2025 Porsche Boxster/Cayman EV

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718 Boxster successor EV

www.motor1.com

Electric Porsche 718 Boxster Prototype Spied For The First Time

Porsche already confirmed the next-gen 718 sports cars will be electric, and this prototype provides our first look at the new Boxster.
www.motor1.com www.motor1.com

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First images of the next generation Boxster and Cayman.

Despite nixing the internal combustion engine completely, Porsche's next-gen sports car will retain its mid-engine proportions. It will also draw heavily from the Porsche Mission R Concept for styling, notable at the front end where narrow, rectangular headlights will hold station. Large air intakes dominate the lower fascia, though we can see they are closed off behind the horizontal bars.

The familiar side intakes ahead of the rear wheels are closed off as well. And if that's not enough evidence for this being an EV, the rear fascia seals the deal. The center exhaust outlet is clearly fake, and there are no other discernable pipes visible on this prototype.

We are obviously looking at a very rough prototype that might even be a test mule wearing a hodgepodge of exterior panels. Still, Porsche takes steps to hide specific body lines, especially around the lights and fascias. It's possible these areas could receive significant changes before a production model is revealed.

Porsche already confirmed the next-generation Boxster and Cayman for 2025. Expect a debut sometime in 2023, with production kicking off in late 2024.
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I don't know why they couldn't make this a plug-in hybrid. Just give it 20-30 miles of range to knock out 95% of the emissions the car would produce as ICE only and then have an actually engaging powertrain for when you want to actually drive it as a sports car.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
The Taycan isn't a sports car though. I can't think of a single truly compelling/engaging EV sports car.
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Is there even a mass-produced EV sports car on the market right now? There isn't anything to compete directly with the Boxster running on an EV powertrain, and the closest thing I can think of is the upcoming MG Roadster that's due next year.
 
Pretty much everyone I know who either owns or wants a Boxster/Cayman wouldn't buy an EV version. Also most of them that have driven the Taycan say it is fast, but boring. So I'm not sure how well this will do outside of some of the high population centers...
 
I think the key to a successful EV sports car is to make it replicate an ICE powerband

Alex Roy's satirical / speculative fiction piece from 2019 on a future EV 911 review is what I think will be peak EV sports car

www.thedrive.com

The 2036 Porsche 911E First Drive

Reporting from the future, Alex Roy declares the hybrid Porsche 911 is dead—long live the electric 911.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com

Using electronics, motors, and adjustable dampers to replicate all previous ICE car experiences. The battery is just a ballast where you can it place anywhere to make any artificial weight distribution. Motors can be adjusted to deliver torque like a Yellowbird. Suspension can be adjusted to feel like a soft S class or as harsh as a GT2 RS. Speakers can produce the roar of a V12 or rotary. The EV is just a platform for whatever you want.

Sure, of course it's artificial, but if you can't tell the difference, would it matter? Sort of like the question asked in Westworld, but, obviously in a more low stakes context lol
 
FT-1
Is there even a mass-produced EV sports car on the market right now? There isn't anything to compete directly with the Boxster running on an EV powertrain, and the closest thing I can think of is the upcoming MG Roadster that's due next year.
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The only thing I can think of that approaches a "normal" EV sports car is the Tesla Roadster (original). I do hope this opens the door for a smaller and more enthusiast-geared midship ICE sports car to slot in below the Boxster/Cayman - maybe a bit more 914ish? My main criticism of the Boxster/Cayman is that it has always been positioned, primarily, as the Porsche for people who just want a Porsche badge and sports car aesthetic as fantastic as they are. The Cayman has also been forced into this weird hunchback 911 shape I assume for brand identity purposes. I would love a smaller, more focused, little more harder-edged midship sports car with a little bit more of it's own identity (The Porsche Vision Spyder was perfection in this regard) from Porsche.
 
I just wonder how many ICE cars will be traded for EVs across all brands.
Venom800tt
Pretty much everyone I know who either owns or wants a Boxster/Cayman wouldn't buy an EV version. Also most of them that have driven the Taycan say it is fast, but boring. So I'm not sure how well this will do outside of some of the high population centers...
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That last sentence for me. City traffic where I live, is maximum 80km/h on a specific stretch of road. Everywhere else is 30km/h to 60km/h. As much as I love our little Mazda2 manual, even that’s gotten boring To row through the gears. I mean, I still love the car, but any EV is going to make sense. No matter how much I would want to row my own or or see cars evolve into full on automatics, this is happening.
Enthusiasts will find a way to make the cars fun at track days.
 
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Eunos_Cosmo
The Taycan isn't a sports car though. I can't think of a single truly compelling/engaging EV sports car.
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That's a fair point. I was thinking more along the lines of Porsche possessing some knowledge from that experience that would make the new Boxster a good one.
 
New photos showing off the active aero for cooling, similar to BMW's kidney grills. You can see how the grills are open in the first picture and closed in the second.

www.motor1.com

Electric Porsche 718 Boxster Spy Photos Appear To Reveal Active Aero

New spy photos appear to show the upcoming electric Porsche 718 Boxster with active aerodynamic flaps at the front.
www.motor1.com www.motor1.com

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As a reminder, here's the Mission R, which is what this car is based on, design wise

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Ah yes, a Caynus.

And I suppose it’s good news they kept the frunk it already had.
 
Curious to know how big this is compared to the 718. To my eye it looks longer and wider, but its hard to say at a glance. I think it will be a good looking car..but I'm not sure its all that appealing as a Boxster. It would be kind of weird to even call it a Boxster considering what that name means, but Porsche clearly isn't worried about those kind of things.
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Curious to know how big this is compared to the 718. To my eye it looks longer and wider, but its hard to say at a glance. I think it will be a good looking car..but I'm not sure its all that appealing as a Boxster. It would be kind of weird to even call it a Boxster considering what that name means, but Porsche clearly isn't worried about those kind of things.
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It doesn't have a side air intake or the necessary contouring which makes the panel behind the door look massive. Surely this won't be the final design because mid-engine cars with slab sides don't look very athletic. The Mclaren 720S is a great example of a hideously long-looking cucumber of a car (it's shorter, lower, and wider than a C8).

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Look at all the aaasssss just draaaaggging behind this thing. It looks like the front wheels are racing away from the rears, stretching the middle bit like putty. And the greenhouse is sat so far forward it looks like an old Chrylser Concord. Hideous. If Porsche knows what they're doing, they'll use design tricks like air vents to break up that slaaaab.
 
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Interior of the Boxster EV. It looks like it has 126 km of range at 53% battery. If you extrapolate, that is about 237 km of total range. It was probably being driven pretty hard so a more realistic range would be slightly higher

www.motor1.com

2025 Porsche Boxster EV Shows Dual-Screen Dash Design In New Spy Photos

For reasons that we don’t know yet, the disguise on this trial vehicle is put aside to reveal a large part of the dashboard’s design.
www.motor1.com www.motor1.com

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I'm still confused as to who the Boxster/Cayman EV will be marketed to, since most folk who buy the current ICE cars tend to use them as actual sports cars, along with doing long distance drives. At least from my personal experience...
 
Not too enthusiastic about that interior. The original Boxster is now old/classic enough to mine from, IMO. Why not give us a swoopy binnacle visor?

150 mile range isn't really sufficient...but it should at least be somewhat light for a BEV. The wonderful thing about the Boxster is it's flexibility...and this seems like a step backward in that regard.

I did this thought experiment a while back for a hypothetical BEV MX-5
I was curious as to what a "lightweight" EV might look like. If we take Tesla's batteries as near state of the art in terms of energy density, we're in the neighborhood of 6.25kg / kwh (P100 battery is 625kg and has 100kwh). An MX-5 engine weighs around 300lbs / 135kg, dressed. If we limit our battery pack to that weight and assume an energy density of the Tesla, I'm arriving at around 22kwh capacity. I think the ICE ND transmission is probably lighter than an electric motor, but there is probably some efficiency in the driveline with the EV, so we'll call that a wash. Assuming .35CD and about 19 square feet (1.79m^2) (figures I found for the ND), the car would consume about 12kw/hr maintaining 60mph, meaning our 22kwh battery could last us about 1.75 hours and give us about 105 miles of range. This agnostic of how much power you could produce (and ignoring the efficiency of the motor)...but it's pretty easy to see why battery capacity is prioritized over weight in EVs....weight ultimately has very little effect on range. Even at 4,000lbs the same car would only consume 3 more KW to maintain 60mph.


This example tells me that a lightweight EV would need extreme aero to be viable beyond urban driving ranges with current battery tech Either that or very exotic construction to give more weight back to the batteries. Maybe Mazda can utilize it's rotary engine range extender to pump out that 12kw needed for sustained highway cruising in a lightweight package? I'd be onboard with that.


The other side of fun, to me, is engagement. Without shifting in any capacity, I think engagement is limited. I hope somebody figures out how to make the acceleration of EVs more involving somehow.
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Based on that range, I'm guessing that the Boxster EV has a 30-40kwh battery and weighs somewhere around 50-120kg heavier - call it 3300lbs to be conservative. If it is around that weight it should at least be good* to drive...from point A back to point A.

*for a BEV
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Not too enthusiastic about that interior. The original Boxster is now old/classic enough to mine from, IMO. Why not give us a swoopy binnacle visor?

150 mile range isn't really sufficient...but it should at least be somewhat light for a BEV. The wonderful thing about the Boxster is it's flexibility...and this seems like a step backward in that regard.

I did this thought experiment a while back for a hypothetical BEV MX-5


Based on that range, I'm guessing that the Boxster EV has a 30-40kwh battery and weighs somewhere around 50-120kg heavier - call it 3300lbs to be conservative. If it is around that weight it should at least be good* to drive...from point A back to point A.

*for a BEV
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Traditional gauges go bye-bye.

Not to sound like an ass but I'm really glad I picked this career because I'm gonna need Scrooge McDuck money to buy any ICE sports car worth owning. The fact that OEMs (and more importantly regulators) are targetting low-volume sports cars for EV applications is truly sad, as if the extremely small number of these cars on the road is even a drop in the bucket of overall emissions and efficiency problems.

How about funding to get poor people newer cars instead of driving busted old Chevy Cavaliers leaking raw gasoline down the highway?

How about enforcing catalytic converter theft and funding replacements?

How about regulating used semi truck engines and other diesel commercial vehicles spewing smoke and noise and wasting fuel idling overnight while sleeping?

How about funding route-based vehicles such as school buses, delivery trucks and vans, mail vehicles, or even police cars which just sit there idling wasting fuel and emissions 24/7?

How about requiring CDL licensing for heavy-duty vehicles like HD pickup trucks to prevent suburban commuters from buying large and wasteful vehicles that don't actually do work, and convince them to buy an EV option like a Ford Lightning which does the same job of hiding their small tools with zero emissions?

How about regulating heavy industrial vehicle emissions, everything from construction equipment to cruise ships? The emissions these vehicles spew is traumatizing.

How about identifying which categories of vehicles actually create what level of impact, and targetting those? Larger passenger-oriented vehicles like CUVs make the most sense to be EVs because they're only used for light-duty commuting in traffic while being large enough to have adequate range. Sports cars sell in tiny numbers and aren't driven very often. This is literally destroying over 100 years of automotive culture.

Literally the only differentiating factor between all these EVs are going to be what headlights they strap to the front and how gaudy the interior lighting is. Everything is going to be miserable with no brand identity whatsoever.

It's over, boys. We had a good run. I almost got a decent job in time to enjoy a remotely affordable sports car.
 
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The 718 EV is having development problems, making it "well behind schedule". Almost all their next gen EV products will most likely be delayed


Automobilwoche, the German branch of Automotive News Europe, claims Porsche is having problems developing the 718 EV. The engineers from Zuffenhausen are apparently "well behind schedule," so there's a real risk the electric sports car's launch could be delayed. The mid-mounted battery is believed to be the culprit, with Porsche "constantly requesting adjustments" from supplier Valmet Automotive.

The Finnish company is doing as asked, but it's incurring additional costs that Porsche allegedly doesn't want to pay or only partially covers. Based on our oldest spy shots, the electric 718 has been undergoing testing for at least two years. Nevertheless, it's increasingly likely that the Boxster and Cayman without a combustion engine will not be ready for primetime in 2025 to supersede the gas cars swiftly.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to Automobilwoche, the next-gen, electric-only Cayenne could also be delayed from its original programmed debut in 2026. Porsche has already stopped chasing its lofty goal of having EVs account for 80% of annual sales by 2030. In addition, the German luxury brand has pledged to keep the V-8 engine well into the next decade.

The report mentions that the Panamera could get a next-generation model with combustion engines, given the company's current slowdown in electric sales. Taycan deliveries were down 50% globally through September. On a more positive note, the 911 is said to continue with gas engines into the 2030s. On numerous occasions, Porsche has said the 911 will be its final ICE car.

Elsewhere, the large electric SUV known internally as the "K1" could be pushed back by a few years. Alternatively, Porsche is reportedly considering extending the Cayenne's platform for a three-row SUV with gas engines since the Volkswagen Group Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) doesn't support conventional powertrains. Last month, the Chief Financial Officer, Lutz Meschke, admitted that future models that were supposed to be electric-only could get gas engines:

"We are currently looking at the possibility of the originally planned all-electric vehicles having a hybrid drive or a combustion engine. We are currently in the middle of making conceptual decisions. What is clear is that we are sticking with the combustion engine for much longer."
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I still genuinely don't understand the point of an electric Boxster - arguably Porsche's purest model. They could have easily taken the Panamera/Taycan route and just built a similar-ish car that was electric and kept the Boxster going (the 98x platform is still brilliant, just give us a 983 model) with an ICE motor until at least it was established that people were choosing the EV variant over the ICE. Perhaps Porsche was afraid that wouldn't be the case...
 
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Eunos_Cosmo
I still genuinely don't understand the point of an electric Boxster - arguably Porsche's purest model. They could have easily taken the Panamera/Taycan route and just built a similar-ish car that was electric and kept the Boxster going (the 98x platform is still brilliant, just give us a 983 model) with an ICE motor until at least it was established that people were choosing the EV variant over the ICE. Perhaps Porsche was afraid that wouldn't be the case...
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I think very strict and assertive European EV regs influenced their reactionary decision. I also think corporate fear of Tesla's market valuation contributed. Problem is it seems they completely skipped over market analysis and customer feedback when making these corporate decisions which is painfully typical. They're super deep into development already but somehow just now realizing that nobody wants the damn thing.

They could've modeled it off a 914 or something because then at least they wouldn't tarnish a relevant nameplate.
 

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