Porsche Boxster Electric get four wheel-drive or rear wheel-drive

The Electric Porsche Boxster at Michelin Challenge Bibendum

We ran a story about the Electric Porsche Boxster back in February, but there really wasn’t a whole heap of information to impart.

But now, after Porsche showcased the electric Boxster at Michelin Challenge Bibendum in Berlin, there is a little more flesh to put on the bones of that story.

We’d assumed – because there was no reason to assume otherwise – that the three Electric Boxsters Porsche has running around would be all rear wheel-drive, just like the ICE Boxster. In fact, two are RWD but one is four wheel-drive with an electric motor at each end.

Even then we’re not talking earth-shattering performance. The two electric motors manage to deliver 240bhp and 398lb/ft of torque between them, which translates in to a 5.5 second o-62mph and a top speed limited to 124mph to save the batteries.

As you’ve probably already guessed the RWD Boxster gets just the one motor, and unfortunately it’s the same motor the back axle on the 4WD version gets. That means just 120bhp and around 10 seconds to 62mph.

All three prototypes (if that is what they are) get a 29kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery which goes where the engine normally would.

Porsche say it gives a range of 107 miles whether in the RWD or 4WD version. Which rather proves the point that all these range estimates are from the school of guesswork and based on computer simulations of ‘perfect’ situations.

How on earth – in anything resembling a real-world scenario – can a 240bhp Boxster use exactly the same amount of juice as a 120bhp one? Still, when it’s run out of juice it will take 9 hours to recharge – however you’ve driven.

As Porsche said in February, this is an ongoing experiment to see what they can achieve with an electric powerplant, and there won’t be an electric car brought to market by Porsche until it is the match of a proper ICE Porsche.

As we said then – it’ll be a while.

By Cars UK