Plans for the rollout of the next-gen CarPlay don’t seem to be going too well. Despite Porsche being announced as one of the first companies in line to support it, the company has implied that its first hybrid Porsche 911 won’t include it.
The German sports car maker says that the $164k 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS will see CarPlay “integrated more deeply into the vehicle,” but went on to imply that this doesn’t mean it will be the next-generation experience Apple first announced almost two years ago …
Next-generation CarPlay
Apple first announced plans to “reinvent the CarPlay experience” almost two years ago, back at WWDC 2022. This would effectively see an Apple user-interface take over the entire infotainment system, including core instrument clusters.
CarPlay will seamlessly render the speed, fuel level, temperature, and more on the instrument cluster. Deeper integration with the vehicle will allow users to do things like control the radio or change the climate directly through CarPlay.
The company said then that it would be available in a new cars starting in late 2023, with Porsche and Aston Martin said to be among the first car makers to adopt it.
Since then, however, there has been little sign of progress. Mercedes – also listed by Apple as a future partner for next-gen CarPlay – appears to have changed its mind.
As of last month, there had still been no word on which car makers would introduce it when.
First hybrid Porsche 911 seemingly won’t include it
While the 2025 Porsche 911 Carrera GTS is billed as the company’s first ever hybrid 911, the term is being used in a somewhat … generous fashion.
Instead of the car being directly powered by a mix of electricity and gas, the reality appears to be a small 1.9kWh lithium-ion battery that only powers a new electric turbocharger, and the AC system. So while an electric motor is contributing to the car’s performance, it will be doing so in a rather limited fashion.
The same term appears to apply to that “deep” integration of CarPlay, based on what the company told The Verge.
Porsche’s “all-digital cockpit” doesn’t appear to be the next-generation wireless CarPlay that Apple announced in 2022 and that both Porsche and Aston Martin recently said would be coming first to their cars. Porsche spokesperson Frank Weissman told The Verge via email that this is “a similar setup to what we introduced on our latest Cayenne, Panamera and electric Macan models.”
In those vehicles, CarPlay shows info in the digital instrument cluster, but it’s not so embedded that it controls core functions like the odometer or HVAC. Weissman also confirmed the car will offer Android Auto connectivity.
For now, then, we are still waiting for an announcement of the first car with the full next-gen CarPlay experience. Meantime, General Motors is taking a massive gamble in dropping CarPlay support altogether.
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