It’s a cut-price Porsche! VW plots reborn Scirocco electric sports car based on Boxster EV
Volkswagen is plotting to reboot its Volkswagen Scirocco as a fast all-electric coupe that will share much with the incoming replacement for the Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman.
According to Autocar, engineers have identified the all-new architecture that underpins the incoming Porsche roadster and coupe as an ideal platform to base a Scirocco reboot on, with the fast VW likely to also share motors, inverters, components and even batteries.
If green lit for production, the long-awaited fourth-generation Volkswagen Scirocco will be on sale by 2028 at the earliest.
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Created to be both a performance flagship for the VW brand, the Scirocco could be used to launch pioneering new tech for the German car-making group.
According to insiders, senior VW execs are currently “studying internal design, engineering and manufacturing proposals” before rubber stamping the project to go ahead.
Cashing in on its five decades of heritage it’s been tipped the all-electric Volkswagen coupe will boast 1970s-inspired styling that references the very first Scirocco (1974-1981), which was designed by famed Italian stylist Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Potentially offsetting the high costs of development, the VW Scirocco would be engineered alongside not only the Porsche 718 twins but also the next-gen Audi TT replacement and the even wilder Cupra Dark Rebel that is also rumoured to have been approved for production.
To allow designers to create a dramatic design and an ultra-low driving position (for an EV), the next Scirocco will shun the SSP architecture that is set to underpin almost every future production VW, including the ninth-generation Golf.
Instead, the Volkswagen coupe will be based on a specially adapted version of the Volkswagen Group’s PPE architecture that has already been developed by Audi and Porsche specifically for the all-electric Boxster and Cayman.
Full details of the platform have yet to be released but it’s thought the modified PPE architecture will still be capable of supporting differing wheelbase lengths, track widths and both single- and dual-motor applications, the latter providing for all-wheel drive.
Allowing for a low door sill (and driving position), the batteries will be packaged within what would be a transmission tunnel in a combustion-powered car. Further cells could be positioned behind the rear seats in a T-shape formation, matching what Maserati does with its GranTurismo Folgore.
Porsche has already previewed the arrangement with the 2021 Mission R concept car, in which engineers achieved similar weight distribution to a conventional mid-engine sports car for maximum agility on road and track.
Another benefit of the adapted PPE architecture is that it has also been engineered for convertibles – allowing Porsche to roll out an all-electric replacement for its Boxster and Audi to create a battery-powered TT roadster successor, as well as a convertible version of the Scirocco for the first time.
Differing from the two Porsches that will both be strictly two-seaters, the Volkswagen and next Audi TT will sit on a stretched version of the PPE platform for greater space and practicality.
Even though it’s set to offer much more space than the last combustion-powered versions, the new Scirocco EV will offer performance that’s in another league with even the base versions coming with a rear-mounted motor that will produce at least 240kW and 545Nm of torque.
More powerful Sciroccos would easily exceed 300kW, ensuring a Scirocco R flagship will be capable of a sub-4.0 seconds 0-100km/h dash.
Reportedly backing plans to resurrect the Scirocco nameplate is Volkswagen Group and Porsche chairman Oliver Blume, on the basis that co-operation and component-sharing between the company’s brands will bring economies of scale that make each model more profitable.
Controversially, it’s been mooted that the new VW Scirocco, Audi TT and Cupra Dark Rebel could all be produced alongside the next-gen Boxster and Cayman at the same former Karmann factory in Osnabruck, Germany.
That could be a deal-breaker for some Porsche aficionadas as the sight of VW, Audi and Cupra models rolling down the same assembly line as the next-gen Boxster and Cayman might prove too much.
If approved for production it’s thought Volkswagen might start releasing concepts for its reborn Scirocco as soon as next year.
