Slowing down, Porsche asks Europe to slow down on electric

© Tobias SCHWARZ/AFP Visitors admire the Porsche 911 GT3 during the Frankfurt Motor Show on September 12, 2017.

Shattered by a Chinese crisis and a less promising than expected electric market, Porsche is counter-steering towards combustion. Despite its stated ambitions for electrification, the German manufacturer is now calling for a revision of the European objectives for 2035, with the “all-electric” strategy facing its first limits.

Porsche's steering wheel is changing direction. Faced with a 27% drop in its operating profit over the first nine months of the year, the luxury manufacturer is lamenting a Chinese market in freefall. In the third quarter, its sales in the Middle Kingdom, once its main growth engine, plummeted by 30%. It's the crisis.

Without hesitation, Lutz Meschke, Porsche's CFO, called on Europe to lift the planned ban on combustion engines by 2035, deeming the target “too rigid”. This turnaround by Porsche, analyzed by Les Echos, clearly shows that betting everything on electric can be dangerous for manufacturers, even when you have strong financial backing.

At the same time, Porsche is implementing a revision of its future models, initially designed for electric power. Only the legendary 911 was to retain a thermal engine, but now, flagship models such as the Cayenne, Boxster and Cayman could also continue to run in hybrid or thermal versions. “We want to keep combustion vehicles much longer and have maximum flexibility,” Meschke said, as reported by Les Echos. 

Perceived as a betrayal by some investors, this turning point also pushes the company to rethink its strategic direction: Porsche's management remains optimistic and is now engaged in a race against time to maintain its leading position in the automobile industry of tomorrow.

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