The Porsche 911 Hybrid is Finally Here!
Matt Farah from TheSmokingTire drives a 911 modified with a $75,000 aftermarket hybrid system. Is it worth the cost?
Rumors and suggestions around a Porsche 911 using hybrid technology have been going on for years now. However, as of now Porsche is resisting and continues to tell us that there are no plans for a 911 hybrid in the very near future. That does not mean there is not any demand for such a system and a company called Vonnen has developed exactly that. They have found a way to inject 150 horsepower and 150 foot-pounds of torque into your Porsche using EV technology. Matt Farah from TheSmokingTire YouTube channel tells us all about it.
Vonnen calls the technology Shadow Drive, and it features four major components. In the frunk, there is a 1 kWh battery with its own cooling system. In the back of the car is a microprocessor, motor controller, inverter unit. The electric motor itself, which is about the size of a large pan pizza, is mounted between the engine and transmission. Finally, there is the Vonnen control unit and a smartphone app that controls the whole thing. All this adds about 170 pounds to the overall weight of the car, but the weight distribution changes by less than the weight of a full tank of gas.
This system is available for all Porsche sports cars, from the Cayman and Boxster to all the various 911 variants, and will work with either the manual or automatic-equipped car. The vehicle used in the video is an otherwise stock, 2013 base 911 Carrera that is now pumping out a healthy 500 horsepower compared to the 350 it had when it left the factory. The power delivery is seamless and noticeable in this application. When installed in more powerful models such as the 911 Turbos the system acts as more of torque fill to add some grunt lower in the rev range.
This is all clean electric power as well, so you can feel that you are still being friendly to our planet while you are modifying your Porsche for more speed and power. Notice we didn’t say range. According to Farah: “Vonnen is not focused on range at all. They are only focused on the speed at which they can charge and discharge a relatively small battery.” In other words, this upgrade is solely to make the car faster.
This is starting to look like a win-win scenario with a clean and significant power boost that more than makes up for its added weight. Farah is impressed with the seamlessness and flexibility of this system. He says, “You are driving around and if you put the phone away, you genuinely wouldn’t know it was there.” However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and this system is far from free.
Vonnen Shadow Drive will set you back a cool $75,000. Ouch.
You could pick up a nice 997 Turbo for that kind of money, and probably most people would. So, Farah asked Vonnen, who would want a $75,000 hybrid system and their reply was that it was for the person that already has everything else.
You must decide for yourself if this system represents value for you. It is reversible and can be removed easily. It is also modular so you could take it out of one car and swap it into another. Those are nice features and Farah does call the system “badass” when he feels all that extra torque kick in. “This is a totally seamless aftermarket hybrid system that absolutely works.” Says Farah.
So maybe if your garage already has a Carrera GT, a 918, a Turbo S, a GT3 RS, and a Carrera T for good measure, this could be a fun upgrade for you.
Photos: Vonnen
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