The electric Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster are just a few news cycles and delays away from becoming the theoretical rotary sports car Mazda is going to produce any day now, but Porsche’s CEO promises it’s still in development and still coming. There’s been a lot of back and forth about the future of the 718 siblings. There’s been talk about a pure gas replacement as well as gas and electric replacements running in parallel, but with the financial state the Volkswagen Group finds itself in, Porsche seems to be concentrating on just the electric 718 at this point.
CEO Michael Leiters, who has been in the position since the beginning of this year, confirmed that the 718 EV is the platform that won out “because it is the best solution economically.” He also told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that it’ll be a “fantastic car.” For Porsche’s sake, I sure hope it is.
The news comes at a tumultuous moment for Porsche. In July, we reported that Volkswagen was planning to kill 10 vehicles in an effort to save itself. Among them was the gas-powered replacement for the 718 twins. Just as a refresher, at first they were just EVs. Then they were both as demand for EVs dwindled. Then there was just gas as it really dwindled. Then there were both again. Now we’re back to just EVs. It’s all a bit silly.
Porsche problems
Porsche’s electric vehicles haven’t exactly been hot sellers, so going all in on an EV entry-level sports car is a gamble to say the least. Of the 280,000 vehicles the German automaker sold across the world in 2025, just 22.2% of them were fully electric, and a further 12.1% were plug-in hybrids, according to InsideEVs. It’s not like EVs are getting more popular in the U.S., either, as regulations and favorable incentives go by the wayside.
At the very least, Porsche can rest its hat knowing that it delivered more electrified vehicles in Europe than pure gas cars in 2025, with 57.9% of all vehicles having some sort of electrical component. In fact, about 33% of them were fully electric, between the Taycan, Macan EV and Cayenne EV.
The gas-powered 718 Boxster and Cayman’s production came to a close in October of last year, and despite the early cutoff, the automaker was still able to move 18,612 of the little sports cars — down just 21% from 2024, InsideEVs reports. There’s no word on how many electric 718s Porsche intends to sell per year, but matching those numbers is going to be a tall task.
It will be helped by the fact that there won’t be much competition for the electric 718. Right now, the closest competitor is Alpine’s electrified A110, which is due out later this year for a 2027 launch. It also has some internal competition from Audi, which previously vowed to go ahead with a Concept C-based all-electric sports car even if Porsche killed the electric 718. Both cars would share the same platform.
Little else is known about the electric 718 at this point. Hell, we’ve only really seen spy shots of it, and there aren’t any official specs or details to speak of. Still, knowing Porsche, it’s going to be one of the sickest EVs on sale whenever it finally does come out.
