Porsche will become the first manufacturer to run four factory cars in Formula E by adding a surprise new 'junior' works team for the 2026-27 season.
The Race can reveal details of the sensational plan for Porsche to expand its factory operation, in addition to supplying one customer team at the start of the Gen4 era that begins at the end of 2026.
That news was confirmed by Porsche on Monday, with its vice president of motorsport, Thomas Laudenbach, stating: "Motorsport shapes our brand.
"Our heritage in traditional motorsport is unique and is reflected in every Porsche. In the future, we want to be able to say the same about electric motorsport."
He added that Formula E offers Porsche "a very attractive balance between effort and return".
"Among other things, we want to use this operational shift to find and promote new talent at all levels, not just drivers."
The extraordinary decision comes just a month on from Porsche recalibrating its global motorsport programme by standing down from the World Endurance Championship but extending its commitments to Formula E and the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The latest revelation that it will effectively double down on its Formula E activity has caught the vast majority of the paddock by surprise.
Rumours started to circulate last month that such a move was being considered. Then at both the recent Bahrain WEC round and more recently at the Monteblanco Gen4 test last week, the whispers became ever louder.
Speaking to The Race in detail about the decision, Florian Modlinger, Porsche's director of factory motorsport and its team principal in Formula E, said that the changes should be viewed as a "reallocation" and not "an expansion" of the Formula E programme.
"It's clearly not an expansion, because in season 13 [2026-27], you clearly see no more Porsches in the field than what we have actually [at present] and this means a maximum of six," said Modlinger.
"We are reshuffling and reallocating the programme. This means, at the moment [in 2025-26] we have six Porsche 99X Electrics on the grid, and two are operated by customer teams.
"In season 13, we will operate four cars with two teams out of Weissach [Porsche's development centre] and the target for us is to have two [cars] on the customer side."
Modlinger said the strategy of a second entity run from the factory was "regularly discussed in-house several times" and that Porsche had been "carefully monitoring everything in detail and we saw that there could be a chance and an opportunity coming up".
"These thoughts progressed, and then we arrived at a final decision.”
Porsche is believed to be close to confirming Cupra Kiro as its now sole customer team for the 2026-27 campaign, the first of the Gen4 era, and will part from its agreement with Andretti - which is believed to be close to a deal to run Nissan Gen4 cars.
The confirmation of Porsche’s new entry will likely ensure that Formula E has a grid of 24 cars for the start of the Gen4 era. Opel, via its parent company Stellantis, is highly likely to enter a team alongside sister brand Citroen.
Porsche's decision was welcomed by Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds.
"They are the preeminent racing manufacturer within Formula E," Dodds told The Race.
"The fact that they decided to double down their efforts in our championship, even at a time where they would acknowledge they're going through some pretty challenging periods as a manufacturer, then to make the investment and to double down in our championship is massively gratifying for us.
"I think it is a really strong sign of their confidence in the championship."
The junior team
Porsche does not want a 'B-team' moniker to be associated with its new initiative. Instead, an emphasis on integrating new young talent is believed to be a key aim of its plans.
This pathway is deemed attractive in part because it's had a strong junior driver programme already over the last decade within its motorsport structure. Other manufacturers such as BMW (in the late 1970s) and Mercedes (1989-91) pioneered a similar initiative to great success with talent such as Marc Surer and Eddie Cheever coming through via BMW, and Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen with Mercedes.
Porsche is fully aware that a crossover of generational talent in both drivers and engineers will occur during the Gen4 era and it is likely that it will build its new entity with this very much in mind.
Porsche has recently experimented with several young drivers, including recently crowned DTM champion Ayhancan Guven and also 16-year-old Elia Weiss, who became the youngest ever driver to try a Formula E car when he ran in the Berlin rookie test in July.
"The clear statement is that it will be clearly visible to different teams with different possibilities and opportunities for marketing," said Modlinger.
Porsche attended the Monteblanco Gen4 test last week but is not yet believed to have decided upon specific details of branding or commercial partners for its new venture.
"How it will look and how it will be named and branded exactly, it is too early to speak about," added Modlinger.
"But clearly the young driver or talents - not only on the driver side, but also engineers, mechanics - the whole team crew is always what we have in our mind.
"Because when you see how Porsche motorsport in general is built up with all the cup series, the talent scouting, the junior programmes, these we do not have yet in Formula E, and we have not seen drivers arriving there. So, that's also clearly a target and what we always have in mind."
A 24-car Gen4 grid?
Porsche has already acquired the licence to enter the team, which so far has no formal name or identity, even internally.
The Race has discovered that the precise licence acquired by Porsche is the one that was returned to Formula E by McLaren when it folded in the summer.
With Stellantis having collated a separate licence for the introduction of another brand (believed to be Opel) for the Gen4 era, a full 12-team, 24-car grid has essentially already been formed.
Likely Gen4 entrants
Porsche
Porsche Junior Team
Jaguar Racing
CUPRA Kiro
Mahindra
Penske
Citroen Racing
Opel Motorsport
Envision Racing
Nissan
Andretti
Lola-Yamaha ABT
Dodds said there was "a pathway to having 12 teams on the grid" but that Formula E was not there yet.
"With a second Stellantis team now, and a second Porsche team, and the existing teams that are in the championship, if they all continue, that would mean 12 teams," he said.
"Now, I never like to presume because these are sizeable investments they make, and it's a difficult time out there. So, I never presume that's going to be the case, but it's [24 cars from 12 teams] definitely an option."
The Race has also learned that Porsche recently purchased some operational assets from the former McLaren team, although these are understand to be reasonably minor and amount to specific equipment rather than any specific competitive hardware.
Lists of available equipment were sent to all teams at the Valencia pre-season test last month.
