Porsche is waiting for a technology breakthrough before launching a successor to the 210mph 918 Spyder - and will only go-ahead if the resulting car is faster than its predecessor.

The obvious next-step for a Porsche ‘super-sports’ is an all-electric powertrain, but company engineers have warned that the high weight of today’s batteries makes such a car unlikely in the near future.

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“A future super-sports is a matter of technology. If we were to do it now, it would be a hybrid. But we have already done that with the 918,” said R&D boss Michael Steiner.

An all-electric supercar could produce acceleration times that would fit Porsche’s performance criteria, but the car would also have to beat the 918 Spyder’s lap time around the Nuburgring Nordschleife.

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While that might be possible with an all electric car, Steiner warned that the rate at which charge would have to be drawn from a supercar’s batteries is likely to lead to cell damage, cutting the working life of the battery.

“And I don’t think our customers are ready to treat the battery as a replaceable item, yet,” said Steiner.

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