In a few years, Porsche will be unleashing its first fully electric car with the long-awaited production version of the Mission E Concept sedan to take on Tesla. Due to arrive in 2020, the Mission E will be positioned as a Model S rival. But will we ever see an all-electric Porsche 911 sports car? While the next generation 911 will reportedly embrace electrification, and spawn a plug-in hybrid variant, we won’t be seeing a fully electric 911 for at least a decade according to a report by Autocar.
“With the 911, for the next 10 to 15 years, we will still have a combustion engine,” Porsche CEO Oliver Blume told the publication. “We have combustion engines, then plug-ins as intermediaries, then full EV later on. The future concept of 911 will have plug-in built in, but it’s not decided yet if we offer it: 911 is a core business and we need it to be a pure sports car. When customers want it to be electric, we can be ready.” In the meantime, you can expect to see a lot more plug-in hybrid Porsches as the automaker aims to capitalize on the demand. “We have very good feedback on Panamera plug-in. We have 700hp, eight cylinders: the feedback and sales are good and much better than expected."
"It shows we’re in the right direction to offer very sporty and high-performing Porsches.” Porsche has also won Le Mans three times in a row with plug-in hybrids, so it already has an established reputation for producing electrified powertrains for high-performance cars. With Tesla setting a new performance benchmark with the new Tesla Roadster, automakers will inevitably start to embrace electrification sooner rather than later to compete. According to a report by Bloomberg, a hybrid 911 is coming according to “people familiar with the matter,” which will act as a range-topper just like the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid in the Panamera range.
The next-gen 911 will reportedly be unveiled towards the end of 2018, so the hybrid variant could be introduced a few years into its lifecycle. Bloomberg’s source also claims that Porsche is targeting an electric range of 40 miles on a single charge and is working to make the weight of the battery as light as possible. Potentially, the hybrid 911 could be the most potent Porsche yet.
