The hybrid tradition at Porsche extends back to 1899 and the Lohner Porsche which is the world’s first vehicle to have a battery-powered electric drive as well as a combustion engine, which was designed and built by Ferdinand Porsche. In the current model line-up, the Panamera S E-Hybrid set standards worldwide as the first plug-in vehicle of the premium class. The Cayenne S E-Hybrid is now transferring this forward-looking technology to the premium SUV segment. Extraordinarily powerful hybrid technology has also already been implemented in a sports car, in a super sports car no less the 918 Spyder. This car serves as an example of technology transfer from motorsport to production cars. The most advanced form of hybrid drive technology is currently implemented in the 919 Hybrid, and it is also being studied for production vehicles.
Porsche has made it clear it thinks plug-in hybrid is the solution to meeting near-term CO2 emissions targets, and to that end will release its first plug-in 911 sports car based on the next-generation 911 supercar due by 2020 and using technology from 918.