on the P1 on YouTube > HERE < very interesting. If you want to really know about cars, forget about Top Gear

My car (BMW M135i) was on Topgear last night. Very impressed with the laptime of 1m25.1 but I was disappointed Jeremy lost it aquaplaning so turned against it.

That's quicker than both the M3 and M5 as well as some other motoring exotica including a Lamborghini Gallardo spyder and a Lotus exige S!!

Topgear powerlap times

Must admit. A 3 litre straight 6 turbo does do it for me so much more than a 4 pot.

120 on a lake of a track and stupidly wide tyres, then add in full throttle and I'll assume tc was switched off, well it's going to spin isn't it?!?!

The merc would have beaten the BM's lap time I reckon, but never the less a great showing from the baby "soft" m.

Shows hows how over priced and rated golf GTI's have become.