Next Porsche Boxster Could Get 3-Cylinder Engine

It seems that downsizing is drastically affecting the sports car manufacturers as well, as the next Porsche Boxster could feature a four cylinder engine or even a three-cylinder turbocharged one, a Porsche official told Autocar.

Porsche needs to reduce it fleet emissions as it is required by the EU limits, so the Boxster model line director Hans-Jurgen Wohler says that an entry level version of the car will feature a downsized engine.

“A Boxster with a four-cylinder engine, or maybe even a three-cylinder turbo, could produce between 180bhp and 200bhp and emit just 180g/km of CO2,” said Wohler. “Given the Boxster’s history — that it started with a 200bhp, 2.5-litre engine — I think this is possibly something that customers could accept.

“We are under a great deal of pressure from the EU law makers to reduce emissions, but we don’t know yet how much we’ll have to come down by,” he added.

EU emissions law states that car manufacturers which produce less than 300,000 cars a year will have to reduce their emissions by 25 percent compared with the emissions level they had back in 2006. However it is not clear how the VW ownership is going to affect Porsche.

“A low-carbon Boxster would certainly help us to reduce emissions, but it won’t be an automatic saviour,” said Wohler. “The Boxster isn’t the volume seller for us that everyone thinks. On current performance, it’s worth 15,000 units per year maximum.”