If you’re a Porsche fan then you probably just flinched as you read that headline. Porsche enthusiasts are known for their love of traditional engineering – and how can you blame them when Porsche’s output is so wonderful? – and the prospect of a battery being wedged in anywhere is somewhat upsetting.
After the announcement that all new 911s will be turbocharged, however, there is speculation that a hybrid, or even full electric, 911 might be in the pipeline. To investigate this, Australia’s CarAdvice asked Thomas Wasserbach (Porsche’s director of boxer engines) to give them the inside scoop. In summary, a hybrid 911 model isn’t going to appear any time soon.
Although they are in no rush to electrify the 911, they are in fact looking at creating a hybrid version for practical purposes. “[We are] checking viability for the future to get hybridisation of 911”, said Wasserbach. “It’s something we would look to do because in some cities you need it, so we have to look. The challenge is to get low weight, not too much weight in a sports car. Naturally we want high electric power but we don’t want much batteries because of the high weight.”
So a hybrid 911 may well emerge, but Wasserbach certainly doesn’t make it sound like it will be any time soon. What we can infer, however, is that whether or not a hybrid version does make it onto our roads, an all-electric car is highly unlikely. As Wasserbach himself commented: “We think a 911 needs a flat six engine, this [full electric variant] we do not see it at the moment.” Well, at least that’s one less thing to worry about.