Porsche sells 919 Hybrid mockup for $100k on eBay

Want to spend $100k on a new Porsche? Your local dealership will gladly sell you a new 911, Panamera, or Cayenne in the right trim level and spec, with all the right boxes ticked. But one buyer in Singapore recently spent that on a Porsche he (or she) couldn't even drive.

The non-functional vehicle in question was a full-scale replica of the 919 Hybrid – just like the ones that just took a one-two finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Only this one was based on the 2014 spec that brought Porsche back to the forefront of endurance sportscar racing. Oh, and it has no running gear - electric or conventional.

Porsche made a baker's dozen of these replicas to serve as showpieces and development models where a fully functional example wouldn't be needed. They're seldom sold, but Porsche Asia Pacific was given the green light to auction one off. Proceeds went towards charities helping disadvantaged children and the disabled.

The fortunate collector ended up paying precisely $106,100 – that's in US dollars, not Singapore's – on eBay for the opportunity to put an all but completely authentic 919 Hybrid in his garage. Said collector won't be able to drive it, of course, but unless he was put through the kind of training that Mark Webber and Nico Hülkenberg have been, we doubt it'd be of much use anyway. And that's assuming Porsche were ever convinced to part with one of its high-tech, all conquering prototypes, which it likely won't for many years to come.

An Electric Porsche? It Could Happen in 2015!

The Porsche hybrid 918 Spyder went into production last year thanks to the “outstanding customer response” for the $845,000 vehicle. Given Porsche’s interest in green speed, it comes as no surprise that in a recent interview with German magazine Auto, Motor und Sport, Porsche CEO Matthias Müller revealed his desire to launch an all-electric sports car. But can Porsche create a fast EV with a practical range?

We know that an all-electric Porsche will not be offered with an optional gas-burning range extender. Müller has stated that he believes a small engine needlessly adds weight. Instead, the proposed electric Porsche will rely on a battery pack big enough to provide a driving range of anywhere between 190 and 250 miles.

But Porsche wasn’t able to accomplish a range of that size three years ago. In 2011, the company built three experimental, all-electric Porsche Boxster E models, and entered them into a large-scale trial to study the feasibility of EV development. All three Boxster Es were slower than the average Porsche (which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re slow) and had a driving  range of “just” 107 miles. So Porsche, has some work to do if they want to deliver that 200-ish mile range.

Porsche may be able to learn a thing or two from sister companies Audi and Volkswagen, however. The first Audi e-tron concept debuted in 2009 was “a monster” with four electric motors which, together, produced an impressive 313 HP coupled with a jaw-dropping 3300 lb-ft of torque. And engineers and researchers were able to improve the battery pack, even going as far as to change the chemical makeup. The result is an Audi EV with close to 400 km, or 250 miles of driving range between charges.

Similarly, Volkswagen recently announced plans to work on a powerful new battery for its EV fleet. Speaking at the Geneva motor show, Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser said that “an 80kWh unit is under development using our own technology. It would provide between three and four times the battery power in a given package.” This means that a battery of equivalent physical size to that used in the new 2015 Volkswagen e-Golf could hold the amount of energy in a top-end Tesla Model S.

Of course, Müller did not provide a timeframe for when Porsche will decide if going all-electric is a wise business decision, but the company has to come up with something big to follow up the 919 Hybrid race car it showed at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show. Expect a “concept” version of an all-electric Porsche to bow at next year’s Frankfurt and Geneva shows, then.

Source | Photos: Left Lane News