It took some time but Tesla demonstrated all-electric vehicles are now not just emissions-free; they are also equal or better in all aspects to their rivals using combustion engines.

Porsche is no stranger to electrification of its vehicles, though it hasn’t gone all-electric yet. With the Cayenne and Panamera being offered as hybrids, a pure EV version of either, or both, isn’t far down the road.

The 911, on the other hand, is a different proposition. “The challenge in a sports car is weight”, Porsche’s director of boxer engines, Thomas Wasserbach, told Car Advice. “Naturally we want high electric power, but we don’t want many batteries because of the high weight. So, at the moment we are thinking about what could be the next step to hybrid. In Le Mans with the 919, it has lightweight battery system but it’s too expensive, so we have to work around it and get these requirements to the 911.”

The current platform is not designed to accommodate such features, thus a hybrid 911 will reportedly be launched at some point in the next generation’s life cycle, which should give Porsche some time to figure out a solution for the weight vs price equation.

Pairing the flat-six with batteries and electric motors is one thing – but ditching it altogether is not going to happen, said Wasserbach. “

“We think a 911 needs a flat six engine, a full electric variant, we do not see it at the moment. If the regulations some time say no way [to internal combustion engines] then… but we want to go as long as we can with a flat six engine. It’s typical for this model, it has a long history and we think our clients want this.”

You bet they do. They have tolerated the water-cooling, got along with the switch from hydraulic to electric steering, made some noise about the GT3 being PDK-only and still trying to figure out whether turbocharging has tainted the 911 or not. Losing the flat-six hang out at the back is unthinkable, it wouldn’t be a proper 911! Then again, the same applied to all of the former until, and sometimes even after, they were introduced…

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