Porsche is preparing to say goodbye to combustion engines for the 718 lineup as the next-generation Boxster and Cayman will be available strictly as electric sports cars. Ahead of a 2025 launch, the soft-top convertible has been spied in motion near the Arctic Circle conducting cold-weather testing. It was making some futuristic sounds courtesy of an external speaker mandatory on EVs in many parts of the world to alert pedestrians and cyclists.
The heavily camouflaged prototype couldn't conceal the traditional mid-engined layout even though there's no turbocharged flat-four or a naturally aspirated flat-six behind the seats. After a prototype of the Taycan facelift was spotted with a TDI badge, Porsche's running joke continues with a fake exhaust tip on this electric prototype. Look closer and you can see the cutout in the rear bumper for the cap covering the charging port.
2025 Porsche 718 Boxster EV spy photos near the Arctic Circle
In typical Porsche fashion, the zero-emission Boxster is cleverly disguised to give the impression we’re looking at the current 718 convertible. It's hard to tell whether it has the full production body or only some of the final panels. Either way, it is too premature to talk about the design since many details could be hiding underneath the body-colored camo.
The new Boxster won't use an adaptation of the platform underpinning the current 718 models. Instead, it'll sit on a dedicated architecture developed specifically for Porsche's smaller sports car. However, it won't be completely bespoke since some of the components will be taken from other models. Chances are it'll utilize hardware from the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) that Porsche and Audi are working on for the Macan EV and Q6 E-Tron.
The jury is still out on whether we'll see both the Boxster and Cayman in 2025. So far, car paparazzi have only spotted prototypes of the former. That said, it was the latter Porsche chose to use to preview the electric sports car with the 2021 Mission R. It's worth pointing out that the concept was based on the current Cayman but it strongly hinted at the styling direction the EV will take around the middle of the decade.
When the Boxster/Cayman break cover sans the combustion engine, expect a rear-wheel-drive setup with a single electric motor. It'll be interesting to see whether hotter derivatives will arrive further down the line with a dual-motor, AWD setup. As for the bigger 911, Porsche has said it won't launch an EV variant this decade, but a hybrid based on the existing 992-generation model is coming sooner rather than later.
