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NEWS
Porsche still pondering 911 hybrid
Petrol-electric hybrid drive not for Porsche 911 until at least 2018Porsche’s iconic 911 sports car won’t be joining the headlong rush towards hybrid power for at least another five years, and even then the next-generation ‘992-series’ due in 2018 may not come with a petrol-electric drive system.
While the German performance car brand already offers plug-in hybrid versions of its Panamera limousine and, next year, the Cayenne SUV, it says it continues to debate the merits of petrol-electric drive for its trademark model line.
“It’s not decided yet,” said Dr Erhard Mossle, program manager of the all-wheel drive 911 model family at the global launch of the new 911 Turbo in Germany this week.
“We have to meet the CO2 [emissions] requirements in various countries. We’re looking at every possibility.”
Dr Mossle said packaging a hybrid drive system in large vehicles like the Panamera and Cayenne was relatively easy – but not in the more compact 911.
“There’s plenty of room in the Panamera for hybrid because it’s a big car, but show me where there is room in a 911. It’s very difficult to package,” he said, before ruling out hybrid power for the current 911.
History shows Porsche upgrades the 911 from the ground up every two generations, but Dr Mossle said the Stuttgart car-maker would need to modify the new 991-series platform earlier than anticipated if it decided to fit hybrid power to the next-generation 911 due around 2018.
“I think for the next generation [of 911] we have to discuss this,” he said. “We’ll have to change the platform if necessary. We discussed it [hybrid] for 991, but it wasn’t a solution that satisfied.”
Dr Mossle said a flywheel hybrid system offering a ‘push-to-pass’ performance boost like that seen in the GT3 race car was not feasible for the road-going 911 because it occupies as much space as the entire front passenger seat.
He did not rule out super-capacitor technology being introduced by some manufacturers, but the most likely hybrid system for the 911 is an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery that’s charged by a generator and plug-in recharging capability, as in the upcoming Panamera S E-Hybrid.
But the 911 Turbo chief engineer said maintaining the sporting character of Porsche’s most famous model was central to any powertrain decision.
“With hybrid we have to increase both performance and emotion. Every solution must create a real 911 and that is the real task. It’s easy to have a car like this [the 911 Turbo] than make a hybrid version.”
Dr Mossle said that Porsche over-achieved its efficiency target of 10.0L/100km for the new 911 Turbo, which consumed just 9.7L/100km – despite the ability of the top-shelf Turbo S to hit 100km/h in a new low of just 3.1 seconds.
“Compared to all of our rivals it’s very efficient,” he points out.
While the current 911 platform is not ‘package-protected’ for hybrid, it is designed to accommodate force-fed engines other than the Turbo flagship’s twin-turbo 3.8-litre flat six.
However, Dr Mossle again ruled out the possibility of a 911 with a four-cylinder boxer engine – a 2.5-litre turbocharged example of which is expected to debut with the midlife facelift of the third-generation Boxster and second-generation Cayman in 2016.
Before then, turbocharged inline 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines from parent company Volkswagen will power Porsche’s new volume-seller, the mid-size Macan SUV due for release in Australia by mid-2014.
Quizzed about the direction of the next-generation 911 Turbo, Dr Mossle said future versions of the fastest 911 could come with “not three turbos but four – a low-pressure and a high-pressure compressor for each cylinder bank”.
Coupe and cabriolet versions of the new Turbo and Turbo S will be launched together Down Under by December, followed in January by the GT3. The next additions for the new 911 model family (first seen here in February last year) will be the as-yet-unseen GT3, GT2 and Targa – all due next year.
Like the new Turbo, the GT2 and GT3 are expected to ditch Porsche’s world-first seven-speed manual transmission fitted to mainstream 911s.
Manual cars account for less than seven per cent of 911 Turbo sales globally, which Dr Mossle said made dumping the manual version “an easy decision”. Discontinued in 2012, the previous 997-series Turbo accounted for up to a quarter of all 911 sales in Australia.
What’s coming from Porsche:
Panamera facelift – September
Panamera S E-Hybrid, GTS – November
911 50th Anniversary – late 2013
911 Turbo and Turbo S – December 2013
911 GT3 – January 2014
Macan – mid-2014
Panamera S Diesel – mid-2014
911 GT2 and Targa – late 2014
Cayenne facelift, S E-Hybrid, twin-turbo V6 S and 200kW diesel V6 – late 2014
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Written byMarton Pettendy
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