Porsche To Offer Electric SUV, Tesla Roadster Rival Too

The Volkswagen Group is on record as saying it will "electrify" every model by the year 2030. A not-insignificant part of that package of improvements are the battery-powered changes coming to the Porsche lineup. Now, we have a bit more insight into how that effort will be translated by the folks at its Stuttgart headquarters. According to Autocar, future all-electric vehicles will include an SUV, at least one sportscar, and a Targa version of the Taycan.

The hint about the future products came from the brand's finance director, Lutz Meschke. At an event last week, he let slip that "You can expect an SUV BEV by 2022 at the latest." He also said, "...the Boxster and Cayman could be suitable for electrification." While that timeline may seem far into the future — Porsche has been teasing electric product since 2011 when it debuted the Boxster e — we tend to take its EV efforts more seriously since the dieselgate scandal erupted, and so have some confidence in its followthrough.

Indeed, the Taycan, which is due to begin deliveries sometime before the end of 2019, is a very real product and its J1 platform will inform the development of a new "PPE" platform being jointly developed with Audi which will underlay the aforementioned SUV. And even in its present form, J1 will be used in a production version of the Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo, if that concept gets the production green light, as well as the Audi e-tron GT.

The chassis for the sportscar mentioned by Meschke is a little less understood. Autocar muses that J1 might be used, though shortening the wheelbase could require reducing the size of the battery pack and, consequently, range and performance. Porsche strongly believes in keeping weight to a minimum to preserve handling, so it will be interesting to see how it approaches the engineering challenge this first sportscar poses. Even now it says it has no plans to completely electrify its 911 halo car, despite leaning towards a hybrid system in the future.

Regarding the electric SUV, we're warned not to expect this to carry the Cayenne nameplate. That model sits on a new platform and Porsche will likely want to see some payback from its development. Instead, look for something like the mid-sized Macan to go electric first. This, we think, is the smarter play since it sits in the popular, more affordable, crossover segment and its development can be leveraged across several VW Group brands.