For years, the question has sat in the background of every Porsche conversation. As the brand pushes further into electrification with the Taycan, the Macan EV, and now the Cayenne, the 911 was always the one people wondered about. This week, Porsche put the question to rest.
CEO Michael Leiters confirmed at an event hosted by the German publication Auto, Motor und Sport that there are no plans to build a fully electric 911. The comments were first reported by the news agency dpa and later picked up by Reuters. Porsche has never officially announced an EV version of the car, but speculation has followed the model for years, particularly since the brand introduced hybrid power into the lineup.
That hybrid system is currently the furthest Porsche is willing to push things. The 911 GTS and Turbo S both pair a boxer six-cylinder engine with the company’s T-Hybrid setup, and based on Leiters’ comments, that combination is staying as the ceiling rather than a stepping stone toward something fully electric.
The decision lines up with a broader shift happening across Porsche, and across the wider luxury car market. The Taycan, released in 2019 as one of the first EVs from a legacy sports car brand, has picked up plenty of praise and a handful of Nürburgring records along the way, but it hasn’t become the commercial success Porsche originally projected. That gap between expectation and reality has pushed Porsche, along with peers like Bentley and Rolls-Royce, to recognise that demand for fully electric versions of their most iconic models isn’t what it was assumed to be a few years ago.
There’s evidence of that recalibration elsewhere in the business. Porsche reportedly considered scrapping the next generation all-electric 718, and the brand is currently stockpiling petrol-powered Macans before that model is phased out later this year.
None of this means Porsche is stepping away from EVs altogether. The Taycan and Macan EV remain in the range, an all-electric Cayenne is already on sale, and the long-delayed battery-powered 718 is still expected to land sometime next year. The approach going forward looks more selective than sweeping, with the 911 carved out entirely.
For a car that has run on some version of an internal combustion engine since 1963, that’s not a small thing to confirm out loud.