Porsche says it doesn't have the technology to improve fuel efficiency

They look good. They go fast. They have some of the best automotive technology money can buy.

But according to Porsche's lobbyist, they just don't have the technological know-how to make their cars climate friendly.

“We just can’t get there technologically," Porsche's lobbyist John Cline told a Capitol Hill paper Thursday.

The automaker's streamlined Carrera can shoot from 0 to 60 miles an hour in under five seconds. It averages 18 miles per gallon in city driving and 26 miles per gallon on highways. The Boxster does 20 miles in the city and 29 in highway driving. (Porsche's Cayenne SUV does as badly as 11 miles per gallon in urban settings.)

But despite their lightning fast speed, the automaker's lobbyists say the company isn't prepared to raise average fuel economy to 40 miles per gallon, a measure being considered by the state of California, which aims to lead the country in automotive fuel efficiency.

"Porsche, for example, must go from an average fuel economy of 26.2 mpg to 41.4 mpg by 2016, according to one chart company lobbyists have shown administration officials," The Hill writes.

The company has spent $90,000 this year on fuel economy lobbying.

Porsche argues that California's proposed fuel economy standards unfairly target automakers that make a small number of luxury cars. Under the proposal, carmakers will need to improve their overall efficiency by about 10 percent a year. The carmaker claims that this approach unfairly penalizes companies that only make lightning fast cars, which inherently produce more carbon emissions than more pedestrian vehicles.

"General Motors can offset its Corvette, which gets poor fuel mileage, with a Malibu," the Hill notes. "Porsche can’t."

Jaguar LandRover, meanwhile, has also been campaigning against the new standards under similar pretenses. The company, which was purchased in 2008 by the Indian company Tata Motors, spent $20,000 on lobbying in the third quarter alone.

Porsche recently merged with Volkswagen AG, the company that makes cars under the same name.