Porsche has confirmed that its first road-going 911 hybrid has completed testing and is ready for mass production.
To be revealed on 28 May, the 911 hybrid will usher in the facelifted 992.2 generation of Porsche 911. The current 992 model arrived back in 2018, and even then it was understood Porsche had designed the car with space for batteries and a gearbox, ready to handle a hybrid drivetrain.
Now, having already expanded the 992 family to include everything from the paired-back 911 T and track-ready GT3 RS, to the off-roading 911 Dakar and the bombastic Turbo S, it’s now finally time for Porsche’s favourite child to go hybrid.
But instead of slotting in a battery and an electric motor to solely improve efficiency, Porsche says the hybrid system of the 992.2-generation 911 will make the car “even more dynamic”. Porsche is also keen to say how, in testing, the new model has lapped the fearsome Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit almost nine seconds quicker than its predecessor, posting a time of 7:16.934.
That’s about on par with the current generation of 911 Turbo S, but the company is being vague about exactly what it’s comparing the hybrid to. It merely said the hybrid time is “8.7 seconds faster than the corresponding version of the predecessor model,” so we’ll leave you to read between the lines.
Porsche test driver Jörg Bergmeister, who set the lap time, said: “The new 911 has become considerably faster on the track. We have more grip, significantly more power, and the spontaneous response of the performance hybrid is a great advantage.”
Porsche says it has covered more than five million kilometres (3.1m miles) while testing the new 911. As is now common across the automotive industry, the 911 hybrid has been tested in all manner of environments, from the scorching deserts of Dubai to the sub-zero temperature of the Arctic.
Referring to the car’s new battery-powered tech, Frank Moser, vice president of Porsche’s 911 and 718 model lines, said: “This innovative performance hybrid makes the 911 even more dynamic”.
Although the exterior styling is unlikely to change much at all – this is a 911, remember, minimal upgrades have been the recipe for decades now – it isn’t clear how the 911’s hybrid system will work. It’ll include a battery and a motor (or motors), of course, but we don’t yet know how big the battery is or how it sends its power to the wheels. Will it borrow tech from Porsche’s Formula E efforts, or should we expect a system closer to that of its Le Mans Hypercar racers? We’ll find out in just a couple of weeks.
