[opinion] - hmmm…VW/Audi/Porsche may be in trouble…

[69Mach390]

20+ years from now, the ICE car will be as common as a manual transmission is now. I think the legacy car companies could very well go the way of Kodak. The Chinese make better cars than we (or anybody else) can, at 1/2 the price. I believe any car company that isn't vertically integrated (make their own batteries etc.) will not be in business. In the meantime, I think PHEV vehicles will dominate, slowly giving way to EV's when the technology just becomes irresistible.

20+ years for EVs? Maybe. But only if the government forces things and/or technology continues to improve. Totally a different argument but EVs are amazing…… batteries are the problem. If they could find a better “fuel” for electric motors that would be awesome.

But the problem with predicting that future is that 10 years ago people predicted it would be the case in 15 years. Obviously that didn’t happen.

Legacy car manufacturers are going nowhere though in the US.

They’re one of those “essential” industries that the government would bail out no matter what.

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[ct4s]

I think the biggest problem with Porsche right now is they give the impression they can't be arsed with Taycan owners or their cars. And the former really concerns me.

My Taycan recently had its first service.
The work required was little more than an MoT - and in some aspects less - but they wanted circa 15 times the price. This is madness.
My usual dealer couldn't get me booked in for 7 weeks. My selling dealer didn't return phone calls or emails. And it look a few attempts to book in with another dealer.

They need to work especially hard to keep Taycan owners happy.
Give me free charging when I visit a showroom, get a motoring enthusiast to chat to me, make me feel a little special.
Instead, dealing with Porsche has become an effort.
Maybe its because I'm not sufficiently wealthy.
But I suspect they hate Taycans.

Conversely, my wife has a Kia EV.
It was simple, quick and cheap to service. The showroom was basic but the staff were enthusiastic and I felt they cared.

This is my 2nd Taycan and neither selling dealer has ever called me to ask how I'm finding the car. This is a major customer service and sales fail.
I suspect they are so relieved to sell a Taycan, they want to wash their hands of it asap and never speak of it again.

There isn't a new Porsche I really desire to own.
Yes a 911 GT3 or Turbo is amazing on paper but I'd much rather have a sorted manual 997 or Boxster for a special drive and get a smaller EV for a daily.

I have changed. The world has changed. Porsche, sadly, is stuck in the mud.

 

[gnr3312]

I think the biggest problem with Porsche right now is they give the impression they can't be arsed with Taycan owners or their cars. And the former really concerns me.

My Taycan recently had its first service.
The work required was little more than an MoT - and in some aspects less - but they wanted circa 15 times the price. This is madness.
My usual dealer couldn't get me booked in for 7 weeks. My selling dealer didn't return phone calls or emails. And it look a few attempts to book in with another dealer.

They need to work especially hard to keep Taycan owners happy.
Give me free charging when I visit a showroom, get a motoring enthusiast to chat to me, make me feel a little special.
Instead, dealing with Porsche has become an effort.
Maybe its because I'm not sufficiently wealthy.
But I suspect they hate Taycans.

Conversely, my wife has a Kia EV.
It was simple, quick and cheap to service. The showroom was basic but the staff were enthusiastic and I felt they cared.

This is my 2nd Taycan and neither selling dealer has ever called me to ask how I'm finding the car. This is a major customer service and sales fail.
I suspect they are so relieved to sell a Taycan, they want to wash their hands of it asap and never speak of it again.

There isn't a new Porsche I really desire to own.
Yes a 911 GT3 or Turbo is amazing on paper but I'd much rather have a sorted manual 997 or Boxster for a special drive and get a smaller EV for a daily.

I have changed. The world has changed. Porsche, sadly, is stuck in the mud.

We have two Porsche dealerships in Austin, both owned by the same group. North Austin has been great, their service is top notch, they offer free charging, their sales rep called me a week after I converted my lease to purchase to see how the car was doing, if there’s anything pending he could help me with, etc. Part of it is trying to build relationship and networking, they want access to my friends and neighbors who don’t own a Porsche yet.

Part of it is competition, lots of people with wealth have moved to Austin and we now have a good amount of high end luxury super cars and hyper cars here which wasn’t the case here until the last few years. I know this is normal for large urban areas but Austin wasn’t one, but one of the largest Porsche Club of America clubs in the US is here, with over 5000 members. That’s a lot of potential revenue. So Porsche Austin (both as a whole) sponsor a lot of activities and host events. Some at no-cost, some at some cost, but they try to keep customers happy. They’re also expensive but I won’t go there lol.

Finally I think it’s also because PCNA uses a lot of metrics to reward dealerships, service reps, and sales reps to be good. I know the famous “you’re going to get a survey, please give me 5/5 and if not let me know how I can do this”. That’s enticing for their bottom line.

 

[ct4s]

We have two Porsche dealerships in Austin, both owned by the same group. North Austin has been great, their service is top notch, they offer free charging, their sales rep called me a week after I converted my lease to purchase to see how the car was doing, if there’s anything pending he could help me with, etc. Part of it is trying to build relationship and networking, they want access to my friends and neighbors who don’t own a Porsche yet.

Part of it is competition, lots of people with wealth have moved to Austin and we now have a good amount of high end luxury super cars and hyper cars here which wasn’t the case here until the last few years. I know this is normal for large urban areas but Austin wasn’t one, but one of the largest Porsche Club of America clubs in the US is here, with over 5000 members. That’s a lot of potential revenue. So Porsche Austin (both as a whole) sponsor a lot of activities and host events. Some at no-cost, some at some cost, but they try to keep customers happy. They’re also expensive but I won’t go there lol.

Finally I think it’s also because PCNA uses a lot of metrics to reward dealerships, service reps, and sales reps to be good. I know the famous “you’re going to get a survey, please give me 5/5 and if not let me know how I can do this”. That’s enticing for their bottom line.

Good to hear.
Maybe I've been unlucky.

 

[chun]

Taycan production going on breaks for a few days every month by the looks of it.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de...aycan-produktion-die-nachfrage-ist-zu-gering/

 

[whitex]

Taycan production going on breaks for a few days every month by the looks of it.

https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de...aycan-produktion-die-nachfrage-ist-zu-gering/

Withholding allocations in order to create artificial shortage backfiring? They cancelled the Taycan GT completely too.

 

[daveo4EV]

more churn that does not bode well for the near future as Porsche grapples with their place in the new world…

https://www.carscoops.com/2026/05/p...and-production-to-boost-its-flailing-margins/

 

[snstevens]

more churn that does not bode well for the near future as Porsche grapples with their place in the new world…

https://www.carscoops.com/2026/05/p...and-production-to-boost-its-flailing-margins/

@daveo4EV - I may be reading this differently than you. It sounds to me like he’s trying to establish a profitability floor of 200,000 cars per year, not that they would max out production at 200,000 cars per year.

Of course, there would be pain experienced to get down to that level in terms of deciding what cars to produce, and how many staff are needed to produce those cars. I hope he makes choices that favor EV‘s for the long run. If not, I think he risks putting Porsche out of business eventually.

 

[daveo4EV]

@daveo4EV - I may be reading this differently than you. It sounds to me like he’s trying to establish a profitability floor of 200,000 cars per year, not that they would max out production at 200,000 cars per year.

Of course, there would be pain experienced to get down to that level in terms of deciding what cars to produce, and how many staff are needed to produce those cars. I hope he makes choices that favor EV‘s for the long run. If not, I think he risks putting Porsche out of business eventually.

i ack that’s one way to read it - my posting is simply “more churn” which simply more confusion until a vector shows up

either way it can go many directions some good some not so good!

 

[whitex]

i ack that’s one way to read it

That is how it reads to me - primarily reduce fixed overhead originally put in place to cover nearly 2x the number of cars Porsche thinks it can sell worldwide with current demand. Of course, to get to 200k unit profit goal they may also need to increase prices, which could further hurt sales, which may lead to a reset of the 200k goal to less, but only time will tell.

 

[Sar]

This cycle of raising prices and losing customers is going to come to a head at some point. And the raising prices is something these articles never touch on. I wish they would, because "Porsche is losing customers and EV sales are down" is such a hollow take without context.

 

[whitex]

This cycle of raising prices and losing customers is going to come to a head at some point. And the raising prices is something these articles never touch on. I wish they would, because "Porsche is losing customers and EV sales are down" is such a hollow take without context.

While I am 100% in the EV camp, EV's are not Porsche's main bread-and-butter source of revenue. EV cars being a brand new market (to Porsche), they are unable to compete with competitors who have been doing this longer and move faster - partially because they are newer, younger, more agile companies, but also because they were unincumbered with old technology still in need of amortization (a similar story why North America is lagging behind in cellular technology - too much legacy hardware already deployed, no company wants to write-off hardware they installed which hasn't paid for itself yet).

As for prices going up, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that Porsche pricing in the USD hasn't even kept up with dollar-to-euro value alone, not to mention inflation, tariffs, etc. This means their profit margins on Porsches sold for USD has shrunk, so that will definitely add upwards pricing pressure to meet the profitability goals.

So bottom line is they need to get profitable to keep the lights on. Sadly, this may mean jettisoning EV's from their lineup because they cannot compete there (at least yet), and raising prices, which will lead to reduced volumes (which by the sounds of it, they are already planning for).

Funny thing is, Porsche gained its market advantage on mechanical mastery (both design and manufacturing) - upfront investment, then watch the cash roll in for years. They could do the same with software - same upfront investment, then miniscule replication/production costs. But, that would be a new investment, new frontier. I am not sure they are up to starting from the ground up again. It would probably behoove them to do it as a separate sub-brand too, as not to cannibalize their ICE pricing/marketing.

 

[Sar]

While I am 100% in the EV camp, EV's are not Porsche's main bread-and-butter source of revenue. EV cars being a brand new market (to Porsche), they are unable to compete with competitors who have been doing this longer and move faster - partially because they are newer, younger, more agile companies, but also because they were unincumbered with old technology still in need of amortization (a similar story why North America is lagging behind in cellular technology - too much legacy hardware already deployed, no company wants to write-off hardware they installed which hasn't paid for itself yet).

As for prices going up, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that Porsche pricing in the USD hasn't even kept up with dollar-to-euro value alone, not to mention inflation, tariffs, etc. This means their profit margins on Porsches sold for USD has shrunk, so that will definitely add upwards pricing pressure to meet the profitability goals.

So bottom line is they need to get profitable to keep the lights on. Sadly, this may mean jettisoning EV's from their lineup because they cannot compete there (at least yet), and raising prices, which will lead to reduced volumes (which by the sounds of it, they are already planning for).

Funny thing is, Porsche gained its market advantage on mechanical mastery (both design and manufacturing) - upfront investment, then watch the cash roll in for years. They could do the same with software - same upfront investment, then miniscule replication/production costs. But, that would be a new investment, new frontier. I am not sure they are up to starting from the ground up again. It would probably behoove them to do it as a separate sub-brand too, as not to cannibalize their ICE pricing/marketing.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, I just think the journalism is poor when folks don't include context such as all the context you so wonderfully wrote.

Short term, Porsche's problem is poor EV sales and likely recalibrating themselves back to their roots with a combustion engine focus. Long term though, they will have a big EV problem because they haven't found success in that market unless emissions mandates keep getting rolled back further.

For now it seems Porsche's strategy is to slowly turn themselves into a boutique, low volume auto manufacturer like Ferrari, which has been brought up a few times already. We'll see how that works for them.

Also, the reasons for prices increasing don't matter for the consumer - the truth is their cars across the board are becoming unsustainably expensive for their market, hence they keep repeating the "price go up, volume go down" cycle until... when?

 

[whitex]

the truth is their cars across the board are becoming unsustainably expensive for their market, hence they keep repeating the "price go up, volume go down" cycle until... when?

Until they can no longer make money on those cars. Hopefully in the meantime Porsche will invest to develop a new business which will sustain them beyond that. Will it be EVs, military tanks, aircraft, personal transportation drones, industrial robots, personal/home robots, home appliances, something else? I am thinking something that requires mechanical excellence and manufacturing experience they already have, but who knows. It is the job of the company board to decide where to best apply the company skills and resources to find that new market.

 

[snstevens]

Least we forget, Porsche sells ~34% of its cars in the EU (vs. ~30% in North America). The EU is talking about amending their strict 100% carbon tailpipe emission rule targeted for 2035, but not by much.

Based on the information below, manufacturers that want to sell in the EU need to find a way to get a (revised) 90% reduction in CO2 vs. 2021 across their fleet.

Conclusion -- If you want to sell ICE cars in the EU after 2035, you better have EVs too...

---------------------------------------
CO₂ targets for new cars and vans
These are EU‑wide fleet average rules for manufacturers, not per‑car caps.

• 2020–2021: Target of 95 g CO₂/km for new passenger cars fully applied from 2021.
• From 1 January 2025:
  • New cars and vans must emit on average 15% less CO₂ than the 2021 target.
  • This equates to 93.6 g CO₂/km for cars and 153.9 g CO₂/km for vans.
• From 1 January 2030:
  • New cars must be 55% lower and new vans 50% lower vs 2021.
  • This equates to 49.5 g CO₂/km for cars and 90.6 g CO₂/km for vans.

2035 and beyond – what changed
Original rule (adopted 2023, still in force until amendments pass):

• From 1 January 2035: 100% reduction in tailpipe CO₂ vs 2021 for new cars and vans, i.e. 0 g CO₂/km fleet average (effectively only zero‑emission vehicles).

Latest development (late 2025 Commission proposal, not yet fully enacted):

• The Commission announced plans to scrap the strict 100% reduction requirement and replace it with a 90% tailpipe CO₂ reduction target by 2035.
• Remaining emissions could be offset via low‑carbon materials (e.g. EU‑made low‑carbon steel) and the use of e‑fuels/biofuels, keeping some combustion and hybrid technologies in play.

Separate from CO2 are the NOx targets --

Euro pollutant standards (NOx, particulates, etc.)
Separate from CO₂ targets, the Euro standards control conventional pollutants:

• Euro 6 is currently the operative standard for new cars.
• Euro 7 was agreed in 2024 and is due to come into force on 29 November 2026, covering exhaust plus non‑exhaust emissions like brake and tyre particulates.
• By the end of November 2027, all new cars and vans on sale must comply with Euro 7 or be withdrawn.

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