Porsche Promises The 911 Won't Use This Popular Green Vehicle Tech

Porsche has danced a tight line with the current 992.2 generation of the 911—modernizing the car without breaking the formula that’s kept it relevant for six decades.

The latest hybrid-assisted 911s are among the fastest Porsche 911s ever built by Stuttgart, but simple hybridization is about as far down the Green Vehicle path as Porsche plans to allow the iconic sports car to wander for now.

Frank Moser, the executive in charge of the 911 and 718 product lines, said Porsche has no intention of reshaping or enlarging the 911 to accommodate a plug-in hybrid system. Unlike some of its rivals, the 911's looks are too central to the car’s identity to start carving it up for a larger battery pack and on-board charging hardware.

"I do not like the idea of a plug-in hybrid for a 911," Moser told Australia's Drive. "When we decided to make a performance hybrid, there was a discussion [about an electric-only driving range for the 911]. The 911 has a very complex package. We have the iconic design of the car… it should not be bigger."

In order to accommodate a plug-in setup within the complex rear-engined sports car, Porsche would need to find space to accommodate a larger battery, motor, generator, enlarged cooling system, and a charging system to support driving on electric power alone. That pretty much guarantees having to distort the overall proportions that define the 911.

If you've ever spent any time working on a modern, water-cooled Porsche 911, you'll know powertrain space is already at an extreme premium. I stopped turning wrenches on street-driven Porsches before the T-hybrids reached roads, so I don't have firsthand knowledge of how jammed up the 992.2 cars are—but just looking at those graphics is enough to make me miss the upside-down, blind, one-handed life of a small-craft marine mechanic.

"The discussion was, if you want to drive fully electrically—even for only three or four kilometres—you'll need a bigger battery… [then] you need to change the package of the car."

Porsche’s current T-hybrid system works because the electrical components were designed to fit within the car's existing architecture. The 400-volt battery, for example, is physically the same size as the outgoing 12-volt unit, allowing it to live in the same cavity in the nose. That constraint shaped the entire system.

"We don't want to change the package of the car, we don't want to change the weight distribution of the car, therefore, we decided on the performance hybrid, and it was not easy to bring all the electric stuff in the package."

Of course, if battery tech changes meaningfully—smaller cells with greater density, reduced cooling needs, or lightweight axial-flux motors—Porsche is willing to have the conversation. "If the batteries are going to be, or the cells are going to be, more efficient, or the batteries are going to be smaller, that's a completely new game, and we can think, 'What's going to happen now?'"

"But as long as we need to change the package of the car, make it bigger, no [there will not be a 911 PHEV]."

The 992.2 911 Turbo S makes 701 horsepower from a combination of turbocharged flat-six and electric assist, placing it well beyond any previous production 911.

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