If you’ve been waiting to see if Porsche will make a hybrid version of their sports cars, don’t hold your breath. According to CEO Michael Macht, Porsche will not build hybrid versions of the 911 and Boxster.
Although the company has announced that it will make a hybrid version of the new Cayenne, Macht rejected the idea of giving its sports cars a petrol-electric powertrain.
“It’s technically possible but it’s not part of the plan. It also adds weight,” he said. “We want brake regeneraton and stop-start for our sports cars, but not hybrid. They’re not driven in the city, where you get most of the advantages [of a hybrid].”
Macht also confirmed that Porsche was working on an all-electric sports car but wouldn’t put it into production unless it could reach the performance levels of a petrol model.
“There are some efforts to make a pure electric supercar,” he said, “but if Porsche is going to do that it must have the same performance and the same range as now. We want to make cars you can drive every day.”
He added that Porsche doesn’t think the performance and safety of lithium ion batteries is yet good enough to use them in an electric car or a hybrid.
