Porsche will never go completely electric

Tuesday, 7 July 2020

Is the Porsche Taycan Turbo S the ultimate EV? Let's take a closer look.

In a recent tech talk about the Taycan, of which Stuff sat in on, a Porsche spokesperson confirmed that Porsche will 'never’ go completely electric.

Mayk Wienkötter, spokesperson for the Taycan product line and E-Mobility for Porsche, said that while Porsche will offer electric and plug-in hybrid options for all of its product lines, the internal combustion engine will remain part of Porsche’s roadmap.

When asked if all Porsche’s will eventually be powered by electricity only, Wienkötter said that while it is technically possible, Porsche will not go down that route.

The Taycan is the first fully electric vehicle from Porsche. It won’t be the last but it also won’t completely take over the Porsche brand.

“We want to continue high-revving, highly emotional naturally aspirated and turbo engines that are ideally manual. While they will stay with us for a long time, they have to become more efficient. So we’re not giving up on this as it is still at the core of our brand.”

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Unfortunately, you can’t ‘overclock’ the Taycan. Everything is bespoke and thoroughly locked down.

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The 911 has been widely tipped to receive a hybrid variant. It might not get Taycan hardware but it’ll get Taycan know-how.

Wienkötter added that he hoped the manual transmission will stick around for a bit longer as well. Preaching to the choir there mate.

Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids will increase their presence throughout Porsche’s line-ups and “from 2030 onwards, there probably won’t be any vehicle model from Porsche without an electric variant.”

In terms of power output, Wienkötter confirmed that the Taycan won’t be able to be modded in similar ways to an internal combustion vehicle. That might sound obvious to some, but he went on to say that the software and hardware are so bespoke that the typical home tuner won’t be able to fiddle with a lower-spec Taycan and pushing it to Taycan Turbo S power levels. If you’re into computers, think of it as a processor that doesn’t respond well to overclocking.

“Technically, it would probably be possible but the parts and work required… it might be cheaper [and easier] to just go for the Turbo or Turbo S,” he said.

“It’s not just a little bit of software… it’s a completely different set of technologies.”

We’d imagine there are sizeable security systems in place too, just in case. At least that means there shouldn’t be any dodgy homebrew mechanical solutions driving around.

As for future models, we snuck in a question asking if Taycan will donate any of its hardware to future hybrid sports cars. Wienkötter paused for a while before saying that the hardware is not “plug and play.”

“The electric parts are smaller in scale on a hybrid [than a pure-electric vehicle] and so won’t work but the software experience will help the next generation of hybrids to improve range and become more efficient.”

So Taycan may not offer its electrical hardware to something like the rumoured hybrid 911 but there will be elements of the EV on the software side of things.

Oh, and that Turbo badge is here to stay. Despite the outcries of combustion anoraks around the world, Turbo doesn’t refer to the type of forced induction. Instead, Wienkötter said “Turbo” is now more of a performance sub-brand, “It indicates the car is at the pinnacle of the model line.”