Porsche 911 Hybrid Spotted Testing for First Time

Hybrid power is finally reaching Stuttgart’s flagship sports car. That’s a big deal.

byPeter Holderith|
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Porsche has created hybrid variants of many of its current products—and then there's the electric Taycan sedan. It may seem strange, then, that the company's flagship sports car, the 911, has yet to receive the hybrid treatment. Well, it seems like that's about to change. 

Per Autocar, the Stuttgart automaker was spotted at the Nurburgring testing a 911 Turbo with a special yellow sticker, which an addition mandated by the track for any hybrid vehicle being tested on its grounds. Precise details of this drivetrain are still unclear, but the addition of electric power to the 911 is significant no matter the exact specs. Electrification is all but certainly the future of Porsche's lineup.

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Porsche has previously said this latest generation 911 is all set to accept hybrid power. Speaking to Autocar in 2018, Porsche's then head of sports car development, August Achleitner, said, "We’ve taken the experience we gained with hybrid versions of the Cayenne and Panamera, as well as the 918 Spyder, and applied it to the new 911." He went further than that as well, saying, "In the future, this will allow us to offer [the 911] with pure-electric capability."

This new 911 being tested isn't a full EV, though. Videos of it have not yet been posted online, but spy shots Autocar

obtained show exhausts sticking out the back of the modified vehicle. Other changes besides the yellow hybrid-identifying sticker include a blacked-out rear windshield, likely to protect the new sensitive drivetrain from prying eyes.

The current 911 Turbo already makes 572 horsepower. One of Porsche's other vehicles, the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, gets an extra boost of around 130 hp thanks to its hybrid drivetrain. Since the quicker 911 Turbo S gets 640 horsepower, a hybrid version could theoretically surpass even that—we're talking a possible 700+ horsepower.

This is all speculation, though. Until Porsche releases official specs—expected around 2022, according to Top Gear Magazine—we'll just have to be happy with the occasional fly-by at the Nurburgring. 

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