After news that the fabled Porsche 918 Successor is delayed until at least 2025 because the technology isn’t there yet, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Porsche is on the fence about pushing the 718 Cayman and Boxster into EV territory too. The good news is that we’ll know in the next few months, but the bad news is it will still be a while before it actually happens if it happens at all.

Porsche 718 Electric – It’s Been A Long Time Coming

The Porsche 718 has only been on the market for four years now, so this generation still has some life left in it. Just a year after its launch in 2017, we learned that Porsche was shooting down the idea of an electric 911, but it was considering an electric 718. A year after that, and once we learned that the man behind the Toyota Supra wanted to work with Porsche on a sports car, I even argued that the next-gen 718 and rumored Toyota MR2 could be architectural twins.

Ever since then, the conceptual idea of the next-gen 718 going electric has been, well, very quiet. That is until now, with Porsche Boss – Oliver Blume – telling Auto Express that the company will make an official decision by summer of 2021. But, it’s just not that simple. If the 718 is going to go all-electric, it needs to be done right, and there’s a lot of concern that battery technology just isn’t there yet. After all, the 718 EV will be expected to prove that electric sports cars can actually work for everyone.

The good news is that regardless of the decision this summer, the 718 will soldier on. Even if it doesn’t go electric, there will be a new generation of 718 coming in the next few years. Even if this generation remains powered by gasoline, it won’t last forever. Porsche is still committed to electric vehicles, it just has to be sure that each and every electric Porsche actually drives like a Porsche.

With that in mind, it’s hard to imagine a time when Porsche will sell more electric sports cars than gasoline powered sports cars, but let me ask you this: If an electric 718, or even an electric 911, can give you all the same thrills as the cars we know and love today, is it really a big deal that it’s electricity driving the rear wheels instead of gasoline? I guess only time will tell, but if there’s any company that can make an electric sports car the right way, you can bet that it’s Porsche.