Porsche Boxster and Cayman to get hybrid and EV powertrains

Porsche’s mid-engined sports car favourites will score mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid and even full battery-electric power in their next full generation, due in 2022.

The Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman twins are likely to deliver only the two hybrid options at the start, with a EV versions of the roadster and coupe most likely to wait for the industrialisation of solid-state batteries some time around 2025.

Sources have insisted that the delay on the EV variant has been forced on Porsche because it can’t package enough current-tech lithium-ion batteries into its chassis to eke out more than 300km of range.

While Porsche’s Volkswagen Group parent has revealed it expects a 25 per cent improvement in energy-to-weight potency of lithium-ion batteries between now and 2025, Porsche also believes solid-state batteries will add another 25 per cent again on top of that figure.

It’s no coincidence that CEO Oliver Blume has admitted Porsche won’t return to the hypercar fold until after 2025, when he expected solid-state batteries to come on stream.

“The evolution of the batteries in three or four years can offer this,” Blume said last month.

“It’s not decided yet if [the next hypercar] is a hybrid or a full battery car. We wait [on] the development of the batteries. It will be 2025 or later.”

But Blume wasn’t only talking about performance in a straight line, but overall battery performance, including packaging, safety and range.

The lithium-ion batteries in Porsche’s current production plug-in hybrids deliver 37 Amp hours per cell, Blume admitted. A production step is already planned to lift this to 47, but the 911 hybrid will have 60Ah per cell.

He hinted that a move to solid-state batteries could end range anxiety, pushing cars out to 1000km before they need recharging. They also promise to be safer in serious crashes.

“Today we work with liquid batteries but … in future the biggest opportunity is in solid-state batteries. Therefore we have to wait until 2025 or more.

“These batteries will have a big advantage for distance. In future you will be able to drive 1000km [between recharges].”

Porsche’s investigations into solid-state tie in with the financial and technical tie-up from its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, into a solid-state spin off of the Stanford University in the US.

The Group spent $US100 million last year to buy a chunk of QuantumScape, a solid-state battery research and development operation.

Blume pointed out that when solid state technology is industrialised for the car industry, the batteries will be 30 per cent lighter than lithium-ion batteries, with greater energy-storage potential per cell and that up to 99 per cent of the battery packs will be recyclable.

While the 718 EV waits for solid-state, the mid-motor twins will score proven hybrid technology, with hardware lifted from its big brother, the 911. They’ll be fiddled to fit into the 718’s four-cylinder ethos, rather than the bigger car’s flat-six layout.

That effectively means the introduction of a 48-volt electrical system and a disc-shaped electric motor nestled inside the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission to add boost under acceleration and recover energy under deceleration.

The lighter, cheaper, less complex mild-hybrid system won’t be able to drive in full-electric mode, like the plug-in hybrid twins, but runs a simpler electric boost and regeneration system for added acceleration and lower fuel consumption.

The other advantage is that the MHD version will be lighter, because it won’t have the PIH’s dedicated lithium-ion battery for the electric motor.

A major driver for the change is to use the lightest Porsche’s to achieve their 2020 EU7 emissions targets and possibly help pull down the company’s SUV-heavy average, too.

“We have prototypes of the 718 running in electric now, and a hybrid prototype is being built,” Blume said recently.

“If you look to the next generation of those cars it is possible, although it is not yet clear whether it would be plug-in hybrid or hybrid.”

Porsche first publicly toyed with the idea of an electric Boxster with the 2011 Boxster E concept car and engineering project that had just 170km of range, and CEO Oliver Blume is already on record as saying an all-electric Macan SUV is also in the works.

“For at least two to three years we will have both [electric and combustion versions of the second-generation Macan],” he said.

“At that point, we can decide whether to upgrade the combustion engines to the new Euro 7 standard or go full electric.

“The pace that countries are changing is different – China wants electric now, Russia is in less of a hurry, for instance.”

Porsche has already developed two full EV platforms: the J1 that sits beneath the upcoming Taycan, the Taycan Sports Turismo and its Audi twin, the e-tron GT, plus its successor, the PPE system that will host everything from Lamborghinis to Bentleys.

The Volkswagen Group has also been left it in charge of developing a separate EV platform exclusively for sports cars and hypercars, though it has received significant input from Audi and Lamborghini.

The next generations of almost every four- or five-door Porsche will have a PPE variant, including the Panamera and the Cayenne, and Blume has hinted that PIH and MHD versions of the same body styles could sit comfortably together with the EVs in showrooms.