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Porsche is a revered-brand that exudes sports performance and luxury. One thing you might not have known about zee German company is that it has started to focus plenty of attention to the plug-in hybrid market. With the Panamera S E-Hybrid and 918 Spyder in the fleet, Porsche has produced the latest Cayenne S E-Hybrid to become the first automaker to offer a luxury SUV plug-in electric hybrid.

In order to showcase what the new plug-in Cayenne can do, Porsche has created a commercial that grabs your attention. As Mom and Dad relax in the living room with a strategically placed comment about Mark Webber coming from the television (who now races in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Porsche), a young boy (possibly 9?) walks in, grabs the keys to the Porsche and says he's going to go fill-up the car. This cuts to a second scene where the boy is watching the Cayenne get juiced up on electricity as he plugged it into the charger in the garage.

It's a simple and catcher commercial that makes you notice what's going on, as no parent would allow their nine-year old to drive their car to the gas station. The actual charging of the Cayenne plug-in is estimated to take under 1.5-hours using a 240V charger.

The Porsche S E-Hybrid is an all-wheel drive vehicle that's equipped with 333 hp and 325 lb.-ft. of torque coming from a 3.0-litre V6 that works with an additional 95-hp electric motor. All combined power is rated at 416 hp and 435 lb.-ft. of torque and comes with a 10.9 lithium-ion traction battery. It can go from 0-100 km/h in just 5.9 seconds. 

The Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid is currently available in Canada for a starting price of $86,800.

Here's the video to enjoy:

When something is built up, I was always get that fear of disappointment. And for me, the whole Route 66 experience was massively built up. By the movies. By my university studies in American history. By my grandfather. Indeed, Nissan itself, who sponsored our trip, talked it up, too.

For me, Route 66 kind of had this aura about it. I always had this image of a road that somehow didn’t exist on the ground, but hovered just above it. It was the road that allowed you to easily cross state lines, it was the road the Okies used to escape the Dust Bowl in the ‘30s in International trucks (you can see one at the Route 66 museum in Clinton, OK); it was the road that connected America for the first time.

It couldn’t just be some normal-looking two-lane blacktop, right?

Actually, that is right, but not necessarily for the reasons described above.

Oh, the road sits on the ground, all right. In fact, it so “on the ground” in places that it’s a part of the ground, overgrown by weeds growing through the cracks in its Portland Cement.

That being said, there are still areas where the original tarmac can be driven upon (“original” being a bit of a loose term in this instance, since there have been three “alignments” of Route 66 since its inception with deviations reaching into the miles as opposed to metres); there are even places, like just outside of Hooker, MO, where the road actually runs dual-carriageway style. Yes, each lane is a little narrower than what you’ll see on the I-40 nearby, but you get the gist.

It’s instances like these that really start to bring the Route 66 experience into focus. More so than just an exploratory journey into a time capsule, it’s the mix of classic and modern that really hit home, again and again.

Yes, the 1920s was a long time ago and you’d hardly call that “modern”, but it nevertheless represents a real nexus in the American history tapestry. When it was developed, it was the first time you could (almost) cross the country by car; with its decline, we started seeing the death of the American dream, as the small guys were pushed out, to be replaced by big-box stores, big-lane super-highways and big rigs.

But you want to remember the good 'ol days. I wasn’t around for them, but like a good old race car, there’s just something so nice and pastoral about the whole thing.

That’s why it’s so bittersweet when you come across the old Whiting Bros. gas station in Moriarty, NM. This was a massive chain of gas stations in the 1900s-1970s, but even something that big wasn’t immune to the takeover of the interstate system. But oh, is it ever spectacular to behold!

The sign must be 50 ft. high if it was a foot, and it still stands there weather-beaten like some kind of totem for a time that once was. Then you look to the right, and there’s the station itself—it’s just a station now with no hotel to speak of, even though it’s on the sign that's covered in growth.

I usually associate the term “ruin” with something I’d see in Rome, but the remains of gas stations, hotels and car dealers that litter the route are equally deserving of the term. Heck, there are entire truck stops that remain—you can still see the bathrooms, the gas station, the car wash and the inn—and if that’s not worthy of the “ruin” term, I’m not sure what is.

And the cars, oh, the cars. Of course, there would be no interstate without them—no need for one, anyway—and since so much of the route cuts through arid climes, the old Fords, Edsels and Studebakers are in such good nick that even non-classic car experts could probably identify them (well, it ain’t hard to tell with the Edsel, now, is it?).

It’s crazy; It’s as if everything stopped. The cars were frozen in time, along with the network around the route. One day, the interstate opened up, and that was that. There was no decay, no half-life, nothing like that. It could’ve happened yesterday, it could’ve happened 100 years ago but since everything is naturally so well kept, it’s not so easy to tell.

If I didn’t know the history, that’s exactly what I’d think. What’s so great about this, however, is that thanks to the conditions of the various landmarks and cars along the route, you really are placed right there in the golden era of motoring.

And that, dear readers, is worth its weight in Portland Cement.

Our steeds

We pretty much split time between the Nissan Altima sedan and Rogue crossover, and while they may not be the first cars that jump to mind when considering the type of trip we were on (I always saw myself driving a ’57 Chevy Bel-Air, or maybe a modern Mustang), but they were up to the task.

Said Mustang may have the performance and Americana creds, but it’s not as comfortable as these.

Thanks to the smooth progress allowed by the Continuously Variable Automatic transmissions in each car, the NASA-developed “Zero Gravity Seats” and pliant suspension systems, we’d reach our destination (in Williams, AZ. Or Cuba, MO. Or Amarillo, TX. Or…) without feeling exhausted. Some of these journeys were upwards of 600 kilometres long.

The CVTs also help with fuel economy, and we never went over 9L/100Km in either vehicle; even the Rogue with its AWD system would tick the pumps at 8.7L/100km; the Altima, for its part, wins the fuel economy sweepstakes, with some of our group registering as low as 6.4L per. That’s after carrying 2-3 adults and their gear, with A/C or seat warmers working and sat radios blaring. Not bad. Not bad at all.

 Toronto, ON – The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada, better known as AJAC, revealed its category winners of their annual vehicle of the year testing program and there were many automakers who have their hands full of awards.

Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Subaru were the big winners notching two “Best New” categories each. Hyundai and Porsche both went two-for-two on its entries, as it was a sedan sweep for the Sonata and Genesis in its categories; while the 911 Turbo S and Macan S took home wins in its respective categories.

Mercedes-Benz and Subaru both won two out of four categories. Mercedes-Benz took home the Luxury under ($50K) category with the C-Class and the Prestige (over $75K) with the S-Class Coupe. Subaru missed out on wins for the WRX and STI, but won the Family (under $30K) with the Legacy and SUV/CUV (under $35K) with the Outback.

Rounding out the other winners were the Kia Soul EV, Honda Fit, Volkswagen Golf, BMW M235i, Volvo V60 Polestar, Toyota Highlander and the Ford F-150.

General Motors might have had the most entries with eight, but they were under stiff competition everywhere they were slotted. After coming one point away from winning the 2014 AJAC Canadian Car of the Year award with the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, they will have to wait until next year for a bounce back into the winner's circle. In general, it wasn't a positive year for any North American automaker with only one category win coming from Ford in a grouping that only had North American vehicles competing.

To recap how the results were tabulated, testing concluded five weeks ago in Niagara Falls with 70 journalists testing and scoring new vehicles to the market for five full days. Journalists were assigned specific categories and had to test these vehicles based on “real world” back-to-back tests using the exact routes for each vehicle to enable an impartial judgement.

AJAC is considered a valuable source of information for consumers and these awards are highly coveted by the automakers who participate in it. For more information on the specific results and breakdown of each vehicle, please feel free to go to www.ajac.ca.

The 15 category winners will be narrowed down to three finalists for Canadian Car of the Year, as well as the three finalists for Canadian utility vehicle of the year at the Montreal International Auto Show. And then it all finally concludes at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto on February 12 when the 2015 Canadian Car and Utility Vehicle overall winners are announced.

Nissan Canada’s inaugural “Back in the Game” program finished on a high note with its two feature high school teams getting the experience of a lifetime at the country’s biggest football event – the 102nd Grey Cup in Vancouver.  Students from Hamilton’s Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary School and Edmonton’s Eastglen High School flew to Vancouver for Grey Cup weekend on a CFL charter flight to meet CFL alumni and stars, take part in a skills clinic and behind-the-scenes tour at B.C. Place and, of course, watch the Calgary Stampeders win the Grey Cup.

“Because of this sponsorship, I have had countless dreams about myself playing on the Edmonton Eskimos, said Jaleel Dennie, Defensive Back for Edmonton’s Eastglen Blue Devils.” Now that I have experienced what it is like to play and work like a champion, I will definitely never stop until I have live my new dreams. Once again Nissan, thanks for me giving me the opportunity to play the greatest sport I have grown to love, football.”

Eastglen and Sir John A Macdonald were not the only high schools to benefit from the inaugural program though. Building on seven years of partnership with the CFL, the Nissan “Back in the Game” program identified and supported nearly 1,000 students at 21 high schools in 18 cities across the country. More than 55 Nissan dealerships and nine CFL teams participated with new uniforms, helmets, masks, shoulder pads, cleats, pants, game balls, five-man blocking sleds and CFL player appearances just a few things provided to the teams involved.

“It is so important for young people to be part of a team and feel that they belong,” said Christian Meunier, President, Nissan Canada. “Nissan’s global culture is one of acceptance and diversity. We believe in teams working together to reach a common goal and we are driven to improve the communities we live and work in. This program is about giving young Canadians a chance to put on a uniform and work together – to be proud of each other – and it has been a real pleasure to help provide that for these students this year.”

For the teams in the program, winning on the scoreboard will always be the ultimate goal, but it is not how a successful season is defined. Teamwork, cooperation, hard work and friendship are just some of the benefits that coaches, staff and communities are seeing in these students.

“Nissan’s Back in the Game program has been an absolute life-changing experience for every player on our team as well everyone around them, myself included,” said Jeff Kott, coach, Sir John A. Macdonald. “The equipment, uniforms and the Grey Cup trip have all been incredible, but giving these kids the support and opportunity to work together and be proud of something has made incredible changes in every single one of them.”

To enable all Canadians to follow the journey, Sir John A Macdonald and Eastglen were selected to be featured in webisodes that tell the stories of their trials, tribulations and triumphs over the course of their 2014 football season. These webisodes can be viewed at BackInTheGame.ca, including the full 30-minute Nissan Back in the Game documentary that aired November 29 on TSN.

Throughout the season, the CFL and many of its teams also made significant contributions, including donations of training equipment and special player appearances to help train and motivate this next generation of Canadian football.

“The CFL is committed to helping grow the game of football in Canada and with the support of partners like Nissan and programs like Back in the Game, we can support more communities and get more kids working and playing as a team in a sport they love,” said Mark Cohon, Commissioner, Canadian Football League.