This Porsche battery technology is at least five years away though
Well, we were all wondering when it would happen anyway and now it seems like we have an answer. Electrification is about to catch up with even hypercars now and it looks like Porsche will be the first brand to do this as the brand is working with a partner to develop new battery cells that will go into its next hypercar.
So now we do have confirmation that Porsche is working on electrifying its next hypercar but when can we expect this? Well, according to Michael Steiner, the company’s head of research and development, the technology is still years away from being ready, more specifically, at least five years away.
Moreover, Michael Steiner, Porsche head of research and development, stated, “We are in the middle of developing our own [next-gen battery] cell. With [our subsidiary] company, Cellforce Group, we have samples [of such batteries] in the same size cells we use for the existing Taycan. So it’s not just a research thing, it’s real.”
Steiner also said that Porsche expects to know what these cells will be capable of in the context of a production vehicle within the next two years. The brand will then have to develop the technology further to get it ready to go into the highest-performance variants of its existing models.
Steiner added, “And when we are good enough in terms of volumetric energy density – really important for supercars – then there might be a chance to show what could be done on the road with, let me say, close to racing [performance], so I have [a car like that] in mind, we have that in mind, but we need some additional improvement [on the tech side] from our point of view that makes sense.”
On top of that, Porsche has already stated that it would have a follow up to its 918 Spyder hypercar by 2025, Steiner said that the company has yet to start development for such a car. It should also be noted that it would take two to three years on top of the time taken to develop the batteries before a car like that could be fully unveiled.
Although it is clear that the upcoming Porsche hypercar will be battery powered, Steiner did not confirm if the car will be fully electric, or if it will add an engine to make it a hybrid, similar to the 963 racecar that is going to Le Mans this summer. It seems more likely that it will be all-electric but take a longer time to be revealed.
In short, despite Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume, confirming that the automaker has every intention of making a follow up to the 918 Spyder, and that the model would showcase “cutting edge” technology with a timeline set for around 2025, it seems that the real timeline is closer to 2027.
We got all this from Carscoops and their full article is linked here. Thank you Carscoops for the information and images.
