Porsche 911 hybrid confirmed, 718 hybrids to follow?

Porsche, shortly after revealing the 911 Turbo range, has confirmed that a ‘very powerful’ 911 hybrid based on the latest 992-gen model will be launched. This came from company boss Oliver Blume himself, who broke the news to Autocar.

There are no accompanying details on the technical side of things, but if the 911 hybrid is positioned as the most powerful 911 ever, then we’re talking about outputs that will possibly break past the 700-PS barrier, and perhaps close to or in excess of 1,000 Nm of torque. This may negate the effects of weight gain caused by the hybrid packaging – current hybrid developments are said to add about 100 kg to the 911.

When the 992-gen 911 was first launched, Porsche said the new platform is hybrid-ready, but it also expressed concerns regarding battery weight. Earlier this month, Porsche board member Michael Steiner told Top Gear that the additional weight of the battery is not something it’s satisfied with today, especially for a two-door, serious sports car like the 911.

Porsche even has working prototypes of the 911 hybrid, but sports car line director Frank-Steffen Walliser said electrifying the 911 is a difficult task due to the way the car is packaged. “We want to keep it as a 2+2 (seating configuration), we want to keep decent trunk space and we don’t want to destroy the shape of the 911,” he said. With the project now confirmed, one can only wait with bated breath.

As for the mid-engined 718 line-up, Blume said the company will decide this year if the Cayman and Boxster duo will be electrified. The current range-toppers are the Cayman GT4 and Boxster Spyder, both of which are powered by a 4.0 litre naturally-aspirated flat-six engine. It makes 420 PS at 7,600 rpm and 420 Nm of torque between 5,000 rpm and 6,800 rpm, with drive sent to the rear wheels exclusively via a six-speed manual transmission. They both do the 0-100 km/h acceleration in 4.4 seconds.

Last year, Blume said Porsche plans to launch electrified versions of the 718 models, even going as far as to say that full electric versions will be sold alongside those. “We have prototypes of the 718 running in electric now,” he said, although it’s unclear if the electrified 718 would be regular hybrids or plug-in hybrids.

Last but not least, the Macan will be reborn as a fully electric SUV, effectively making it Porsche’s second EV offering. It will be based on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture developed from that of the Taycan, and is on schedule for launch in 2022.

Porsche director of SUV, Julian Baumann said: “There are no real differences in the challenges of developing the Taycan and Macan. The current Macan is not so aerodynamic and we’re working hard on this. With the Taycan, we haven’t given anything up to get the aerodynamic performance and I’m confident it will be the same for the Macan. The 600-kg battery isn’t beneficial to dynamics, but the low centre of gravity is an advantage.”

The Macan EV will be all-wheel-drive, employing one motor for each axle, and the most powerful variant will potentially be capable of around 700 PS and over 1,000 Nm of torque. As with the Taycan naming convention, the two most powerful versions will bear the Turbo and Turbo S nameplates, with various power outputs below this level.

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