After years of rumors and speculations, the Porsche 911 Hybrid is officially happening. Not only that, but it won’t be long before the peeps from Zuffenhausen will unveil the electrified sports car. In the first meeting with the Italian press (including Motor1.com Italy) in 2022, local CEO Pietro Innocenti was asked about the prospects of a purely electric 911. He said it’s inevitable and will arrive sooner or later, before adding the hybrid variant is set to break cover “soon.”
How soon is “soon”? It’s unclear, but our money is on a world premiere happening before the end of 2022, possibly based on the facelifted 911. The electrified model won’t be a plug-in hybrid as owners will not have to recharge the battery. Instead, the “greener” rear-engined German machine will borrow tech from the hugely successful 919 Hybrid endurance race car.
Based on a report from Auto Motor und Sport, the Porsche 911 Hybrid will allegedly have a total output of 700 horsepower by combining the iconic flat-six engine with an electric motor. Should the figure turn out to be accurate, it will become the most powerful road-going 911 in history. The engineers are expected to install the battery pack behind the seats and in front of the combustion engine. Regenerative braking will reroute energy that would otherwise be lost during braking back into the battery.
Needless to say, the Porsche 911 Hybrid will be heavier than the pure gasoline model and AMS says it will add a worrying 220 pounds (100 kilograms). The electric motor is said to come from the company’s upcoming LMDh prototype where the Bosch-developed unit rated at 67 hp (50 kW) draws its juice from a battery provided by Williams Advanced Engineering.
As if that horsepower figure wasn’t impressive enough, torque will reportedly climb all the way up to 1,000 Newton-meters (738 pound-feet). That should translate into extraordinary performance off the line, but the added bulk could hamper the 911’s well-known sharp handling.
Source: Motor1.com Italy
