The 718 U-Turn — Why Porsche Changed Its Mind on Electricity

There’s a very specific kind of confidence that only car manufacturers seem to possess.

It’s the sort of confidence where a room full of very clever people, armed with data, charts, and expressions that say “I’ve done a spreadsheet about this”, all nod in agreement and decide to do something that, to everyone else, sounds completely bonkers.

A few years ago, Porsche did exactly that.

They looked at the Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster — two of the best balanced, most enjoyable driver’s cars on the planet — and announced that the next generation would be fully electric. Not hybrid. Not “we’ll ease you in gently”. Fully electric.

Now, on paper, this made sense. Governments were tightening emissions rules, EVs were the future, and Porsche had already built the excellent Taycan, which proved they knew what they were doing.

But there’s a difference between knowing what you’re doing… and knowing what you’re doing it to. Because the 718 isn’t just a car. It’s a feeling. It’s a conversation. It’s a pure, mid-engined reminder that driving can still be fun, even when you’re just going to buy milk.

And Porsche looked at that and thought, “Let’s make it silent”. It was a bit like ordering a full English breakfast and being handed a protein shake. Yes, technically it might be better for you. Yes, it might still do the job. But deep down, you know something important has gone missing.

To be fair, Porsche didn’t just throw a battery in and hope for the best. They spent years developing an electric 718, trying to make it feel right, balance right, behave like the car everyone loves.

But there was one small issue. Batteries are heavy. Not “slightly inconvenient” heavy. Proper, gym membership, personal trainer, deadlift heavy. And sports cars hate weight in the same way cats hate baths.

The whole magic of the 718 comes from how light and alive it feels. You turn the wheel and it reacts instantly. You press the throttle and it answers you back. Add a big battery, and suddenly that conversation becomes a bit… delayed. Like trying to have a deep chat with someone on a bad phone signal.

Quick? Yes. Impressive? Probably. The same? Not a chance.

At the same time, something awkward started happening. Customers weren’t quite buying into the idea. They like EVs. Of course they do. They’re brilliant for daily life. Quiet, smooth, easy. But a sports car isn’t meant to be easy. It’s meant to be exciting. It’s meant to make a bit of a scene. It’s meant to feel like something slightly dramatic is happening every time you drive it. And it turns out, quite a lot of people weren’t desperate to swap that for something that sounds like a very fast kitchen appliance.

So Porsche found themselves in a tricky spot. They’d confidently told the world the 718 was going electric, but the people who actually buy 718s were looking at that plan like it had just keyed their car.

And this is where things get really good. Because rather than ploughing on regardless, Porsche did something wonderfully human. They hesitated.

There was no big announcement. No dramatic apology. Just a quiet, slightly awkward shuffle. A few comments here. A subtle shift there. And before you knew it, internal combustion was back in the conversation. Which is, frankly, hilarious.

Because it means Porsche essentially walked into the wrong meeting, sat down, listened for a bit, realised everyone was talking about something completely different, and then quietly backed out while pretending they meant to leave all along. “Sorry, wrong room. Carry on”.

Now, to be clear, they’re not abandoning electric cars. Far from it. The Taycan is still here. The electric Macan is here. There's now an electric Cayenne. The future is still very much electrified.

But what Porsche seems to have realised — and what the rest of the industry is slowly admitting — is that not every car needs to follow exactly the same script.

A big SUV works brilliantly as an EV. A luxury saloon? Perfect. A small, mid-engined sports car that lives and dies on feel, noise, and response? That’s a different story.

So what happens next? Most likely, the 718 keeps an internal combustion engine, possibly with some hybrid assistance to keep the emissions police happy. Porsche is also pushing synthetic fuels, which could let petrol engines stick around without upsetting quite so many people in suits.

In other words, rather than forcing the 718 into something it isn’t, Porsche is finding a way to keep what makes it brilliant. Which is exactly what they should be doing. Because the whole point of a car like this is how it makes you feel. The noise, the vibration, the sense that something mechanical and slightly mischievous is happening just behind you.

Take that away, and you might still have a very fast car. But you won’t have the same car.

So yes, Porsche has done a U-turn. A fairly elegant one, all things considered, but a U-turn nonetheless. And while it’s very easy to laugh at them for ever thinking a silent, battery-powered 718 was a good idea, there’s also something quite reassuring about it.

Because it shows that even now, with all the pressure to go electric, all the targets, all the deadlines, they’re still willing to stop and ask a very simple question: “Are we about to ruin this?”

This time, they caught it just in time. Which means that somewhere in Stuttgart, there’s probably an engineer breathing a quiet sigh of relief, turning a key, and hearing an engine fire into life. And thinking, “Yes… that’s better”.