Is it your dream to own an all electric Porsche 911 and rocket the highway without a single drop of fossil fuels?
Last November, Porsche let the air out of your tires. Porsche boss Oliver Blume told Porsche electric car enthusiasts to dream on. He laid it on the table: a 100% battery-powered 911 is a long way off — if ever.
“Let me be clear, our icon, the 911, will have a combustion engine for a long time to come,” Blume told Bloomberg. “The 911 is a concept of the car that is prepared for the combustion engine. It’s not useful to combine it with pure electric mobility. We believe in purpose-designed cars for electric mobility.”
A Sad Day for Electric Porsche Fans
We understand your disappointment. As Porsche technicians, we dream about Porsches all day long. We dream about owning a Porsche Taycan 4S at nearly $200,000 a pop, which on our car mechanic salaries would only take us about 100 years of “swear jar” savings to buy.
And yes, we’d love to own an electric Porsche 911 too. After all, you can own an electric VW. Technicians can dream, can’t they?
A Change in Plans
The news comes as a reversal from previous indications from the car company. Bloomberg reports:
“The news could signal a change of heart at the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker. At Bloomberg Pursuits’ The Year Ahead: Luxury conference last year, Klaus Zellmer, president and chief executive officer of the luxury automaker’s North American division, seemed to have indicated otherwise.
“The decision to keep the two-door sports car powered by internal combustion comes as an outlier to the company’s plan, according to Blume, that by 2025, half of all Porsche vehicles sold will be electrified-either fully battery electric or plug-in hybrid. It is also likely to hearten the legions of Porsche faithful who drive the 56-year-old model exactly because it retains the tactile urgency and grit of gas-fueled machines rather than the immediate but silent, gear-less power found in electric cars.”
Not only is the 911 the most easily recognized Porsche on the road, it’s also the most popular. We know this because 9 out 10 Porsches our technicians repair on any given day are 911.
Don’t Worry — Other Electric Porsches in the Works
Not that our Porsche technicians need to give up entirely on our dream to own an all-electric Porsche. It just probably won’t be a 911.
“I think for the future there is also space for very sporty pure electric sports cars to add to those [other] sports cars,” Blume told Bloomberg “There are big opportunities.”
Not that Porsche is shy about going electric or helping out the environment. It’s investing big time in electric vehicle technology and embracing sustainable fuels. Bloomberg reports:
“Porsche has committed to investing 15 billion euros ($17.7 billion) in electric mobility, sustainable production, and digitalization over the next five years, according to Blume. It is also scouting partners to develop synthetic ‘e-fuels’ using 100% renewable power sources to comply with increasingly stringent emissions regulations that would eventually prohibit internal combustion engines from the road altogether. That development would help sustain the 70% of Porsche cars made that are still on the road today-the vast majority of which gulp fossil fuels-as well as the millions that will remain in the next 10 to 15 years.”
“To stop combustion engines isn’t the right discussion,” Blume says. “We come from both sides [electric mobility and e-fuels] to reduce CO2.”
Porsche — a Beautiful Automobile We Love to Repair
As Porsche technicians, we take comfort in knowing that Porsche not only produces some of the finest European automobiles on the planet, but are willing to do whatever it takes to save our environment. Porsche are amazing cars. You keep driving them. Our technicians will keep repairing them.
