The iconic sports car is expected to be the marque’s final ICE-powered model
The Porsche 911 could stand on its own by the end of the decade.
The German sports car maker is moving forward with plans to electrify its line-up with an eye on EVs making up 80 percent of its sales by 2030, according to Reuters. The exception will be its most iconic model, though, which the brand expects to be powered by an internal-combustion engine (ICE) for years to come.
It’s been clear since the release of Taycan in 2019 that Porsche is committed to EVs. Battery-powered versions of the Macan and 718 are expected to debut over the next two years, with a fully electric Cayenne possibly following shortly after. Until now, the expectation has been that it was only a matter of time until Porsche released a 911 with an electric power train. But according to Karl Dums, Porsche’s e-fuels team leader, that may no longer be an inevitability—at least for the time being.
“Our strategy in the first place is switching to electric mobility and . . . we will produce the 911 as long as possible with a combustion engine,” Dums told the news agency.
It makes sense that Porsche would want to keep building the ICE-powered 911. The sports car is the brand’s defining model after all, with over 1,000,000 examples having rolled off the line since 1964. The 911 also accounted for 13 percent of the automaker’s sales in 2022, suggesting the company could continue to release it with a traditional combustion engine and still hit its EV sales target.
Although the marque had not previously said the 911 would be its final ICE-powered model, there have been hints that this could be coming. Porsche is one of the few major automakers that has invested significantly in e-fuels, specifically the Chilean energy company HIF Global. The automaker has also pushed for the EU to allow sales of vehicles that use e-fuel past 2035, which is when its strict gas and diesel vehicle ban is supposed to take effect.
While the 911 will retain its internal-combustion engine for the foreseeable future, an electrified version is on the way. Around the turn of the year, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume confirmed that the company is working on a “very sporty” hybrid variant. It’s unclear when that performance-oriented variant will arrive, but it’s coming.
