Why the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3 isn’t a hybrid

Porsche’s head of GT product Andreas Preuninger was quick to highlight during our walkaround of the 2025 Porsche 911 GT3, that the biggest challenge was retaining the naturally-aspirated 4-litre flat-six, with its 9,000rpm redline and 500bhp+ power figure. That’s because even since the 992.1’s introduction in 2021, emissions regulations have tightened, with some particulate limits dropping by as much as half. 

To begin with, Preuninger and team feared it might not be possible and so, while they evidently got there in the end, one wonders, were other solutions considered early on? In another timeline, could we have been looking back on the debut of the first turbocharged or hybridised Porsche 911 GT3? The latter after all has been tested, both on the 997 GT3 R Hybrid race car and a 997 GT3 prototype, that still exists under the care of the Porsche Museum.

All new Lamborghinis will be hybrid soon, the new BMW M5 is a PHEV, the next petrol-engined BMW M3 is set to feature mild hybridisation and indeed, the latest Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid is partly electrified. It stands to reason that at the very least, electrical augmentation is somewhere in the 911 GT3’s future, if not the immediate. Our burning question for Preuninger, then, was whether electrification was considered when the latest regs looked like they might be too tight to pass.

‘We thought about it… but we were very cautious about change,’ Preuninger told us, with a furrowed brow and a scratch of his chin.  

‘That would have called for the PDK that we use on the standard Carreras, which is 20kg heavier and that would mean we couldn’t use our sequential manual shifter. The car would also creep, so we wouldn’t have the hooligan mode from a standstill. It would be quicker, sure, but no matter how light it feels, no matter how smooth it is with the electric power and how it doesn’t feel the weight, the tyres will feel the weight. This is just physics.

‘The electric motor and the battery would have caused a major upheaval with the GT3 customer base. The 992 first-gen being by far the most popular, most successful GT3 to date, with people still wanting it, we wouldn’t want to put electrification in it or put turbochargers in it to gain horsepower. The atmospherical clean race car feel to the car is so crucial and important for everybody. It’s the purist car.’

‘We wanted to really be as light and agile as it could be, as GT3-ish, non-turbo, atmospheric as possible. We were very keen on not adding too much weight, in spite of legislation. We wanted to get the lightest possible car we were allowed to make right now. Maybe for the last time, because the regulations in Europe will be even stricter two years from now.’

We know some level of hybridisation can bring its advantages, with even the likes of Gordon Murray embracing low level electrification for the GMA T.50, his spiritual successor to the McLaren F1. It uses a 48-volt system with an integrated starter generator instead of a traditional starter motor and alternator, to do all the electrical heavy lifting. It’s part of what allows the Cosworth V12 to be so extreme and perform at the levels it does and still be road legal. The McLaren Artura ups the electrification a bit more, with its electric motor handling reverse gear, meaning the traditional dual-clutch gearbox can be smaller and lighter.

Nevertheless, it seems keeping the GT3 as light, as lithe, as interactive and as uncomplicated as possible, while that’s still possible, was the priority. The GT3 as it’s always been and the attributes it (and vanishingly few others) continues to champion, is what buyers want.