Porsche Boxster EV concept reportedly coming soon — what we know so far

Porsche 718 Boxster driving shot
(Image credit: Porsche)

After talking up the prospects of an electric Boxster for years, Porsche is going to make the car a reality. The first step? Developing a concept vehicle.

This news comes right from Porsche itself. Executive board member for development Michael Steiner confirmed that the company is pushing to develop a Boxster electric concept. It’s just not clear when we might see it, or how long a production model will take to develop.

Porsche previously promised that an electric Boxster would launch by 2022, alongside an electric Cayman and plug-in hybrid versions of both. Porsche also worked on other prototypes in the past, only to concede that those models were unsuitable for development because they were too heavy.

Porsche wants its electric cars to provide drivers with the same sort of experience as its gas cars, which is understandable. Obviously, when you buy a Porsche you want to be able to own a car that’s quick, easy to control and looks fantastic. An electric car that’s bulky and heavy can’t do any of those things, and the range is also going to be impacted. So that took the automaker back to the drawing board.

But now it seems like those problems are close to being solved. While it’s not clear when Porsche will show off the concept, the fact it’s willing to talk about revealing it suggests that good progress is being made

The only question is will the Porsche Boxster EV end up going into mass production, and if so when? It took five years for the company to turn the Mission E concept into the electric Taycan. So it doesn’t bode well for the prospect of the electric Boxster or Cayman arriving over the next couple of years. Despite Porsche’s previous promises to the contrary.

The only thing we really know for sure is that the new car will not be built on Volkswagen’s PPE electric platform, like the upcoming Macan EV. Instead, Porsche has already announced that the production Boxster EV will be built on a different, unreleased platform that we don’t know a great deal about.

We’ll bring you more on the Porsche Boxster EV concept when we hear it.

Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.