Video: 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 GTS Drive: The First Hybrid 911

It's 2025, and performance hybrids like this new Porsche 911 Carrera GTS T-Hybrid are all the rage. And plus this is like the millionth hybrid Porsche that we've seen. They've been building zappy stuff like this since 2010 with the first hybrid Cayenne. But this one, whoo, this one's a big one. This is the first production Porsche 911 to incorporate any sort of major hybridization. I know purists, it's pretty scary, right? Ah, don't freak out just yet. Let's talk about that hybrid system before you get all hot and bothered. In this case, we've got a 1.9-kilowatt hour battery pack feeding two electric motors. One of them is integrated into the eight speed PDK dual clutch transmission, and the other one spins up the single, yes, just one, turbocharger on that 3.6 liter flat six out back. Now combined together in symphony, they produce 532 horsepower and 449 pounds feet of torque, which is all working together means, oh yeah, this thing is extremely fast. Now, you might be surprised, because despite all this added electric performance complexity compared to the previous generation of Carrera GTS, 532 horsepower, well, that's not really a big jump over the 473 horsepower produced by the non-hybrid previous generation. So while it is absolutely quicker on paper, for those that have driven the previous generation GTS, the largest kick in the rear will come when you experience that electric motor torque fill and just how quick the turbo spins up with that motor assistance, it's insane. (car engine revving) Yeah, it's plenty quick with a zero to 60 time of under three seconds. But crucially, it's not quite 911 Turbo or Turbo S quick, and that's definitely by design. See, this is a GTS. This is as high as you can get from a performance standpoint in the standard Carrera lineup, short of getting a Turbo or a GT product like a GT3 or a GT2. Lemme tell you, I get it in a world of GT3 and GT3-RSs and Turbo Ss and Club Coupes, all crazy Porsche 911s that are just turned up to an insane degree, it's kinda, a base Carrera seems kind of lame. Not at all. It's a common trap. The base Carrera is lovely to drive in a very serious performance car. So take that and amp it up like, oh God, 10 levels for the GTS. The weight to everything, the steering, the brake balance, the throttle, it's incredible. There's nothing else like it. It's exact, but it's very forgiving. It feels, ah, it feels like you're sitting in a La-Z-Boy in a good way. A 532 horsepower, adaptive suspension, carbon ceramic brake, La-Z-Boy! Yeah, I'm yapping right now on video, so I'm not really pushing this car. Well, not that I'd be able to to begin with on public roads. This thing is crazy capable, but even now, just kind of meandering our way up this California mountain, phenomenal. At a half pace at a jog basically, it's still just so lovely and engaging to drive. And yes, I know I can already hear it. In this new generation of GTS, can't get a manual. I've been driving portion 911s with manual transmissions for about 15 years now, and I love them. But as you probably know, Porsche's PDK transmission is incredible. So with the GTS, we've got stickier tires and we've got all-wheel drive in the Carrera 4. So the grip is immense. It is just so forgiving and it hangs on like fly paper. It's unbelievable. Well, actually it's not unbelievable. It's a 911 Carrera GTS. These have been great forever. And now with the hybrid, you don't even notice it. Well, that's not true. You definitely notice it. What I mean by that is, you don't notice any sort of engine downtime. You don't notice any sacrifices in the name of eco mindedness. All this hybrid tech goes towards making the car quicker. The identity of the modern Porsche 911 is absolutely still here. In some ways, if I taped over the T hybrid badges that are on the door and there wasn't this interesting battery display in the gauge, if I handed you the keys and you hadn't seen the news about there being a hybrid 911, I don't think you'd know. Really, it's just a suspension that might keep you from daily driving it. If you leave the drive mode in normal when you're just commuting, the transmission shift logic is totally sedate, fine. It's not too loud. It's got an active exhaust so you can shut it up when you want to just zone out and drive. Brakes are easy to modulate in regular traffic. It's as usable as a regular 911, just a little bit more teeth chattering. It bears repeating what a phenomenal thing this car is. Now, it might conceptually seem like some over-engineered Rube Goldberg machine with all that extra hybrid tech stuff underneath the body, but let me tell you, Porsche has done a phenomenal job at preserving the modern 911's driving character and personality. Now, there is just so much more that I want to talk about this very important car, but there's way more than I could even fit in this short video, so for my full thoughts interview, you gotta go to cars.com/news. (uplifting music)