Porsche Confirms Electric Cayenne, High-End SUV, Hints at Hybrid 911

Porsche’s electric portfolio is expanding quickly. The German sports car builder today makes just the well-received Taycan sedan. But at its annual press conference discussing future plans, the automaker confirmed three electric SUVs are headed for production.

It also hinted at what purists might consider blasphemy. The iconic Porsche 911 won’t go electric, the company says. But a hybrid version may be coming.

Three Electric SUVS

“The all-electric Macan has reached the home straight and will be available to customers in 2024,” Porsche says.

The Macan is Porsche’s compact SUV. Today, it’s available with a turbocharged 4-cylinder or two different turbocharged 2.9-liter V6 engines. But an electric version has long been in the works, based on the same 800-volt architecture as the Taycan.

Porsche will follow it up with a battery-powered version of the midsize Cayenne SUV.

That model, the company says, “will underline Porsche’s goal of delivering more than 80 percent of its new vehicles as all-electric models in 2030.”

It won’t, however, be the top of the Porsche electric lineup. The company will “expand its product portfolio upwards with an all-electric SUV positioned above the Cayenne,” Porsche says. That model will be “designed to offer strong performance and automated driving functions with the typical Porsche flyline, along with a completely new experience inside the vehicle.”

The ultra-high-performance SUV class has seen intense competition in recent years, with the arrival of the Lamborghini Urus and Ferrari Purosangue. Porsche already competes in that field with the absurdly quick Cayenne Turbo GT. But the immediate power native to electric cars could introduce a new hyperspeed wrinkle to the fastest-SUV competition.

Hybrid 911 Possible

Porsche last year announced plans to go carbon neutral by 2030. But, at the time, Chairman Oliver Blume said, “The 911 is our icon, and we will continue to build it with combustion engines; that is very clear.”

He did hint that a hybrid version was possible, saying, “We will continue to think on electrification, like very sporty hybridization, for the 911.”

Those plans may be closer to bearing fruit. According to Autoblog, Blume told reporters this morning, “We decided that there will be some hybrid version for the 911 as well. We were able to test it in detail last year, and we are quite thrilled about the drivability and the handling on the car.”

The U.K.’s Autocar recently reported that Porsche was planning a “new GT2 RS Hybrid – a model that will be the most powerful and fastest-accelerating road-going variant of the iconic sports car yet.” It may use hybrid technology developed for the hybrid prototype that won its class at the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2015, 2016, and 2017.