Porsche is having a hard time translating the 718 Boxster and Cayman formula to an electric platform, a report from the German Automotive News (sub req’d) sister publication Automobilwoche suggests. And if the issues don’t get worked out soon, Porsche may have to delay its introduction. While the report offers little in the way of detail, the issue stems from the 718’s fundamentally defining characteristic: its mid-mounted internal combustion engine.
Replicating that spirit in an EV has forced Porsche’s engineers back to the drawing board on more than one occasion, the report says, and each return trip has resulted in new specs being sent to Porsche’s battery supplier, Valmet Automotive. Valmet is apparently getting sick of redesigning the pack over and over for free, and has started invoicing Porsche for the additional development time. Porsche has been reluctant to fork over more cash, AN says.
Porsche has remained adamant that its 718 replacements would deviate from the typical approach of high-output EV performance in favor of a balanced experience befitting the mid-engine sports car’s character. But even a small battery pack is heavy, and like the engine in an ICE car, the battery pack in an EV is a significant contributor to its center of gravity; any change made to it trickles down to the rest of the platform.
And the clock is ticking. The Porsche dealer portal revealed back in June that the internal-combustion 718 Boxster and Cayman would cease production next October, paving the way for the electric models to debut either in late 2025 or early 2026. If Porsche is still working out the specs of its major components, that timeline starts to look a bit shaky.
While elongated development cycles and stretched budgets are never good news, the silver lining here is that Porsche is in the middle of reevaluating its EV launch cadence anyway. Production of the Cayenne EV is imminent, while a new three-row electric SUV (known for now simply as “K1”) is slated to follow in 2027, but we’ve been hearing for months now that the ICE Cayenne will likely overlap with the new electric version for at least a full model cycle, which would allow Porsche to justify more extensive updates to the ICE platform. The as-yet-unrevealed K1 was never meant to be offered as anything but a full-size electric SUV, but if this report is accurate, the company is now exploring the option of building a gas-powered variant.
Absent from this shakeup? The indefinitely internal combustion 911. Suffice it to say, until Porsche can sort this whole mess out, its rear-engine GT will continue to run on dinosaur juice.
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