Capitalizing on the Greenlash – Part 2: Porsche launching the 911 T-Hybrid (992.2) and the question whether technology is neutral

 
LOL-Essay 002: June, 22nd 2024
 
Capitalizing on the Greenlash – Part 2: Porsche launching the 911 T-Hybrid (992.2) and the question whether technology is neutral 
By Peter Seele
 
Keywords: faster fast, Kitification of the 911, 2nd order greenlash, Bugatti Tourbillion
 
The neutrality of technology?!
Technology is neutral. It is never technology’s fault. It is users giving technology meaning, purpose and direction. No knife has ever killed anyone. However, just like money, being an “absolute medium” following the landmark book of Georg Simmel on the “Philosophy of Money” from 1900, we tend to associate qualities with concepts, though technically and logically the concept is neutral. Green tech, clean tec, smart tec, etc. Like blood money or black money. Tec is Tec. Money is Money. But is that all that drives human perception and consumer’s desires?
The marketing of technologies often is not only about social purpose and philosophical meaning, but strategic communication along the lines of trends and developments serving both commercial and political markets. Sustainable development is such a catchphrase, institutionalized by the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. Before anyone misunderstands my words on neutrality: The concept of sustainability is derived by a myriad of scientific evidence, showcasing that human activity in the last decades or even centuries have led to overconsumption of resources and setting free emissions that massively disturb the planetary equilibrium, which took some four billion years to evolve and create life full of biodiversity on the planet’s surface. Beautiful as it is.
Technologies now may be used for all sort of purposes. Many good ones. Medical technology saving life and curing diseases. Assembly lines making production more efficient. Artificial Intelligence helping humans to evolve into a new age. Weapons helping to secure freedom and security… Well. I think you get the point of the impossibility of (absolute) neutrality. Every technology and every meaning we associate to it may turn into positive aspects. And every positive aspect may be framed to turn into a negative aspect as well. So what’s the link to the new Porsche 911?
The recently launched new 911 (992.2) is the first 911 coming not only with the famous six cylinder engine in the back, but infused with e-technology. The new 911 (currently only the GTS) makes use of hybrid technology, combining the six cylinder combustion engine with e-drive and a battery. This is not the place to discuss the features and performance data, but to think about the meaning of electrifying the 911, an icon from the oil-age, created as a sports car. The utility of the 911 is fun, performance and status. Just the right thing to discuss after the last essay on Ferrari’s new twelve cylinder with a full commitment to the combustion engine.
Now here is the point. Electric vehicles and hybrid cars in most cars are created to reduce emissions. That is why many governments reduce(d) taxes for e-vehicles and increased taxes for cars with high performance data. Here in Lugano for example the tax for the car is based on the cubic capacity as a proxy for emissions. The larger the engine, the more emissions. Hybrid cars therefor in many cases contribute to an environmental agenda. Some cities allow only emission-free cars. Some only cars qualifying for certain emission standards. Also having a battery on board helps saving energy through recuperation. That is when using the break, the energy is saved into the battery and not lost to friction and temperature. This is what the new 911 also does to a certain extent, but here is the difference. The hybrid technology in the 911 is meant to accelerate. A boost, like elder generations may remember from the TV-series “Knight Rider”, where the car – named Kit – makes use of the “Turbo Boost”, some kind of energy boost that makes Kit fly, move objects or just look cool because of the boosted acceleration.
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Kitification of the 911 (Knight Rider)
Let’s call it the “Kitification of the 911”. You may not talk to it like David Hasselhoff to Kit, but we are getting there, as also the 911 is getting smarter and smarter (that is making use of algorithms and artificial intelligence). Porsche calls this the “T-Hybrid” and is very clear about the purpose of the hybrid drive: “New Porsche 911: T-Hybrid for significantly enhanced performance”. The additional energy is used to get a speed boost. But it does not stop there. The all-new Bugatti Tourbillion from one month later, that is June 2024 also combines combustion engine (16 cylinders, takt that Ferrari Dodici Cilindri) with three electric engines – also used only for performance (beyond the 1000 horsepower threshold, 1775 to be precise). And on top – poor Porsche marketing guys – the Bugatti does not have a Turbo in the combustion engine, but the traditional “naturally aspirated engine”, also part of the traditional DNA of the 911. And Bugatti explains it not via performance, but sound and volume. Ergo volume of sound.
 
As anyone knows who drives cars for more than two years, the famous proverb has some merit: Every additional part of a car is one more part that may break and needs replacement. And as sustainability researchers know: Producing additional parts means more emissions when producing them, and secondly the question of disposal. Plus, number 3: every additional part adds weight, which requires energy to be moved and more energy to be accelerated. So, using a technology like hybrid that has its prevalent use-case in reducing unsustainability, the new 911 T-Hybrid uses the same technology to be – faster fast. Hey 911, one talks to the wrist-watch: Turbo Boost. That is certainly a match with the symbolic DNA of the 911 performance feature.
But from the perspective of the greenlash discussed in the last LOL-Essay, the T-Hybrid 911 is also capitalizing on the greenlash, but unlike the Ferrari Dodici Cilindri, it is capitalizing on the greenlash on the next level. It is not a step back like the twelve cylinder pure emission driven engine, but using electic technology not to go ahead (understood here of reducing unsustainability), but to be faster fast. And the new 911 is (again) the fastest 911 ever as it combines T-Hybrid plus Turbo (see the very entertaining Topgear review).
When engineering meets creative accounting
To increase performance, the weight had to be reduced. Particularly given that a new battery plus the T-Hybrid module had to be integrated. So how to reduce weight? Expensive carbon? Textile door grips like in the GT3 or Carrera T? No, for the ‘basic’ model (understood here as no GT3, GT2 or Turbo or any other limited edition special edition) the new default for ordering the 911 is without backbench. What a sacrilege!!! The 911 is an icon also because it is a 2+2. That is the two seats in the rear that hardly qualify as seats, but that nevertheless make Swabian eyes shine (the author has a mother from Stuttgart), when you need to give a lift all of a sudden. The GT3 without 2+2 is understandable, not only for the 10 kh. But the ’basic’ model? That is close to blasphemy in my humble opinion. But the reality is slightly different. When ordering the +2 is not included, but for no money on top you may order the +2 seats and have a real 2+2 911. So what is this about? When engineering meets creative accounting. Making the default 10 kg lighter, the performance-data is better. Not only for the car, but also for the engineers, who added a battery and hybrid, but only added 50 kg to the 992.1.
Yes, who cares? I get the 911 2+2 for the same price. I think in the luxury segment even the most insignificant differences may turn significant. As the words suggests. As a sign, as a symbol. Here two interpretations:

1. It is a cheap trick. Reducing weight by cutting out a 911-top-identiy-feature like the +2 seats and then allowing them to be reintroduced for free (plus the weight, but that does not affect the default values – and physics of performance).
2. We may also admire the company for their smartness combining performance engineering with creative accounting? Isn’t creative accounting in our finance driven world one of the major drivers for profit?

In any case. The new 911 GTS with T-Hybrid capitalizes on the greenlash, as it instrumentalizes a green technology for mere performance boost. No technology is neutral, when humans use it. And technology without humans does not exist (at the moment). Other than the Ferrari Dodici Cilindri, this capitalizing on the greenlash happens on a more sublime level; call it 2nd order capitalizing on the greenlash.