• We got to ride shotgun in the upcoming 718 Boxster EV at Porsche’s Weissach test track in Germany.
• The battery is placed behind the seats instead of under the floor, giving the car a low seating position and dynamics that mimic a mid-engined sports car.
• The electric Boxster we rode in was rear-wheel drive and featured the E-Shift system found in the Taycan, which simulates gearchanges via paddles.

At long last, Porsche’s electric replacement for the beloved 718 Boxster and Cayman is right around the corner. First confirmed in 2022, the 718 EV has faced lengthy delays, but today at Porsche’s Capital Markets Day, where the company revealed its plans for the next several years, it confirmed that the 718 EV will finally arrive in 2027. And after we rode in a prototype around Porsche’s Weissach test track, the electric sports car feels tantalizingly close.

Porsche is still being coy with details about the first electric 718, which will be sold as the Boxster convertible and Cayman coupe. We don’t know power outputs or specifics about the powertrains, chassis, or estimated driving range. However, Porsche did reveal that its electric sports car will take a novel approach to the battery placement, eschewing the skateboard-style setup that’s commonplace in EVs, where the battery sits under the floor.

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Instead, Porsche has mounted the battery, which is also structurally integrated into the chassis, exactly where the internal-combustion engine was in the gas-powered 718 models: directly behind the seats. Porsche refers to this as its E-Core architecture and says the setup is meant to preserve the mid-engined driving character of the gas-fed 718s. In a combustion Boxster, 59.8 percent of the weight sat over the rear axle, while in the 718 EV, 55.2 percent of the weight is positioned at the rear.

The battery’s unique placement is evident the moment you slide into the electric 718’s seat. Many EVs have a high seating position due to the battery being positioned under the floor, but the electric Boxster we rode in felt shockingly familiar to the recently discontinued gas-fed Boxster, both in its low-slung seating position and in its overall proportions. While the lightly camouflaged model clearly has different headlights and taillights and appears to ditch the intake just ahead of the rear wheels, the lithe shape feels almost identical to the gas-burning 718, and Porsche says the E-Core setup was crucial for this as well.

Porsche also says the mid-mounted battery placement allowed the company to maintain the “signature balance, agility, and precision” of its gas sports car, despite the new-age powertrain. While we weren’t able to drive the Boxster EV ourselves, it certainly felt nimble from the passenger’s seat as we blasted around the tight, twisty Weissach circuit.

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