It seems like we’ve been hearing about Porsche’s plan to electrify the Boxster and Cayman for eons, yet we’ve never seen anything closer to production-ready than the Mission R concept from back in 2021. A new report from Automobilwoche says why that may be: Porsche is simply struggling with the car’s development.
The report, as translated via Google, claims that Porsche’s radio silence on the electric 718 comes from delays with the project itself. Apparently, the company’s engineers are struggling with battery placement in the mid-engine chassis. From Automobilwoche:
And the electrification of the 718 series with Boxster and Cayman is also anything but smooth. As Automobilwoche learned, this project is also well behind schedule. The reason for this is the complexity of the battery.
Since the 718 is a mid-engine sports car and Porsche has only further developed the existing platform, the battery must be placed in the middle to enable similar driving characteristics.
But this is proving to be so difficult that Porsche is constantly demanding adjustments from the battery supplier Valmet Automotive, which built a factory in Baden-Württemberg especially for the order. In the meantime, the Finnish company is said to have incurred significant additional costs due to the delay, which Porsche apparently does not want to cover or only partially.
Struggles with suppliers are always an adventure, but the interesting thing here is that Porsche is apparently trying to adapt the 718 platform for electrification — not design a new chassis from the ground up for battery power. Such a move saves costs, but costs Porsche in development time and risks compromising the end product. EVs shoehorned into ICE chassis never seem to work as well as fully-new electric cars.
Jalopnik reached out to Porsche for comment and will update this story when and if we hear back.
