Kalmar 7-97 E-Volt: Beating Porsche To An All-Electric 911

Why Are Air-cooled Porsche 911s Such A Popular Platform To Build Upon?

The Porsche 911 represents a statement of excellence and meticulous attention to detail. Porsche was the last high-end sports car manufacturer to produce cars with air-cooled engines, although that is no longer the case, since 1997. Moreover, Porsche is also the only carmaker that to this day uses boxer engines in its sports cars. Then, there are discontinued, but legendary Mezger boxer engines, most of which are air-cooled. All Mezger-powered Porsches are highly sought-after.

While the 911, as a platform, is evolving, not everything is for the better. Die-hard Porsche fanatics are a legion and they all crave an old-school, Porsche 911 that retains all the classic characteristics. Since original performance variants of classic 911s are rare and expensive, that’s where companies like Kalmar Automotive and Singer Vehicle Design with their impressive lineup come into the picture.

Kalmar’s Take On Sustainable 911s

Kalmar is a Danish resto-mod company that specializes in classic 911s. Similar to companies like Singer, Theon, and others; Kalmar takes a 964 or 993-generation Porsche 911 and gracefully “ages” it to look like a G-series 911. Three of the four Kalmar 911 resto-mods are combustion-powered and utilize the same air-cooled flat-six with 355 horsepower and 302 pound-feet (410 Nm).

The company’s latest product, the Kalmar 7-97 E-Volt, was unveiled in July 2024 and is all about sustainability. Despite the project’s environmentally conscious approach to reimagined, classic 911s, the 7-97 E-Volt is the company’s most powerful car yet.

The 992.2 Carrera GTS 911 brought us the first production Porsche 911 hybrid, powered by the revolutionary, T-Hybrid system. Kalmar went a step further by giving us an “evergreen” Porsche 911 E.V. is under a second off to 60 mph, when compared to the Porsche 992.2 911’s time of 3.0 seconds. Underneath the classic bodywork, the 7-97 E-Volt features a Tesla Model S powertrain. E.Vs are typically heavier than the equivalent, ICE-powered vehicles, but the Kalmar 7-97 E-Volt is only 53 pounds heavier than the 964 Carrera donor car, which packs 250 horsepower from Porsche’s iconic, six-cylinder Boxer engine.

Kalmar Automotive’s clever engineering of the 7-97 E-Volt

The Danish car company has done a lot more than just swapping a Tesla Model S drivetrain into a classic 911. The whole car was redone from the ground up to be as sustainable as possible. This includes an entirely new body, made of flax fiber, which reduces carbon emissions from production by 78 percent. The overall design is a modern interpretation of the 1967 Porsche 911 R. The only modern feature can be found up front, where you can see Kalmar’s interpretation of Porsche’s four-point LED design, but in a reduced format. The charge port is neatly hidden behind the rear license plate. The 7-97 E-Volt is highly-customizable so no two cars will ever be the same.

Furthermore, the whole body is aerodynamically optimized through extensive CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis, to reduce drag. To be more specific Kalmar’s aerodynamic tweaks have resulted in the 7-97 E-Volt making 30 percent more downforce on the front axle while reducing rear-end lift by 20 percent. The results were gathered through a simulation at 81 mph (130 km/h).

Inside, the Kalmar 7-97 retains the traditional 964 design but with upgraded leather upholstery and modern features. It comes with Apple CarPlay, modern air-conditioning, a modern stereo system, and semi-aniline materials throughout the cabin. Other hints of modernity are the modern steering wheel with airbag and the PDK-like shifter. The instrument cluster is mostly analog, including the charge-meter.

When can we expect Porsche to catch up on the 911 EV front?

Hopefully, it will be some time before this happens. We know the brand’s iconic German sports car will be the last model in the lineup to go fully electric. In the meantime, Porsche is currently hard at work on developing carbon-neutral fuels with hydrogen also being on the cards. Having said that, Porsche’s design boss recently hinted at the prospect of a smaller 911 with an all-electric powertrain, to most likely happen in the next decade But at this point, when it comes to the 911 E.V., Porsche seems to be playing catch up to the resto-mod community. Tesla-swapped 911s are not that uncommon with the likes of brands like Everrati, and Zelectric also taking a dig at this space.

This is a trend that we already see emerging, with the 911 Dakar, where the Singer A.C.S. was unveiled earlier than the modern-day Safari-style Porsche 911. So with an all-electric 911, could we expect something similar? Perhaps we could look at the packaging of the drivetrain and powertrain, along with weight distribution as key takeaways from these resto-mod builds. Weight is a sports car’s biggest enemy and current E.V. batteries are still heavy, weighing around 700 pounds. Maybe innovations in solid-state batteries could help in building smaller and lighter batteries. After all, the ultimate goal for a 911 E.V. would be to capture the essence of a rear-engined gas-powered sportscar. On a lighter note, if and when Porsche does end up making a compact 911 E.V., it should probably be named the 912 or 901 if they want to piss off Peugeot, once again. As for the Kalmar 7-97 E-Volt, with a price tag of around $488,000, it certainly commands a hefty price for taking the sustainability route, but it does showcase how extensive use of lightweight materials can do to an electric sports car.