Porsche's Future Engines Will Never Be Smaller Than 2.0-Liters

That is until EVs take over entirely.

Engine downsizing has become essential for all automotive segments, but it’s the sports car, supercars and hypercars enthusiasts care about most. Porsche is one of those enthusiast brands and it too has engaged in downsizing. The latest 911 and 718 Boxster/Cayman are proof. But how much could Porsche reduce its engine displacement? AutoGuide spoke with a member of the executive board for R&D of Porsche, Michael Steiner, about this very subject at the LA Auto Show.

“We could do more downsizing, even below 2.0-liters, but if you would like to have good performance and very precise and fast reaction to any movement of the gas pedal, you need torque, not only power,” Steiner said. Hybridization, however, would be a good way to make up for some torque. Ultimately though, pure EVs are the answer. “At some point, it would make no more sense to downsize the combustion engine and put more and more electric energy into the vehicle. You come to the point where it doesn’t make sense anymore, so we would do a full electric.” Remember, Porsche has already experimented with small displacement in the 919 hybrid race car.

It had a 2.0-liter engine that, when combined with an electric motor, produced more than 900 hp. “This (the 919) engine is downsized to the extreme,” Steiner added. “This system was only made possible because of the electrified powertrain, which is able to supply loads of torque. The system would just be too heavy and complicated for a road car, so a fully electric would make more sense to get purer Porsche performance.”

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Porsche's Future Engines Will Never Be Smaller Than 2.0-Liters

That is until EVs take over entirely.

Engine downsizing has become essential for all automotive segments, but it’s the sports car, supercars and hypercars enthusiasts care about most. Porsche is one of those enthusiast brands and it too has engaged in downsizing. The latest 911 and 718 Boxster/Cayman are proof. But how much could Porsche reduce its engine displacement? AutoGuide spoke with a member of the executive board for R&D of Porsche, Michael Steiner, about this very subject at the LA Auto Show.

“We could do more downsizing, even below 2.0-liters, but if you would like to have good performance and very precise and fast reaction to any movement of the gas pedal, you need torque, not only power,” Steiner said. Hybridization, however, would be a good way to make up for some torque. Ultimately though, pure EVs are the answer. “At some point, it would make no more sense to downsize the combustion engine and put more and more electric energy into the vehicle. You come to the point where it doesn’t make sense anymore, so we would do a full electric.” Remember, Porsche has already experimented with small displacement in the 919 hybrid race car.

It had a 2.0-liter engine that, when combined with an electric motor, produced more than 900 hp. “This (the 919) engine is downsized to the extreme,” Steiner added. “This system was only made possible because of the electrified powertrain, which is able to supply loads of torque. The system would just be too heavy and complicated for a road car, so a fully electric would make more sense to get purer Porsche performance.”

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Could The Kia Stinger GT Be A Future Muscle Car Collectible?

One well-known collector’s car expert thinks it’s possible. Here’s why.

It wasn’t too many years ago when the coolest muscle cars out there were the originals from the late 1960s and early 70s. Sometimes one had to go “barn shopping” to find one. Today, however, is a very different era. Automotive News has an interesting article claiming that we’re now living in yet another muscle car golden era. Speaking with McKeel Hagerty, CEO of Hagerty classic car insurance agency, it’s clearer than ever today is performance car heaven, so to speak. “We’ve been in this strange golden age of muscle,” Hagerty said.

“People think the muscle car era was the ‘60s, early ‘70s. But arguably, the Chargers, Challengers, Demons and even some of the high-horsepower Camaros of today – they are track-worthy. You’ve never been able to buy more horsepower and reliability cheaper than you can right now. It will be interesting to see what happens with them.” What Hagerty is referring to with that last sentence is whether the cars’ long-term value will hold and, hopefully, increase. “My guess is that lower-mileage, higher-option examples of them will go through a depreciation curve. But then they will hold their own, if not start creeping back up,” Hagerty said.

Famous nameplates such as Corvette, Ferrari and Porsche will continue to be popular collector’s cars. “If those cars survive and don’t get wiped out in accidents, they’ll be collected someday.” But there could some wild card collectibles as well. The Kia Stinger GT is one example. “If you think of the Kia Stinger, that’s where I’m fascinated,” Hagerty explained. “I remember walking around an auto show and some people saying, ‘You gotta sit in this thing – it’s crazy.’ The question for us will be can a brand that wasn’t anything just a little while ago actually produce a car that could have collectible value?” Given that we’ll soon be entering the world of vehicle autonomy and electrification, today’s performance vehicles, regardless of brand, could all become highly sought after in the decades ahead.

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Are We Heading For A Future Where Dealers Only Sell Crossovers?

Seriously, if it were up to dealerships there wouldn't be any sedans at all.

It's just a matter of time before the crossover becomes the most popular body style on the market. The sedan is dying out as the ideal car of choice, and the crossover is the number one reason why. Speaking with Automotive News, executives from several dealerships in the US discussed the specifics of how crossovers relate to their brands. In many circumstances, the people in charge of the dealerships are realizing that SUVs and crossovers are far more profitable. Are we entering a future where dealerships don't even stock sedans?

Volkswagen was an interesting topic. Michael DiFeo, dealer principal at Linden Volkswagen in Roselle, NJ, said that "The Atlas is the first time that we'll be in this large [crossover] segment, getting the larger Tiguan is huge for us considering the growth of that segment." Volkswagen has been struggling for years without a three-row crossover, and now it is bringing two new models to the US market to help fill the void. Timothy Kraemer, general manager of BMW Minnetonka, Minnesota, said "We had too many sedans and not enough SUVs, the X3 and X5. It is a matter of adjusting production and having the right amount of cars at the right time."

This makes us feel even worse. We love BMW sedans, especially the M models. However, if the dealerships can't sell them, it means that BMW may start to focus more on its SUVs than sedans and sports cars. Jim Morino, owner of Acura of Lynnwood in Washington, said 2016 "was a tough year." Sedan sales were slow, but RDX and MDX supplies couldn't meet demand. Acura is now trying some new things to get people into showrooms, which we can only assume will involve more SUV and crossover models. The key takeaway from these interviews is clear, dealerships barely want to sell sedans anymore. Even new entrants to the market like Jaguar are quickly discovering how profitable SUVs are. Better get used to the new world order.

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Are We Heading For A Future Where Dealers Only Sell Crossovers?

Seriously, if it were up to dealerships there wouldn't be any sedans at all.

It's just a matter of time before the crossover becomes the most popular body style on the market. The sedan is dying out as the ideal car of choice, and the crossover is the number one reason why. Speaking with Automotive News, executives from several dealerships in the US discussed the specifics of how crossovers relate to their brands. In many circumstances, the people in charge of the dealerships are realizing that SUVs and crossovers are far more profitable. Are we entering a future where dealerships don't even stock sedans?

Volkswagen was an interesting topic. Michael DiFeo, dealer principal at Linden Volkswagen in Roselle, NJ, said that "The Atlas is the first time that we'll be in this large [crossover] segment, getting the larger Tiguan is huge for us considering the growth of that segment." Volkswagen has been struggling for years without a three-row crossover, and now it is bringing two new models to the US market to help fill the void. Timothy Kraemer, general manager of BMW Minnetonka, Minnesota, said "We had too many sedans and not enough SUVs, the X3 and X5. It is a matter of adjusting production and having the right amount of cars at the right time."

This makes us feel even worse. We love BMW sedans, especially the M models. However, if the dealerships can't sell them, it means that BMW may start to focus more on its SUVs than sedans and sports cars. Jim Morino, owner of Acura of Lynnwood in Washington, said 2016 "was a tough year." Sedan sales were slow, but RDX and MDX supplies couldn't meet demand. Acura is now trying some new things to get people into showrooms, which we can only assume will involve more SUV and crossover models. The key takeaway from these interviews is clear, dealerships barely want to sell sedans anymore. Even new entrants to the market like Jaguar are quickly discovering how profitable SUVs are. Better get used to the new world order.

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Why This Manual Porsche Cayenne Is A Future Collectible

Want a unique car that is also practical? This is the SUV for you.

We've lost count the number of times people have asked us what car they should buy. Often it's help solving the typical American cay buyer's dilemma of whether to buy a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, while enthusiast buyers want help pinpointing the next instant collectible. Enthusiasts want everything - an affordable car that is practical enough to drive everyday, yet unique enough to actually make them some money one day. Finding a car like this is no easy task, but we may have something for them to think about.

A future collectible car isn't typically attainable, because most of the limited edition supercars that end up increasing in value are expensive, sold out, and impractical to drive everyday. What we have chosen here is not a limited run supercar. Instead, we present a run-of-the-mill luxury SUV that you can find parked on every Beverly Hills street corner: the Porsche Cayenne. You may be wondering how such a mass-market luxury SUV could possibly be a future collectible. For that, we have to look back a few years in the Cayenne's spec sheet to find a very intriguing option: a manual transmission. Few people know this, but the Cayenne was actually available for several years with the option of a stick.

Porsche sold a Cayenne with three pedals specifically for enthusiasts, so why don't more people know about it? For starters, almost no one actually opted for the manual transmission, making a three pedal Cayenne quite the rare find. Secondly, the most powerful Cayenne Turbo and Turbo S were never offered with the manual, which likely disappointed most of the wealthy enthusiasts who may have bought one. Finally, even today few enthusiasts realize that the Cayenne ever came with a manual transmission option because they are extremely difficult to find on the used market. This is partly due to the car's rarity, but mainly it's a result of a major flaw in most dealership and used car listing websites.

Anyone who has ever shopped for an E46 M3 knows that used car listings are notoriously incorrect when listing the transmission. Most dealerships make their used listings before pictures of the car are available, and their system defaults to the base transmission offered on that trim level and model year. In the case of the M3, many SMG cars are listed as manual because that was the base transmission option. Likewise, when we searched for manual transmission Cayenne models for this article, we had to sift through dozens of interior photos to discover which cars actually had the manual transmission and which were simply labeled incorrectly.

All told, there are three types of Cayenne models offered with a manual, one of which could well end up being a valuable collectible. Here's why the other two won't be. When the Cayenne was first released back in 2004, only the base model with the 240-horsepower 3.2-liter V6 was available with a manual transmission. We found a 2005 example for around $9,000, but it is realistically too slow to be a collectible. However, in 2008 Porsche revealed the GTS, which came with a 4.8-liter V8 producing 405 hp. This is the Cayenne you want to buy. Joy of joys, the first generation Cayenne GTS was sold with a six-speed manual transmission option.

We sifted through dozens of Cayenne GTS listings, but we could only find a single example with this rare transmission option. The car is a white 2009 model with around 74,000 miles on the odometer. The owner, Jeff, is currently asking $29,995 because he knows what he has. Nearly $30,000 is a lot to spend on a first generation Cayenne, considering a used Turbo can be purchased for around half as much. We think it may be worth the price considering its rarity and the proclivity for Porsche models to increase in value. To this day, the naturally aspirated GTS is one of the best sounding Cayenne models ever produced.

Just imagine hearing this V8 sound track with the added pleasure of rowing your own gears. When the Cayenne reached its second generation, it was once again offered with an extremely rare manual transmission option.

Unfortunately, this time around the GTS was automatic only, leaving the manual for the base 3.6-liter V6 with 300 hp. 300 hp and a manual transmission could make for some fun, but we still don't think it will be worth big money in the future. We managed to find a white 2014 with 60,000 miles on the odometer for $31,998 at a dealership in Florida. If you adon't mind sacrificing over 100 hp for a more modern vehicle with better technology and a nicer interior, the second generation Cayenne isn't a bad option.

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Future Of The Porsche 718 Boxster And Cayman Isn’t Looking Too Good

Stay calm, at least the 911 isn’t going anywhere.

Subaru and Toyota or Mazda and Fiat. What do these automakers have in common? The fact that each has paired with the other to develop small sports coupes that would be too expensive for a single brand to justify building all on its own. One would think that an automaker that made its name on the back of iconic sports coupes wouldn’t face the same issue because it would be used to the trickle of sales the segment generates, but according to Automobile, that’s not the case for Porsche.

Porsche became the famed automaker it is today all thanks to the 911. It later began offering a distilled version of its performance car, the Cayman and Boxster, in order to take a larger share of the performance market. But now, Porsche is reportedly considering dropping the axe on both models. The Boxster was originally released in 1996 and was followed by the Cayman in 2005, but as compact sports car sales continue to dwindle, 718 Cayman and Boxster engineers in Weissach may soon lose their power to convince the bean counters to keep going. Before you pick up pitchforks and go after wealthy sports car-averse SUV buyers, keep in mind that Porsche’s crossroads decision can’t only be chalked up to poor sales.

The other factor behind the squeeze on the 718s comes from the regulatory side. With governments around the world requiring the next generation of cars to emit far fewer pollutants than they do now, Porsche faces the challenge of making the 718's successor both fuel efficient and fun, and pulling both off is not exactly cheap. Fortunately, Porsche does have other options to consider before it decides to kill the 718 twins off entirely. It could keep the current cars alive and continue to keep dealerships stocked with 718s by supplying minor or major revamps based on the current hardware, or it could go the expensive route and build an entirely new electric sports car based on a shorter version of the Mission E Platform.

The scenario we like best, however, is if Porsche were to decide to team up with its sibling Audi to share costs on a small sports car the way Subaru and Toyota did with the BRZ and GT 86. Whichever ends up happening, at least we know the 911 isn't going anywhere.

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