Porsche aims for 80% electrified sales by 2030, but Oliver Blume says the 911 will not go fully electric

By 2030, Porsche expects 80% of its sales to be electrified. However, Oliver Blume, the Stuttgart-based manufacturer’s chief executive, has already reassured the brand’s most hard-line enthusiasts that the 911 will not be counted in that total.

Porsche’s 2030 electrification target - and why the 911 sits outside it

Blume describes the 911 as the German marque’s defining icon and says it will be the final model from the Zuffenhausen firm to become fully electric - if that ever happens at all.

Oliver Blume on the Porsche 911 and the limits of a fully electric layout

“We will continue to build the 911 with an internal combustion engine,” Blume said, quoted by CNBC. “The 911 concept does not allow a fully electric car because it has the engine at the rear. If you put all the battery weight at the rear, the car would be impossible to drive,” he added.

This is not the first time Blume has been unequivocal about the company’s most emblematic model. For instance, around five months ago, in comments to Bloomberg, he stated: “Let me be clear, our icon, the 911, will have a combustion engine for a long time. The 911 is a car concept designed for a combustion engine. It is not useful to combine it with purely electric mobility. We believe in cars designed specifically for electric mobility”.

Taking those remarks together with Porsche’s 2030 ambition, it is safe to say that, by then, the 911 will be a major contributor - perhaps even the sole contributor - to the 20% of Porsche models that will not be electrified.

What electrification looks like across Porsche - and what could still change for the 911

Even so, some form of electrification for the 911 in the future is not ruled out. Blume has suggested that knowledge gained from the company’s endurance racing programme - which dominated the Le Mans 24 Hours - could influence the 911’s future.

Electrification already accounts for a substantial share of sales at the Stuttgart brand. It is present in the Cayenne and Panamera via plug-in hybrid variants, and it is also embodied by the Taycan, Porsche’s first fully electric model.

Next, Porsche is set to introduce a Macan powered exclusively by electricity. It will debut the PPE platform (developed jointly with Audi). Electrified versions of the 718 Boxster and Cayman could also be on the way, although nothing has been confirmed yet. As Blume put it in an interview with Top Gear, there is “an opportunity to do them as an electric vehicle, but we are still in the conceptual phase. We have not decided yet”.

Returning to the 911, the answer to this “equation” - electrification or no electrification - may be closely tied to Porsche’s recent push into synthetic fuels. The German brand recently announced a partnership with Siemens Energy to produce synthetic fuels in Chile from next year.