Porsche will invest about 500 million euros ($567 million) at its Zuffenhausen factory, near Stuttgart, to add production of the full-electric successors to its entry models, Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche said, citing unnamed sources.
Production of the 718’s battery-powered replacements, which is set to start next year, comes after the Volkswagen Group subsidiary invested about 700 million euros in 2018-19 at its main plant to add production of its flagship EV, the Taycan.
Porsche wants full-electric cars to account for at least one-third of its global sales by 2025 and two-thirds by 2030.
Series production of the electric 718 successors was delayed a year by the technological complexity of the project and lengthy coordination with other VW Group brands, Porsche managers said. Automobilwoche reported that Porsche has been frustrated by the lack of speed within the group on the project.
The full-electric 718 variants are technologically based on the Mission R racecar concept that Porsche showed at the 2021 IAA in Munich.
The new EVs, which are expected to have a 400 km (250 mile) range, will be underpinned by the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) that Porsche co-developed with Audi.
PPE will also underpin the electric version of the Macan SUV, which will be built at Porsche’s Leipzig plant.
While the Taycan and Macan EVs get their batteries from Dräxlmaier, Porsche will use Finnish supplier Valmet for the packs for the electric 718s. Valmet will build the batteries at a new plant in Kirchardt, Germany, creating about 160 new jobs.
At Porsche, no further staff expansion is planned to accommodate the electric 718s.
Porsche started production of the 356 in Zuffenhausen in 1950. Now, 72 years later, the 718 and 911 series as well as the electric Taycan are being built there.
