Porsche has given its strongest hint yet that the iconic Porsche 911 could one day be electric – and a lot smaller than today’s benchmark sports car.
Porsche design chief Michael Mauer told carsales the company has imagined a future 911 without the familiar clatter of a horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine that has forever been at the heart of one of the most famous nameplates in the sports car world.
Speaking to carsales at the global debut of the all-electric Porsche Macan late last month, Mauer revealed that the company had considered all possibilities for the 911 – while reinforcing that there were no concrete plans for an EV version.
“It would not be very honest to say we are not thinking about this [a 911 without an internal combustion engine],” said Mauer in Singapore.
Sixty years after the first 911 was launched back in 1964, Mauer said that “Porsche will be the last car with a steering wheel” and reiterated there were no plans to switch the 911 to electrification.
“I think the 911 – with all this combination of electrical engines, hybrid, we still have pretty long for combustion engines.”
But at the same time, he confirmed that Porsche’s design department had imagined a future iteration of the 911 powered by electric motors and batteries.
Mauer’s reasoning is that change is inevitable – one day.
Indeed, in addition to the Taycan, Porsche is expected to release five EVs within the next five years or so, including this year’s Macan, the next Cayenne, an all-new flagship electric SUV, the next-generation 718 Boxster and Cayman and the next Porsche hypercar, previewed as the Mission X concept (pictured).
So a range of all-electric Porsche sports cars are already under way, even if a battery-only 911 would be a far bigger leap for enthusiasts.
In the same way that the 911 has undergone controversial moves in the past – switching to water-cooled engines and adopting electric power steering, for example – Mauer says there’s no point ignoring what some believe is inevitable, even if it is decades in the future.
“One day there will be as well a change of technology,” he said.
And Mauer added that any switch in tech would allow Porsche to rethink the dimensions of the 911, which have grown with every generation to the point where some believe it is now too big.
“As a design department I think it’s very smart to think already today about the possibilities and what we would like to change then in terms of proportion and styling – but that’s really pretty far in the future, he said.
Mauer confirmed that the 911 has stopped its growth spurt. When asked if the current 992-generation car is the biggest the 911 will ever be, he answered by saying that “my statement from the design side is: this is the limit [size-wise].”
That’s partly due to the stretch in the wheelbase, which he says challenges the iconic 911 proportions.
“The longer the car becomes, the more wheelbase you have, it becomes more and more complicated to have this sloping line [flyline]… you have to lift the line and you lose one of the feature design elements of the 911.”
But there’s also some old-school simplicity in Mauer’s thinking.
“I think as well that a sports car should be maximum compact,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, the much-loved 2+2 seating configuration isn’t going anywhere in a hurry, with Mauer saying it “is really one of the characterising elements of the 911”.
“It’s a unique combination and I’m deeply convinced we should keep this.”
But fitting batteries and electric motors allows designers to rethink the layout of the car, even if it’s clear the classic proportions and shape would remain in any futuristic electrified 911 world.
In referencing the low centre of gravity that a heavy battery pack typically gives an EV, Mauer suggested the electrification shift could help embrace more of the early 911 character.
“One day in the future when maybe there is no combustion engine any more and with another technology is that then helping us to go even maybe one step back to the original characteristic of the 911 or is it more challenging?”
All of which suggests the design team has put a fair bit of thought into an electric 911.
But, of course, the 911 has plenty of revs and petrol ahead of it. While Porsche has confirmed it is working on hybrid variants for the 992.2 update due in 2025, longer term the company is working on synthetic fuels that would allow the 911 to retain its ICE character but be close to neutral in terms of its CO2 carbon footprint.
While an internal combustion engine is inherently inefficient, there’s every chance the driving pleasure it delivers would mean those who love the 911 would be happy to take any efficiency penalty if it ticked the appropriate environmental boxes.