Porsche Pulls The Plug On EV’s

[mikenev]

I believe there are a confluence of factors that go into these decisions, not least profitability and concentration risk, but one has to assume they have sophisticated models for making the projections that drive such business decisions.

The reasons are likely multi-factorial rather than just simply weak consumer demand. I am inclined to think that strategically China is a big part of the story and continued ICE+hybrid production may largely be a hedge in the face of future uncertainty and where the trend is ever growing competition in the EV space, especially wrt market share and efficiency. A longer term view also has to consider the pull to assimilate or potentially be squeezed out in the new paradigm. Many past juggernauts across industries have been pushed out within a generation.

When you compare sales stats of Macan EVs vs ICE, you may also have to dig deeper as other factors also come into play, such as the infrastructure and offerings in other markets e.g. South Africa only sells the ICE version.

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[Petzi]

 

[El Bocko]

Oliver Blume has been quoted on various shareholder calls recently that the Macan EV is not selling as strong as they had hoped.

60% of Macan (any) sales were EV models and the balance 40% ICE. Therein is part of the problem - had Porsche universally ceased ICE Macan sales then Porsche's woes would have been more pronounced.

By any measure these are not spectacular sales figures.

https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2025/company/porsche-deliveries-first-half-2025-39972.html#:~:text=In Europe (excluding Germany),,of them delivered to customers.

None of this detracts from the Macan EV being a good car but best not to overstate how successful it has been IMHO.

Perhaps if they would give people build slots then they might sell more of them. I was told I had a 9 month wait and yet they complain about not selling them. Sounds like a Porsche issue.

 

[Charlie Roarke]

I believe there are a confluence of factors that go into these decisions, not least profitability and concentration risk, but one has to assume they have sophisticated models for making the projections that drive such business decisions.

The reasons are likely multi-factorial rather than just simply weak consumer demand. I am inclined to think that strategically China is a big part of the story and continued ICE+hybrid production may largely be a hedge in the face of future uncertainty and where the trend is ever growing competition in the EV space, especially wrt market share and efficiency. A longer term view also has to consider the pull to assimilate or potentially be squeezed out in the new paradigm. Many past juggernauts across industries have been pushed out within a generation.

Right then, let's get down to brass tacks about HP car finance without all the fancy marketing speak. Been in the motor trade long enough to know that most folk just want straight answers about what they're signing up for. HP works like this you pay a deposit if you've got one, then monthly payments until the car's yours proper. Carplus shows real examples like borrowing £7,000 over 5 years at 21.9% representative APR means £185.33 monthly with total payback of £11,119.81. That's an extra £4,119.81 in interest charges, so nowt's free in this world. The good bit is fixed payments mean you know exactly what's going out each month, no nasty surprises. Bad credit doesn't automatically rule you out either, though you'll pay more for the privilege. Once you've settled up including that option to purchase fee at the end, the motor's yours to do with as you please. Can't say fairer than that really.

You're absolutely right that it's way more complex than just one factor. The China angle is huge, these companies are playing 4D chess trying to figure out where the market's heading while not getting caught with their pants down. The infrastructure point is spot on too, like there's no use flooding markets with EVs if half the world can't even charge them properly yet. I think the hedge strategy makes total sense from their perspective, even if it feels like they're moving slower than some of us would like. At the end of the day they're trying to avoid becoming the next Blockbuster or Nokia, so can't really blame them for keeping multiple irons in the fire.

 

[Wivenhoe]

In the UK, to make matters worse regards high speed charging, the regulator has decided the charging hubs now have to pay a standing charge on the basis of the theoretical energy that all chargers are used constantly. Osprey are saying their hubs standing charge has gone from £ 99 to £ 8,000+ so they can’t make money with the actual utilisation. They say unless it changes they won’t be investing in any more hubs. So the government gets 20% VAT and this astronomical standing charge for doing or supplying nothing and the result is a brake on investing in the much needed hubs. You couldn’t make it up !

 

[jwatte]

I hope that will be a factory color!

(It won't. It'll be PTS.)

 

[jwatte]

the regulator has decided the charging hubs now have to pay a standing charge

My guess is this is a capacity based interconnection fee. The reason would be that if you have twenty 400 kW chargers, the grid must be built to support 8 MW to that site, even if that peak is only reached every once in a while. And transmission/distribution is an area where industrialized nations with 100 year old electricity grids that were last modernized in the 1990s are just hopelessly behind. And trying to improve it, means negotiating with thousands of different land owners, rights owners, environmental concerns, land impact studies, protected species, and everything else we can afford to worry about in the industrialized nations.

To reduce this fee, their max draw has to be lower. To achieve that, there are three ways:

1. Make "shared/balanced" chargers. Very popular in California, sucks when the chargers never to to their rated peak. Actually costs less, too, but obviously the worst customer experience.
2. Put a big battery on the site. The battery charges based on mean available capacity, but can burst when the demand goes high. Increases cost significantly, but good customer experience.
3. Put solar panels right at the site. When the sun shines, provide full charge. When it doesn't, provide a balanced charge. Cost is not a whole lot more than option 1, because the panels will pay for themselves over time. Not knowing what level you'll get is still annoying for a customer.

 

[Wivenhoe]

Thanks for the informative response. The problem is though that in the UK with these charges and the tax, it’s far more expensive to use a public / rapid charger than it costs per mile in a similar ICE car. As there are a lot of potential EV owners in the UK who can’t charge at home then there isn’t anything to encourage them to switch to EV’s. They were exempt from Road Tax but that has also been withdrawn.

I suspect there will be people who have switched to EV’s who will be unpleasantly surprised to find it costs say £ 50 to charge to ‘full’. ICE say 40mpg diesel x £ 6.80 / gallon = £ 0.17 / mile and rapid charger - £ 0.79 / 3.2 miles = £ 0.24 / mile.

 

[Petzi]

Thanks for the informative response. The problem is though that in the UK with these charges and the tax, it’s far more expensive to use a public / rapid charger than it costs per mile in a similar ICE car. As there are a lot of potential EV owners in the UK who can’t charge at home then there isn’t anything to encourage them to switch to EV’s. They were exempt from Road Tax but that has also been withdrawn.

I suspect there will be people who have switched to EV’s who will be unpleasantly surprised to find it costs say £ 50 to charge to ‘full’. ICE say 40mpg diesel x £ 6.80 / gallon = £ 0.17 / mile and rapid charger - £ 0.79 / 3.2 miles = £ 0.24 / mile.

interesting. to compare a diesel with a porsche ev.. my ICE turbo had a consumption of approximately 15l / 100km highway. this did cost me (highway pricing) 27,-Euros / 100km. Even if you pay 0,60,-Euros/kw this is 15,- / 100km

and what about porsche charging service plus at a fixed price per kw? in the eu this are 0.39,-eur/kw. in gb 0.39,-pound/kw?

https://ask.porsche.com/de/de-DE/charging-service-price-list/?q=&tab=charging-service-plus

 

[W1NGE]

Perhaps if they would give people build slots then they might sell more of them. I was told I had a 9 month wait and yet they complain about not selling them. Sounds like a Porsche issue.

For build slots shop around the Porsche UK network - allocations are based on the size of the dealership. Turbo slots are always throttled regardless of model - perverse stimulation of demand I guess.

4S models & RWD should be more accessible. When I last looked earlier in the year I could have had a turbo over the summer and a 4S pretty much any month of the year. If you're not fussy about spec then there will be stock of the lower variants and preconfigured variants coming into stock. Ask your dealer to show you what there is for the entire UK.

Taycan was victim to this - I waited 18 months for my GTS ST from launch announcement - there were other factors involved as this was excessive.

 

[Wivenhoe]

interesting. to compare a diesel with a porsche ev.. my ICE turbo had a consumption of approximately 15l / 100km highway. this did cost me (highway pricing) 27,-Euros / 100km. Even if you pay 0,60,-Euros/kw this is 15,- / 100km

and what about porsche charging service plus at a fixed price per kw? in the eu this are 0.39,-eur/kw. in gb 0.39,-pound/kw?

https://ask.porsche.com/de/de-DE/charging-service-price-list/?q=&tab=charging-service-plus

If you ran your ICE Turbo here in the UK it would cost you about £ 0.34 / mile !

 

[jwatte]

So the problem is really that the UK doesn't charge enough to capture the negative externalities of the fossil fuels. (No surprise there! Human civilization is jammed hard into fossil dependence, and quitting that cold turkey would literally kill a hundred million people ...)
I guess with the North Sea oil fields and the previous coal mining tradition, that's the way the UK wind blows?

 

[robrain]

Yup. Left the UK a while ago, but one of the multitudinous bits of short-sightedness that drove me mad was the fuel price policy. Fuel duty was supposed to rise each year, but for many years now "to protect the motorist" the duty has been frozen. Indeed the previous administration cut it and the present administration has kept that cut. Grow a pair, governments, you'll have to eventually.

 

[Wivenhoe]

jwatte - in the UK we pay the equivalent of about $ 2 / litre and you pay about $ 0.93 / litre for petrol. You pay about $ 0.18 per litre in tax we pay the equivalence of $ 0.78 so I think maybe the UK does charge enough compared with the US government. Whether the tax is spent wisely or not is definitely a different question !

What do you think the US general public would feel about paying an extra $0.60 per litre in tax ?

 

[jwatte]

Yeah, the pricing structure is different, for sure!

California preimum is about $5/US-gallon, which is about $1.32/liter. 22 cents of that is "cap an trade" fuel charge, and another 80 cents or so of state and federal taxes, which certainly isn't enough to pay for the externalities.

But, also, it's still cheaper to drive electric, even though we pay ~20 cents per kWh (plus transmission/distribution, driving it up to about 35 cents per kWh) at home, which is a lot higher than most other states -- again, a combination of environmental fees, high sales taxes, and profit-seeking energy monopolies. Public chargers range between 25c/kWh (Palo Alto city chargers) to 89c/kWh (high end fast charger price) -- at 89c, the gas equivalent is cheaper.

The EV leaves the gas cars in the dust when the red lights turn green, though. Totally worth it

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