Porsche’s next Boxster goes electric only, but its CEO says the 911 never will

Porsche’s next 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman will be sold only with electric powertrains, and chief executive Michael Leiters told the company’s Capital Markets Day on Oct. 7 that “the 911 will never be electric.” The two statements came within the same presentation at the Weissach Development Centre outside Stuttgart, and together they fix where the brand intends to draw its line between battery power and combustion.

The gas-powered Boxster and Cayman ended production in 2025, so the electric versions are the only mid-engined 718 models Porsche now plans to build.

An all-electric 718 with 2028 as the first full year

Porsche’s release on its Sportwagenschmiede ’35 strategy, dated Oct. 7, says the company will launch all-electric versions of the 718 Boxster and 718 Cayman and expects them to support sales in their first full production year, 2028. The same document says Porsche is keeping a three-pronged powertrain approach, investing in combustion and plug-in hybrid drives alongside next-generation battery technology, which means electric-only applies to the 718 and not to the whole range.

InsideEVs reported that Porsche confirmed at the event that the two-door sports cars will be offered with electric powertrains only, with a debut in 2027 and that 2028 production year. Electrek, whose account of the investor presentation first drew the contrast between the two models, noted that the presentation lists the 718 as a solely electric model.

The 718 decision sits inside a broader cut in complexity. Porsche’s release targets around 20 percent fewer model variants, with sales per variant expected to rise by about 30 percent, and sets a medium-term group operating return on sales of 10 to 15 percent on group sales of 41 to 45 billion euros. Leiters said the company is “pursuing a clear plan” under the Sportwagenschmiede ’35 strategy, with the near-term focus on reducing costs and strengthening financial robustness. An electric two-seater that the company now expects to support sales in 2028 is one piece of that arithmetic, since Porsche says electric investment is expected to peak in 2026 and then decline significantly in the medium term.

Leiters on the 911 at Weissach

Leiters, who formally chairs Porsche’s executive board, was direct about the brand’s best-known car. TechTimes reported him telling the Weissach audience, in an emphatic form of the same sentence, that the 911 will never be electric. The TechTimes account places the remark on Wednesday, Oct. 7, and InsideEVs gives the same quote.

The position is not new. At Porsche’s annual general meeting on June 23, Leiters outlined the three-pillar Strategy 2035 and said there would be no fully electric 911, calling the specially developed performance hybrid powertrain “a fundamental building block” for the model, Automotive World reported. Porsche’s own Oct. 7 release is quieter on the point, promising to emphasize the 911’s DNA across all model lines and to strengthen the 911 offering in the D segment with what it calls highly emotive derivatives. The release does not repeat the word “never,” so the categorical wording rests on Leiters’s spoken remarks at the event as reported by TechTimes and InsideEVs, and on his June statement, rather than on a line in the written strategy.

Electrek’s author argued that the 911 will eventually electrify regardless, a view the outlet labeled as its own opinion and one that Porsche has not endorsed.

From teased gas versions to a settled answer

The electric-only decision reverses an earlier signal. In August, Carscoops reported that Leiters had confirmed in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine that the electric Boxster and Cayman would be built, after reports they might be scrapped, and described the next-generation 718 as still offering combustion engines in higher versions, likely a naturally aspirated six-cylinder. Porsche had teased gas-engine 718s just over a year ago.

Matthias Rauter, Porsche’s head of corporate communications, told Motor1 around the event that the combustion 718 pair was “never actually confirmed for a comeback.” Motor1 reads that as meaning the cars were not canceled because they were never approved, and notes that a slide now refers only to a “potential midterm drivetrain portfolio in the product roadmap.”

Mission S and the space above the 911

Porsche is simultaneously developing a mid-engined super sports car platform that would sit above the 911, with a preview planned for Oct. 15, according to the company’s strategy release. InsideEVs identifies the preview as the Mission S concept, and TechTimes says the full unveil is set for mid-October.

The release places that car alongside a new B-segment SUV with combustion and plug-in hybrid versions, to be shown in 2028 and sold next to the all-electric Macan, with series production ramping that year and a noticeable sales and profit contribution expected in 2029. The materials read there leave open whether Mission S itself will use a combustion engine, a point Porsche has not addressed in the strategy release.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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