Porsche hypercar
Firm contemplates 918 follow-up
Porsche is undertaking an in-house product strategy study into a high-tech hypercar successor to the 918 Spyder, company chairman Oliver Blume has confirmed.
Speaking at the Geneva motor show, Blume said the new flagship model could be powered by either a plugin hybrid or pure-electric powertrain and, if approved, is envisaged to launch in the middle of the next decade. The hypercar would be designed as a showcase for the German maker’s electrified drivelines.
The machine would fill the void left at the top of the Porsche line-up when the 918 Spyder ceased production in 2015 following a limited production run of 918 units.
Blume said Porsche was currently busy readying its first electric cars, the Taycan and Taycan Sports Turismo, but was considering taking on the likes of the Mclaren Speedtail and Rimac Concept One.
“In the future, I see a possibility for a hypercar with the next generation of the batteries,” said Blume. “It should be a very highperforming car. We haven’t decided yet, it’s more in the direction of 2025 or later. That’s what we do in our product strategy.”
Commenting on developments connected with the hypercar study, Blume said Porsche was carefully monitoring progress in the field of solid-state battery technology in a cooperation set-up with Stanford University in California.
The co-operation is part of a £76 million investment made by Porsche’s parent company, the Volkswagen Group, in Quantumscape Corporation, a solid-state battery start-up established last year and spun from developments made by Stanford.
Blume indicated that the hypercar product strategy study under way at Porsche was still in its infancy. “We haven’t decided yet whether it will be a hybrid or a pureelectric car,” he said. “We are waiting on the evolution of the batteries. We will then decide what’s going on.”