Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid 2499
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Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid 2508
Bruce Newton27 Jul 2017
NEWS

Hybrid 911 "the best ever", says Porsche

But that doesn’t mean it’s going to be built

A plug-in hybrid Porsche 911 would be “the best 911 ever”, but that still doesn’t guarantee it will be a commercial success with the iconic sports car’s passionate customer base.

And for that reason Porsche is still to make the decision on bringing a 911 hybrid to reality as part of the ‘992’ generation due to start rolling out in 2018.

“If we will bring a hybrid 911, it will also again be the best 911 ever,” declared Porsche technical communications manager, Hermann-Josef Stappen.

“But there are more things to thinks about… How many cars can we sell if we do it? Will our customers accept it?” he added.

“We are looking constantly at it [hybrid 911]. It’s not decided yet,” he revealed.

Stappen’s statements back up those given by Porsche engineering boss Michael Steiner to motoring.com.au last October confirming the 911 hybrid was on hold.

Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid 2508

But just this month authoritative UK magazine Autocar has reported the 911 hybrid is happening as part of the 992-series 911 line-up.

Stappen was speaking at the global launch of the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid in Canada overnight.

The petrol-electric five-door is the performance hero of the Panamera range and the first Porsche hybrid model to fill such a flagship role. Embracing petrol-electric hybrids not only aids performance, but also helps with emissions and potentially helps move the company away from turbo-diesels, which thanks to #Dieselgate have become a political burden.

This philosophy will spread to other ranges in the Porsche line-up, most likely led by the new-generation Cayenne SUV, which launches at the Frankfurt motor show in September and shares its drivetrains with the Panamera.

The thought of a hybrid sitting atop the 911 line-up and using electrification technology developed for the 918 Spyder and the forthcoming Mission E EV to be even faster than the awesome Turbo is almost mind-boggling.

To date the only 911 Hybrid made public by Porsche was the 911 GT3 R Hybrid raced in 2010. It used a flywheel-based energy recovery system not well suited to production cars but was menacingly quick.

Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid 2507

Stappen made it clear the rear-engined 911 production car was a unique and difficult case, even though its current 991 architecture has been ‘package protected’ for a plug-in hybrid powertrain. He said both size and weight of a conventional hybrid system, with its electric motor, battery pack and other ancillaries worked against its application in 911.

By way of example, the Turbo S E-Hybrid is about 300kg heavier than the Panamera Turbo.

“From the technological standpoint and from the concept standpoint it [911 hybrid] is prepared to be so, but there are still questions to be answered,” Stappen said.

“It’s the weight, so it’s more important for sports-cars.

“It’s also the package, so the classical 911 customer wants to have his four-seat capacity. So where [do we] put the batteries if not in the rear of the car in the package?”

While Porsche’s experiments with electrified sports cars include the above-mentioned racer and the limited-edition 918 Spyder hypercar released in 2013, Stappen hinted the mid-engined Boxster/Cayman platform was likely to be the first series-production sports car model to gain a plug-in hybrid.

Porsche 911 GT3 Hybrid 2502

“We showed with the research cars on the basis of the Boxster that the mid-engined layout is very good for electrification.

“There would only be minor changes to the platform to put in electric drive,” he said.

Crucially, Stappen said Porsche believes the actual hybrid technology itself would be accepted by most 911 fans in the same way water-cooling, electric-assist power steering and range-wide boxer engine turbocharging have been.

“If it [911] is performing in its segment as the top car you can use a hybrid or a combustion engine. Also I think it doesn’t matter as long as this car is performing as the customer wants.”

But he also stressed the issue spread beyond simply having the technology to build a super-fast 911 hybrid.

“Technologically I think it is easy,” he said.

“We have the hybrid high performance sports car with the 918 Spyder so you can use the components and the know-how to do this also with the 911. From a technological standpoint it would be a great car, but would our customers want to have their four-seat capacity instead of batteries?

“So I think it’s more these decision to make,” Stappen stated.

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