New Hybrid Supercars Stress Performance, Not Mileage

Aside from having four wheels, it’s hard to see what a US $30,000 Toyota Camry has in common with a $3 million Ferrari F80. But these market bookends are examples of an under-the-radar tech revolution. From budget transportation to hypercars, every category of internal-combustion car is now harnessing hybrid tech.

In “As EV Sales Stall, Plug-In Hybrids Get a Reboot,” I describe the vanguard of this new hybrid boom: extended-range EVs like the 2025 Ram 1500 Ramcharger, which boasts a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.

The world’s leading performance brands are also embracing hybrid EV tech—not merely to cut emissions or boost efficiency but because of the instant-on, highly controllable torque produced by electric motors. Hybridized models from BMW, Corvette, Ferrari, and Porsche are aimed at driving enthusiasts who have been notoriously resistant to electric cars.

Sam Fiorani, vice-president of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions, predicts that “nearly all light-duty internal-combustion engines are likely to be hybridized in one form or another over the next decade.” Even mainstream electrified models, Fiorani notes, routinely generate acceleration times that were once limited to exotic machines.

“The performance offered by electric motors cannot be accomplished by gas-powered engines alone without impacting emissions,” Fiorani says. “The high-end brands will need to make the leap that only an electric powertrain can practically provide.”

That leap is well underway, as I experienced firsthand during test drives of the BMW M5, Corvette E-Ray, and Ferrari 296 GTB. These performance hybrids outperform their internal-combustion-only equivalents in almost every way. Most incorporate all-wheel-drive, along with torque vectoring, energy harvesting, and other engineering tricks that are possible with the inclusion of electric motors.

2025 BMW M5: The Heavyweight Hybrid

The BMW M5 sedan is a literal heavyweight, tipping the scales at 2,435 kilograms.BMW

The 2025 BMW M5 sedan adds plug-in hybrid power to one of the company’s iconic models. A twin-turbo, 4.4-liter V-8 engine pairs with a fifth-generation BMW eMotor and a 14.8-kilowatt-hour battery. The M5 can cruise silently on battery power for 69 km (43 miles). The biggest downside is the car’s crushing curb weight—up to 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds)—and poor fuel economy once its electric range is spent. The upside is 527 kilowatts (717 horsepower) of Teutonic aggression, which I experienced from Munich to the Black Forest, making Autobahn sprints at up to 280 kph (174 mph).

Ferrari 296 GTB and F80: Top of the Hybrid Food Chain

Although the Ferrari 296 GTB is a plug-in hybrid, its goal is high performance, not high gas mileage.Ferrari

Ferrari’s swoopy 296 GTB is a plug-in hybrid with a 122-kW electric motor sandwiched between a 3.0-liter V-6 and an F1 automated gearbox, producing a total of 602 kilowatts (819 horsepower). The 296 GTB can cover just 25 km on electricity alone, but that could be enough to pass through European low-emission zones, where internal-combustion cars may eventually be banned.

Of course, the 296 GTB’s main goal is high performance, not high gas mileage. A digital brake-by-wire system makes it Ferrari’s shortest-stopping production car, and the brakes regenerate enough energy that I was able to recharge the 7.5-kWh battery on-the-fly in roughly 10 minutes of driving. Despite its modest V-6 engine, the 296 GTB turns faster laps around Ferrari’s Fiorano test circuit than any V-8 model in company history. The Ferrari weighs in at 1,467 kilograms (3,234 pounds), unusually svelte for a hybrid, which aids its sharp handling.

At the top of the hybrid food chain is Ferrari’s F80, a hypercar inspired by Formula 1 racers. It pairs a V-6 with five electric motors—two in turbochargers, three for propulsion—for a total of 882 kW (1,200 horsepower). The two electric motors driving the front wheels allow for independent torque vectoring. Only 799 of the F80s will be built, but those numbers do not capture the cultural impact of harnessing hybrid tech in one of the world’s most exclusive sports cars.

Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid: A First for Porsche

The Porsche 911 now has its first electrified design. The new Porsche 911 GTS T-Hybrid keeps the model’s classic flat-six, rear-engine layout but adds a 40-kW electric motor, for a combined 391 kW (532 horsepower). Another 20-kW motor drives a single electric turbocharger, which has much less lag and wasted heat than mechanical turbochargers do.

Porsche’s 911 GTS T-Hybrid is the carmaker’s first electric car offering.Porsche

The 911 GTS T-Hybrid’s 400-volt system quickly spools that turbo up to 120,000 rpm; peak turbo boost arrives in less than one second, versus more than three seconds before [[<

Corvette E-Ray: An Affordable Hybrid Supercar

The Porsche 911’s main rival, the Corvette, is likewise coming out with a hybrid EV. The Corvette E-Ray, which starts at $108,595, is intended to make supercar tech affordable to a broader clientele. The eighth-generation Corvette was designed with an aluminum tunnel along its spine to accommodate optional hybrid power. Buy the E-Ray version, and that tunnel is stuffed with 80 pouch-style, nickel cobalt manganese Ultium battery cells that augment a V-8 engine. The small, 1.9-kWh battery pack is designed for rapid charge and discharge: It can spit out 525 amps in short bursts, sending up to 119 kW (160 horsepower) to an electrified front axle.

Hybrids like the Corvette E-Ray should appeal to purists who’ve thus far resisted all-electric cars.Chevrolet

History’s first all-wheel-drive Corvette is also the fastest in a straight line, with a computer-controlled 2.5-second launch to 102 kilometers per hour (60 miles per hour) . No matter how hard I drove the E-Ray in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, I couldn’t knock its battery below about 60 percent full. Press the Charge+ button, and the Corvette uses energy recapture to fill its battery within 5 to 6 kilometers of driving. Battery and engine together produce a hefty 482 kW (655 horsepower), yet I got 25 miles per gallon during gentle highway driving, on par with lesser-powered Corvettes.

Even more than other customers, sports-car buyers seem resistant to going full-EV. Aside from a handful of seven-figure hypercars, there are currently no electric two-seaters for sale anywhere in the world. Tadge Juechter, Corvette’s recently retired executive chief engineer, notes that many enthusiasts are wedded to the sound and sensation of gasoline engines, and are leery of the added weight and plummeting range of EVs driven at high velocity. That resistance doesn’t seem to extend to hybrids, however.

The Corvette E-Ray, Juechter says, was specifically designed to meet those purists halfway, and “prove they have nothing to fear from electrification.”