The 918 Successor?
Porsche was going to build an all-electric hypercar, but those plans got scrapped at one point, according to The Supercar Blog. Now, there’s new information from Autocar that suggests the company will build a 918 successor, a hypercar with a hybrid powertrain. That hybrid powertrain could be one that was originally intended for use in F1 racing.
Why go with a hybrid powertrain instead of a fully electric? It seems that many companies are focusing on electric cars right now, especially hypercar companies. To answer that, you need to look at solid-state battery technology. When solid-state battery tech is fully developed, it’ll greatly improve electric cars. Designers and engineers will be able to greatly reduce the weight of a battery, making the possibility of lightweight fully electric sports cars.
Porsche, according to Autocar, realized that solid-state battery technology was still a longer way off than the company wanted, and this means that it would rather use a hybrid powertrain rather than the current fully electric battery technology that’s available. This would make its next hypercar a 918 successor.
There’s a fair amount of speculation as to what the final version of the powertrain will be. It started off as a 2.0-liter and then went to a 1.6-liter. There’s a chance that the end result will be a 1.6-liter V6 engine that is mated to an electric motor and battery setup developed by Rimac. Porsche owns a significant portion of Rimac, so this would make sense.
