918 Spyder

Make
Porsche
Segment
Compact

There's an interesting philosophy to Porsche's method of advancing its cars. Some changes are ones that enthusiasts champion, such as the decision to build the 911 R and reinstate the manual into a car with the capacity of the GT3 RS. On the other hand, Porsche has also revealed it's on the verge of releasing hybrid or even fully electric versions of its Holy Grail, the 911. Fortunately, information uncovered by Motoring seems to suggest that we still have some time before that tragedy occurs.

Michael Steiner, Porsche's development head, said that while the automaker has the capability to migrate technology from the 918 Spyder over to the 911 whenever it wants to, it won't happen anytime soon. "There is no decision to do this on short notice, but we have this constantly on our radar," said Steiner. Impeding that decision is the fact that as of now, all of Porsche's hands are on deck for the Mission E's development. Given that the Mission E platform will become both a car and a parts bin for Porsche's future models, it's imperative that the automaker gets it right. Porsche's parent company Volkswagen is currently limiting funds to the point that it had two of its high-end brands skip auto shows.

This means that the money well is a bit dry, making it tough for Porsche to ask for funding. Even though it sounds simple for the German automaker to simply migrate its existing technology, the fact is that the 911 is such a radically different car means that engineers would have to find new solutions to get around the design hurdles of building a hybrid system into a rear-engine car. Still, with European emissions regulations getting clamped down in 2020, it's easy to imagine Porsche turning its focus to hybrids after turbocharging no longer does the trick. Whenever that time comes, Steiner said that Stuttgart is ready. "We would be able to act within a reasonable time and we would be prepared for it (a 911 Hybrid)," said Steiner.