Porsche tightens its belt: new job cuts and scaled-back ambitions

Porsche is sinking along with its parent company Volkswagen and needs new cost-cutting measures. According to insiders, the latest wave of redundancies at Porsche will affect around 5,000 employees, mainly "white-collar" workers — engineers, department heads and office staff. The company expects further declines in sales due to an unbalanced model range and a sharp weakening of its position in China.

This is not the first time Porsche has cut staff, but previous optimisation measures have proved insufficient to maintain stability. Porsche's sales have been falling since its record year in 2023 (320,221 units); in the first half of 2026, the company sold just 122,306 cars, 16% fewer than in January–June 2025. Porsche's worst performance is in China, where first-half sales plunged 32% to 14,501 units. In Europe, and even in its native Germany, Porsche sales are also heading downwards.

Porsche's net profit after tax fell by 91.4% to €310 million in 2025. Financial results for the first half of 2026 will be published next week.

Porsche's main problem is that the company rashly disposed of the entry-level petrol SUV Macan (the replacement will not arrive until 2028) and the petrol mid-engined 718 sports cars (whose replacement is still in question), while Porsche's electric vehicles are too expensive and sell poorly. Production of the Taycan family has to be periodically paused due to weak demand.

Porsche's current production capacity is designed for 400,000 cars per year, but it is now clear that the company is unlikely to exceed the 250,000 mark, and Porsche's new CEO Michael Leiters, according to the German business publication Automobilwoche, is counting on the company being able to break even in future with an annual output of 180,000 cars.

Automobilwoche reports that Leiters has proposed to the supervisory board a further reduction of 5,000 staff and, albeit grudgingly, has received approval. The most unpleasant aspect is that engineers — Porsche's greatest asset — will be among those cut. Given current trends, Porsche is forced to pursue closer cooperation with Audi in order to reduce engineering costs. Some department heads and a considerable number of office workers will also be affected. Salary cuts, reduced bonuses and lower premiums are also expected.

In theory, Porsche could be saved by leaving the Volkswagen Group, but in reality this is hardly possible. In 2012, in the interests of the Porsche-Piëch family, the merger of Porsche and Volkswagen's businesses was completed; today the two companies are closely intertwined through cross-shareholdings and administrative ties, effectively operating as a single entity. Lamborghini would be far easier to set free — we would not be surprised if that happens soon.

It should also be noted that the Volkswagen Group is already in a state of transition from crisis to catastrophe, without a clear plan of action — all that is certain is that massive redundancies are on the horizon there too, which will inevitably affect Porsche.