Porsche boss have vowed that full electric cars will account for more than 80 per cent of the sports car firm’s global sales by 2030 – and has committed to launching electric versions of the 718 Cayman and 718 Boxster by 2025.
The German firm has already enjoyed plenty of success with its first electric car, the Porsche Taycan – which outsold the fabled Porsche 911 last year. In 2021, Porsche sold 41,296 Taycan, compared to 38,464 examples of the 911. The success of the EV helped Porsche to sell a record 301,915 vehicles during the year.
Speaking during Porsche’s financial results presentation, company boss Oliver Blume insisted that was just the start. “We are stepping up our electric offensive with another model,” he said. “By the middle of the decade, we want to offer our mid-engine 718 sports car exclusively in an all-electric form."
The 718 is a mid-engined sports car offered in hard-top Cayman and soft-top Boxster form. We’ve already seen a likely preview of its electric successor in the form of the Porsche Mission R racing car concept that the firm revealed last year.
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That machine featured styled that is expected to be closely echoed in the eventual production version, and an unusual battery layout. In a bid to replicate the mid-engined balance and feel of the 718 models and keep the model as low to the ground as possible, Porsche engineers adopted an unusual ‘e-core’ layout. It features a flat floor enabling a low seating position, with the batteries mounted in a block behind the driver but ahead of the rear axle, where the combustion unit in a mid-engined sports car would usually sit.
The Mission R featured twin electric motors mounted on the rear axle, which allows for plenty of power but rear-wheel-drive. The machine features a bespoke sportswear platform, which could also be used by other performance brands in the Volkswagen Group.
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The firm’s electric ambitions extend far beyond the EV 718. The firm is also working on a new Macan EV that will launch next year, and wants half of its sales to be electrified vehicles – plug-in hybrid or full electric – by 2025.
To help drive the take-up of electric vehicles, Porsche says it is working with partners to help develop ‘premium’ charging stations, and with the Cellforce Group to develop new batteries specifically designed for performance sports cars.
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