End of the road for the ‘poor man’s Porsche’: Boxster axed as orders are halted with electric replacement due

The ‘poor man’s Porsche’ has officially been axed with the German sports car maker no longer taking factory orders, it has been confirmed.

Having debuted in 1996, the mid-engined roadster has for the last 24 years provided a more affordable step into Porsche ownership, expanding the opportunity to buy into the premium brand without having to pay through the nose for a flagship 911.

But having single-handedly saved Porsche from the brink of bankruptcy in the 1990s, the popular two-seat convertible – and its coupe sibling first launched in 2005 – has been discontinued in preparation for the arrival of a more expensive electric replacement.

Porsche UK’s online configurator states that it is ‘no longer possible to place new factory orders’ for the 718 Boxster or Cayman.

Customers are instead being redirected to franchised dealers to snap up whatever remaining stock there is of new models before they disappear from showrooms for good.

Their battery-powered successors are due to be unveiled this year or early next, with production due to commence imminently. 

When trying to create your own bespoke Boxster or Cayman, Porsche’s UK-specific website now states: Please contact your Porsche Centre to enquire about available models which match your configuration.’

While existing factory orders will be fulfilled, anyone else wanting a certain specification with optional features will now have to find one from existing stock.

A Porsche spokesman has told us there will be stock of both cars in dealerships into 2026 and the 718’s ‘EV future is happening’.

Porsche initially announced last year that its entry mid-engined sports cars would be discontinued – though this wasn’t due to take place until early next year. 

A spokesperson for the company last year told the Daily Mail: ‘In the UK, deliveries will continue into the first half of 2026’.

It signals the end of the road for the petrol-powered models, which bosses say won’t return for the next-generation cars.

The Mk4 Boxster – and Mk3 Cayman – bow out with the choice of 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engines or the 4.0-litre flat-six powerplant for the range-topping GTS versions of each.

The outgoing models – first launched in 2016 – were priced from £53,800 (718 Cayman) up to £77,300 (718 Boxster GTS 4.0).

It is expected that the cheapest Cayman EV will ring in from around £75,000 – meaning a premium in the region of £20,000 over the petrol versions being superseded.

Execs at the premium car firm have reiterated that their 2026 electric replacements will be exclusively battery powered as Porsche looks to transition its line-up to zero-emission models.

That’s despite the Macan EV and forthcoming electric Cayenne being sold alongside internal combustion engine variants for the foreseeable. 

Not only have both mid-engined sports cars been integral members of the Porsche model range for decades, the Boxster was the brand’s saviour in the late 1990s.

The German sports car maker’s annual sales had plunged from over 50,000 units in the mid eighties to just 14,000 by 1993.

This was the result of faltering economies, with both the UK and US in recession in the early 1990s, which made expensive cars less attractive. Porsche’s bloated production process had also seen profit margins disappear as demand dwindled in response to model price hikes.

To help steer it through this tough period, the car maker needed a replacement for the dated 944 and 968, which at the time were the ‘entry’ stepping stones into Porsche ownership below the 911.

Identifying the huge success of the two-seat lightweight Mazda MX-5 roadster from 1989, Porsche created 986 Boxster in 1996, which became an instant hit despite being given the ‘poor man’s Porsche’ label.

And because the far cheaper variant shared parts with the forthcoming 996-generation 911, Porsche was also able to turn around its manufacturing fortunes by producing a cheaper model with wider appeal. At the time, the Boxster was estimated to be 42 per cent cheaper to make than a 911.

It might have been dubbed the car for those ‘who can’t afford a 911’ but it became a bestseller from 1996 onwards. Between 1997 and 1999, Porsche sold 55,705 Boxsters.

Around half a million Boxsters and Caymans have been delivered across the globe in total. 

In July, it was revealed that Porsche’s CEO had warned staff that it will make a wave of redundancies across its business after being ‘hit hard’ by falling electric vehicle sales. 

Chief executive Oliver Blume warned that a new package of cost cuts would be coming, in addition to the current plans to reduce its workforce by a tenth by 2029.

As well as cutting 1,900 jobs in Germany by the end of the decade, Porsche will start negotiations with IG Metall trade union on additional reductions in costs in the second half of this year, with the aim to bolster profitability in the coming years.

In the note to employees seen by Bloomberg, Blume cautioned that the German marque’s business model, that was once the envy of the industry due to its leading profit margins, ‘no longer works in its current form’.

He blamed the global EV sales slumps, the introduction of US tariffs on EU imports and plunging demand in China.

Porsche has already scaled back its original projection to reach an 80 per cent share of EV sales by 2030 in a change in places announced this time last year.

A Porsche spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘Our company is currently navigating significant global challenges. 

‘The fact that we are able to report the figures that we are reporting at the moment is largely thanks to the substantial investments we have made in previous years. 

‘We have introduced a new and strong product portfolio.’

Blume told his employees in Germany that ‘business conditions have deteriorated massively within a short period of time’.

Porsche’s global sales declined by three per cent in 2024, with profit margins now forecast for between 10 and 12 this year, below the long-term target of 20 per cent.