The Petrol-Powered Porsche 718 Will Die Next Year

We’ve known this was on the cards for a while, but now it’s official. The current Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman will ride off into the sunset in mid-2025, bringing to an end the age of the petrol-powered, mid-engined junior sports car from Stuttgart.

It’s no secret that a fully electric replacement for Porsche’s entry-level sports car is in the works: Porsche’s already confirmed it, and it’s been spotted testing, trying to fool us all with a fake exhaust pipe.

Now, though, the company has confirmed the current car’s date with the automotive Grim Reaper. The news comes from Porsche production and logistics executive, Albrecht Reimold, in an interview with German publication Automobilwoche.

In the article (translated from German), Reimold confirms that production of the current generation of 718 “will run until mid-2025… In Zuffenhausen, we are already concentrating on the future electric 718.”

In most of Europe, only the hardcore Cayman GT4 RS and 718 Spyder RS remain in the range, the rest having been ditched due to noncompliance with EU cybersecurity rules. Other markets, though, including the UK, currently still have access to the whole lineup, from the basic 296bhp, 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder car, up to the naturally aspirated flat-six RS models. In as little as a year's time, though, production on all of them will wind up.

While an all-electric replacement is likely to be a big blow to many fans of the current car, Albrecht also tried to reaffirm to people that the new cars will still feel like Porsches: “The 718 is predestined for electric drive. It will be a real fun car. I have already driven it.”

Albrecht also doubled down on Porsche’s commitment to electric cars, despite other manufacturers showing more caution around the transition among falling EV demand: “I also cannot understand why electromobility as a whole is currently being portrayed so negatively in the public debate. In terms of sustainability alone, for me personally, there is no way around electric drive.”

Despite that, there are still likely plenty of exciting petrol-powered sports cars to come from Porsche yet, especially as it continuously looks into synthetic fuels – but they’ll nearly all wear 911 badges, not 718.