From the Could 2023 challenge of Automobile and Driver.
WHAT IT IS
Apart from the follow-up to one in every of Porsche’s finest fashions, will probably be Porsche’s first electrical sports activities automotive. Not an enormous deal, proper?
WHY IT MATTERS
A longtime Porsche mannequin going electrical will ship shock waves by way of the business. The 911 could also be Porsche’s gold normal, however the 718 is a high-visibility automotive, and its success or failure might dictate the market course of electrical sports activities vehicles.
PLATFORM
This would be the first Porsche on the Volkswagen Group’s PPE platform. Meaning nearly nothing will carry over from the present 718. Chassis steadiness will stay, effectively, balanced as a result of the battery will occupy many of the area aft of the firewall the place the engine is at the moment, to make sure that the present automotive’s mid-engine dealing with will stay intact. A 900-volt electrical structure will make sure the quickest DC charging.
POWERTRAIN
Porsche is concentrating on a curb weight of 3650 kilos. At that weight, the automotive will not want huge vitality capability to ship sturdy acceleration. Anticipate the bottom mannequin to have a single motor with at the least 450 horsepower driving the rear wheels. Later, a second motor driving the entrance wheels will deliver all-wheel drive to the 718, and ultimately, there can be a mannequin with upward of 1000 horses.
COMPETITION
Late-model used Boxsters and Caymans; Tesla Roadster (if that ever will get off the bottom); Lotus Emira.
WHAT MIGHT GO WRONG
Getting the emotion proper will make or break the 718 EV. If the automotive is just too scientific, as many EVs are, the passion to personal one will wane. There’s a good probability nobody needs their toy automotive to be an EV. No less than not but.
ESTIMATED ARRIVAL AND PRICE
Anticipate to see the 718 EV early subsequent 12 months, with a fall 2024 on-sale date. The Porsche hierarchy will stay, however the 718 EV will price about $15K greater than the present base 718. Search for pricing to begin close to $80,000 and, as ordinary, near-endless manufacturing facility choices.
Government Editor
Okay.C. Colwell is Automobile and Driver’s govt editor, who covers new vehicles and expertise with a eager eye for automotive nonsense and with what he considers to be nice automotive sense, which is a humblebrag. On his first day at C/D in 2004, he was given the keys to a Porsche 911 by somebody who did not even know if he had a driver’s license. He additionally is without doubt one of the drivers who set quick laps at C/D‘s annual Lightning Lap monitor take a look at.