The Next Porsche 911 Turbo Will Be A Hybrid

The Porsche 911 lineup is evolving. This year, we saw the first ever production hybrid version of the rear-engined sports car, the 992.2 Carrera GTS, and next year, the frighteningly quick Turbo version will follow, Porsche has confirmed.

The news, says Auto Express, came from Porsche deputy chairman Lutz Meschke during a call to investors. The mid-life update for the Turbo will arrive in the second half of 2025, and feature a battery cell from German company Varta. While Meschke didn’t detail how the hybrid system will be integrated, Varta also produces the small battery cell used by the new GTS's 'T-Hybrid' system, so it’ll likely be a similar setup.

That, in the GTS, involves a small 1.9kWh battery pack that drives an electric motor integrated into the car’s gearbox, as well as powering the air-con and dynamic chassis control system.

Whether we’ll see any other dramatic changes, including to the Turbo’s 3.7-litre twin-turbocharged flat-six, remains to be seen, but we can comfortably expect that the car will remain four-wheel drive, and that there’ll be a power uplift on the 572bhp produced by the current 911 Turbo, and the 641bhp made by the Turbo S.

The updated Carrera S, meanwhile, which is due to arrive early next year, will remain a pure-petrol car for now, and these less powerful non-hybrid versions could well facilitate the return of the currently-absent manual gearbox.

Changes are also coming for the hardcore GT3, the facelifted version of which was revealed last week. For years, it’s been a bastion of naturally aspirated, analogue performance, but ever-tightening regulations mean that can’t last much longer.

Speaking to Autocar, Andreas Preuninger, the boss of Porsche’s GT department, said of the car’s 4.0-litre naturally aspirated flat-six: “I don’t think we can handle Euro 7 [emissions rules] without electrification or without turbos. [As it stands] we can sell this car for another two years, but it depends on the markets.”

Utilising the hybrid system from the GTS could be a way of keeping the GT3 naturally aspirated, but Preuninger reckons it doesn’t work for the GT3’s use case and would involve the installation of a much heavier gearbox. Turbocharging, on the other hand, would allow the car to remain much more analogue, but would undoubtedly dull its high-revving character.

At any rate, with the facelifted GT3 only just revealed, we’ll be waiting until the next full new generation of 911 to see what route the GT3 goes down.