Porsche has just released its annual report for 2020, and as usual, included all of the financial performance figures for the Covid-struck year. However, more interestingly (to us, at least!), the annual report also outlined the company’s electrification plans for the next decade.
“In 2020, a third of all Porsche vehicles delivered in Europe were fully or partially electric; worldwide it was 17%. In 2025, half of all new Porsche vehicles sold will have an electric motor; in 2030, more than 80% of the new vehicles will be electric,” the press release read.
We’re guessing that, based on context, that includes hybrid models in addition to fully-electric ones. But still, 80% is a very ambitious figure, and with the 911 being their bread-and-butter model, that should mean that we’ll be seeing an electric 911 very soon… right? Well, no.
In a media call interview ahead of its annual meeting, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume was quick to pour cold water on that idea, saying that the 911 will be the “last Porsche which is going for full electrification,” if it ever fully becomes fully electric, that is.
According to a report by Hotcars, Blume said in the interview: “The 911 is our icon. We will continue to build the 911 with a combustion engine. The concept of the 911 doesn’t allow a fully electric car because we have the engine in the rear. To put the weight of the battery in the rear, you wouldn’t be able to drive the car.
“For this decade, I’m very clear: the 911 will be a combustion-engined car. It’s too early to tell what will happen in the 2030s,” he added.
This seems to fall in line with what the company said previously, where it will be handing the mantle for its all-electric charge to an all-new model, i.e. the Taycan, instead of destroying the purity of its iconic 911 model, so to speak. But it’s interesting to hear that Blume thinks that for the 911 to become fully electric, the battery pack has to go to the back, where the engine currently sits.
We’d imagine that if they were to ever build an electric Porsche 911, it’ll feature the same skateboard battery layout as virtually every other EVs out there now – having the electric motor at the back sounds “traditional” enough to us. Anyway, we digress.
Blume says that a “very sporty” hybrid 911 will be coming soon, citing its learnings from the 919 LMP1 hybrid race car which took home the Le Mans win for three years in a row. As for the other models, we know that the Macan will soon become a fully-electric model; recent rumours suggest that the 718 duos might also become fully-electric models, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Porsche’s big push in electrification is part of its wider goal to become carbon-neutral throughout its entire value chain by 2030. Recently, the company also invested heavily in synthetic “e-fuels”, which the company says can make internal-combustion engines as clean as EVs.
