Porsche confirmed this week that the next 718 Boxster and Cayman would be reborn as pure EVs for 2025, but the 911 is taking a much slower route to electrification. A fully-electric 911 isn’t expected before 2030, but to help the iconic two-plus-two stay relevant Porsche is working on hybrid versions that will appear by the second half of the decade. Porsche uses yellow circular stickers in the front and rear windshields of its cars to tell emergency crews that the cars are hybrid-powered and so far we’ve seen both Turbo and Carrera prototypes wearing the little tell-tales. The narrower arches and smaller flip-up spoiler worn by the car in these latest images from the Nurburgring tells us this is a regular 911.
You can ignore the funny boggle-eye lamps
bolted to the side of the disguised front bumper, but the revised air intakes
and grille vanes will be key to helping you tell the 2024 model from the
current 992 released in late 2018. Expect similar bumper- and lamp-related
tweaks at the rear, too. hough the front bumper design suggests this car is a
humble Carrera or Carrera S, the rear license plate has moved from the lower
section of the bumper where it sits on the base cars, to mid-bumper level,
where you’ll find it on the current GTS. And the two tailpipes have moved to
the center giving the rear of the car a more aggressive look.
We can’t see the interior in these latest
shots, but can be certain that the 911 will get a slick full-width digital
gauge cluster like the one in the Taycan EV that will give driver’s more leeway
when it comes to configuring what info is shown, and where.
Though we know Porsche will offer
hybrid-assisted flat-six engines in its next 911, details are sketchy on the
exact powertrain spec. We do know that the first electrified 911s won’t be
PHEVs but self-charging hybrids. But as to where Porsche will package the
battery, what drive- and transmission choices hybrid buyers will get, and how
big the combustion engine will be, the company is playing its cards close to
its chest.
Currently, only the GT3 and GTR RS
versions of the 911 uses naturally aspirated engines, every other model getting
some kind of turbocharged six. But rumors from Germany suggest non-GT cars
might get 4.0-liter naturally aspirated power, perhaps from the Cayman GT4,
which (unlike its GT4 RS brother) uses an engine unrelated to the one in the
GT3.