Porsche will decide on whether to stop offering diesel powertrains at the end of the decade according to CEO Oliver Blume, making it the first time a German car maker speaks publicly about ditching diesel engines.
After all, Group VW’s Dieselgate emissions scandal has affected Porsche as well, which now is considering their options.
“Of course we are looking into this issue,” CEO Blume said in an interview with Reuters. “We have not made a decision on it.”
Blume also said that Porsche would offer a mix of combustion engines, plug-in hybrids and purely electric models over the next 10 to 15 years and would decide by the end of the decade whether to continue offering diesel engines or not.
The next-generation Cayenne, which is expected to be launched in September, will still offer a diesel powertrain as confirmed by Blume, just like the Panamera does. “For the generations that will follow there are different scenarios,” he said.
Sources indicate that Porsche might even back out of diesel altogether. But the company is still relying on diesel-powered models, which account for around 15 percent of its global sales, to help it bring down its CO2 emissions.
Blume is expecting all-electric models to account for a quarter of Porsche’s sales by 2025, give or take 5 to 10 percentage points. Blume also confirmed that the company is working together with Audi for a new shared EV-specific platform code-named PPE, which will underpin the Mission E that’s expected by 2019.
Porsche’s boss also said that if there’s enough demand, the company may spawn another all-electric model off the Mission E’s platform. “We expect the metropolises in China and Asia will switch to pure electric mobility very fast,” the CEO said. “I believe there will be few pure combustion engines to be seen in the large cities there in five years time. The development in rural areas will, however, proceed much more slowly.”
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