phefner

These are the same people who gave us the “Braun” shaver nub right?

UncleDude

I wonder if they’ll launch a Cayman and Boxster together.

pgap718

I'm pretty sure they said they are only doing the Boxster to start.

TXRubicon

Cayman will trail by a year. Should start seeing prototypes of those hitting the public roads early next year based on their testing to launch cadence.

roadawg1608

With electric cars, the beauty of their insane simplicity and efficiency in design and operation will be their curse for sports car applications because its not really possible for manufacturers to differentiate it from other cars at this time. There is no exhaust noise. It doesn't shift gears. It doesn't "feel" like anything under the hood. It can't be more refined and "rev happy", there is no induction noise, no difference in throttle response... This is becoming a software race and battery technology race. It sounds futuristic but no thanks. In time with solid state batteries, fast charging electric cars with lighter battery packs will become easier for most people to use in the real world but where does anything people want in a sports car fit into this?

This is probably a disaster for sports cars. I am guessing the demand for electric sports cars will be very low and depreciation, and the disposable nature of them will become apparent.

I just don't see how a electric sports car makes any sense as mentioned may times in this thread.

ipse dixit

Drive a Model 3 and a Taycan back to back and come back and tell me again that "its not really possible for manufacturers to differentiate it from other cars at this time"

Larson E. Rapp

I rented a Model Y once and was honestly pretty impressed at how it hid its weight. It's not a car for me for various reasons but I'm not sure why a Taycan might feel any different. The core EV driving aspects are pretty much nailed, not a lot of room left for improvement.

I feel the same about my 981BS with respect to ICE-powered sports cars. There was really nowhere left to go after they built that, apart from making various numbers bigger. Everything I've seen since then just reinforces that impression. So admittedly, I'm probably not the most qualified guy to judge the finer attributes that might separate a Model Y from a Taycan.

wizee

My impressions from the Tesla Model Y and Model 3 cars I’ve driven were that they were fast, had minimal body roll or brake dive, and decent grip, but had rubbery steering feel, unsophisticated damping feel, mediocre interior quality and comfort, excessive road noise, and generally didn’t inspire enthusiastic driving. The Taycan felt much more sophisticated in those areas the Teslas were lacking.

Good electric powertrains all feel pretty similar and “ideal” across car brands, aside from differences in regeneration strategies. That does remove one aspect that differentiates cars. However, there are many other aspects to a car that also make a huge difference. For example, compare an S63 to an AMG GT - same powertrain, vastly different cars.

Things that set electric cars apart from each other include:

• Steering feel
• Brake feel and endurance
• Cooling, efficiency/range, and endurance for sustained hard use (on track for example)
• Body control and damping
• Suspension geometry
• Refinement over rough roads
• Seat design, supportiveness and comfort
• Interior road noise levels
• Interior design and materials
• Exterior styling
• Overall size and weight

A 718 EV would be vastly different from a Tesla Model 3 in all these areas, and a vastly different car to drive overall.

Larson E. Rapp

Some good points there for sure. The big question is, though, how many of those are Porsche competitive strong points? We should probably be looking at the original Tesla Roadster as a benchmark rather than Model 3s and Ys and other later cars that are really not meant to be driven by humans at all.

People who liked the Roadster really, really liked it... to the extent that a lot of people gave Musk $200K+ deposits for the next one, despite the lack of any commitments to schedules or specs. What will the 718EV do that competing cars from Tesla and other manufacturers won't, or can't?

ipse dixit

Here's the thing, I am not going to buy any sub-150k EV for its driving dynamics or lack thereof.

At that price range, an EV for me is simply a utilitarian tool to get me from Point A to Point B and then back again to A. A golf car with better seats, if you will.

But that said, even though I am not shopping an EV based on driving dynamics, it is indisputable that different EVs do have different driving dynamics. To deny that is like believing there's no difference between masturbation and intercourse with another carbon life form.

ldamelio

We have a winner. This sums up the EV experience perfectly. If the market evolves to the point of their ubiquity, I will reluctantly obtain one for transportation.

Zhao

I agree with a lot of what you're saying except for the demand. There will be huge demand from certain demographics for EV sports cars. They're the guys who buy it to compare specs around the water cooler, specs they'd never ever see in real life because they drive 10kph under the limit in it, 3 times a year, and would never risk it at the track because they think track driving would destroy it instantly for wear and tear damage. Lots of guys like that buying sports cars chasing spec sheets, and they'll love the EV sports car crap when it comes out. They'll push them to 50-60% of their capabilities on the street, and they'll feel great at those speeds, so they'd laud how well designed they are and how they handle like they're on rails. They'll also dump them very quickly for the next new shiny thing, into a market that has no interest in them because a lot of people buying used sports cars buy them for enjoyment. No real offense to those guys who I barely understand but they're generally the ones who buy all sports cars and always have. It's why 90% of 911's are PDK, and they want stuff like park assist, navigation, radar cruise and lane departure.

Drifting

I've had an EV for 4 years as a daily driver. (M3P). Great for daily driving, but not what I want for the weekend. I think ipse's comparison of this to two types of sex was quite apt. Both get you from point A to point B, but one is a much more special experience.

I will likely always have a home charged EV as my daily and an ICE car for my long trip, track, weekend "fun" car. Currently I have an MP3 daily and a 991.2 GT3 for the fun car.
If needed, I could live with an ICE daily. I couldn't live with an EV weekend sports car. At least not for more than a couple months, before I got bored with the lack of emotion/connection, long trip charging hassles, and sold for a huge loss as sports EVs do not hold value any more than a smartphone.

I was thinking about an EV cayman for a long time since I wanted to take my M3P to a different level of fit/finish & particularly handling.

But now i"m on the fence, because an EV cayman would be a worse daily driver than my M3P, from a standpoint of charging, space for cargo and humans, and concerns for where I park it. I don't worry about any of those things with my Tesla M3P. I'm also not ready to take a big depreciation hit on an expensive EV.

TXshaggy

https://electrek.co/2023/12/13/porsc...testing-video/

Porsche’s Boxster EV looks like the electric roadster we’ve been waiting for in new testing video

SoCal-NSX

keep the price right and if it looks like this....they'll sell plenty of them.