Ferdinand Porsche is generally credited with building the world’s first hybrid back in 1909, and the company has of late been developing high-performance petrol-electrics like the 918 Spyder. Now it’s exploring all-electric sports cars with the Boxster E.
There aren’t a whole lot of details and Porsche doesn’t mention the Boxster E on its media website, but from what we’ve gathered around the ‘net the e-Boxster is one of three prototypes being tested in Germany.
Automobile magazine says the car could have one or two motors with a total output of 180 kW. It says Porsche “has no plans of a full electric production vehicle” and is developing the Boxster E “as a rolling laboratory” to test components and charging infrastructure. Britain’s Autocar magazine says the Boxster E sports a 29 kW/h lithium-ion pack and two motors like the Porsche 918 Spyder. A battery that size would be a bit bigger than the 24 kW/h pack in the Nissan Leaf. AutoExpress says the pack is in the middle of the car — makes sense, since the Boxster is a mid-engine vehicle — and the Boxster E performs much like a Boxster S. Look for it to do zero to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds.
Although Porsche apparently has no plans to produce the Boxster E, the technology almost certainly would appear in other models, including the parallel hybrid the company plans to unveil next month at the Geneva auto show.
