After eighteen months of contradictory reports, Porsche’s chief executive has settled the question in public. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported on 5 August 2026, Michael Leiters confirmed that the electric successors to the Cayman and Boxster are going ahead.
« I always look at every project first and foremost from a Porsche perspective: does it make economic sense or not? » he said. « Only then do potential synergies within the group come into play. With the electric 718, we came to the conclusion that we will build the model, because it is the best solution economically and will be a fantastic car. »
How the story got here
Production of the 982 generation ended in late 2025. Electric replacements on the PPE Sport platform were the original plan. Weak demand for high-end electric performance cars unsettled that: in 2025 Porsche said the coming 718 line-up would be widened to include top internal combustion derivatives.
What followed played out in the press. In December, Autocar reported that senior sources described work to reverse-engineer the PPE Sport architecture to accept a petrol engine, with wider availability than just the range-topping RS versions. In February 2026, Bloomberg, citing insiders, wrote that Leiters was considering scrapping the electric 718 outright over delays and rising costs. A plug-in hybrid variant was reportedly studied and dropped, since different underpinnings meant more cost and a longer timeline.
Last month Bild reported that the Volkswagen Group was weighing the discontinuation of more than half a dozen models, including the combustion 718. Porsche has not confirmed that, and Leiters did not address it. Treat it as an unconfirmed press report.
The platform shared with Audi
The electric 718 will share its architecture with the production version of the Audi Concept C, positioned as a spiritual successor to the TT. Leiters pushed back on the suggestion that the Porsche project exists to make the Audi one viable. According to him, the decision to build an electric 718 was taken on its own economic merits, with group synergies considered afterwards.
The sequence matters. It determines who writes the dynamic brief, and therefore what the car ends up feeling like.
The rest of the interview
Leiters was blunt about Porsche’s financial position. Under current market conditions, he said, the company could not survive in its present form without financial synergies inside the group. His answer is to run Porsche like a smaller carmaker, with independent business units and less corporate oversight, to move faster against Chinese competitors.
Two models remain on the plan: a supercar positioned above the 911, and a seven-seat SUV on a stretched Cayenne chassis. No details were given on either. Leiters said their development would not come at the expense of the core range. The backdrop is the half-year result published in late July, where margins improved while deliveries fell sharply.
What it means for 718 buyers
Little in the short term, a great deal in the medium term. The combustion 982 cars are out of production, values are holding, and the used market is now the only route to a mid-engined petrol Cayman or Boxster.
The bet itself is still open. An electric roadster under two tonnes with sensible weight distribution can be an excellent car. It will not sound like a flat-six, and part of the Boxster’s historic audience (article in French) will never accept that. Porsche knows, has priced it in, and is proceeding anyway. At least the move is consistent with the electrification path the company has been describing (article in French).
Sources: Michael Leiters interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported on 5 August 2026 by Torquecafe and CarBuzz.
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