When Does the Leipzig Factory Fix Problems & Introduce the New Model Year?

[Overton Park]

According to the Porsche app, the Leipzig factory is supposed to start building my Macan EV Turbo on September 7, 2025. I read at least one post where someone had thought that, following the annual Leipzig factory closure in early August for vacation / factory maintenance, the line would be producing new 2026 Macan EV models. However, while that may be the typical time for the model year change to take place, it seems that the 2026 models will not start production until this coming November. In truth, I’d hoped that my new Turbo would be a 2026 model, but it doesn’t seem likely at this point.

I’m curious as to what happens on the Porsche factory line during the annual closure as well as during regular operations. It seems to me that a closure would be the time for a manufacturer to make the shift to a new model year and make all the changes needed for the production line – what used to be called ‘retooling’. While it would be nice to get a 2026 after having ordered a 2025, it doesn’t appear that there would be a great benefit other than vehicle valuation given that there won’t be many changes between the models other than, for example, a handful of cosmetic differences and digital key (which, hopefully, will be available to 2025 models via software). I do very much hope, however, that the Leipzig plant will already have made production changes to fix known issues before my new car leaves the factory. Among these are items that several posts have raised as problems on the Macan EV:

• Non-working automatic charge port doors
• Poor and inconsistent fitment of charge port doors
• Rear axle harness
• Software issues (quite a few of these have been listed but I’m not sure which would be the most common or serious in a ranked list)
• Other (native NACS port – probably not really an issue because we’ll all have to have adaptors to cover various charging scenarios)

Does anyone know how Porsche handles the resolution of problems during the model year at the factory? Would, for example, the Leipzig plant introduce a re-engineered charge port mechanism during the normal production calendar or only during the annual August closure - or when the shift to the new model year occurs? Does the new model year production only happen during at least a weeklong factory closure, or can it be – or is it – just introduced during the regular production calendar?

I’m just hoping Porsche will have fixed at the factory many of the issues the Macan EV owners on this site have experienced so that my new car arrives as problem-free as possible. While it’s typical and perhaps inevitable that a first model year (I suppose the 2025 is a quasi-first model year) has some problems, an observation from reading a good many posts on this site is that some owners seem to have had practically no issues while others have had one after another and are still dealing with them.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

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[seabird]

Retooling is not the model year changeover. Retooling is only required between generations when the actual tools and dies need to change.

The annual shutdown is just cleaning, recalibrating the robots, routine maintenance, replacing worn parts, inspections. This happens even if there are no material changes year over year (like here, where it's just paint, wheels, and some updated cameras), and it isn't necessarily all lines at all times. They could keep a few 2025 lines running to finish up the last confirmed orders, even if 2026 production is starting on most lines. Only Porsche knows for sure whether there are any more 2025s to be built or whether they're diving right into 2026 next week, but it does not appear that there are any changes for 2026 that involve production equipment, so the last 2025 and the first 2026 on a given line might literally just roll by next to each other.

Individual part revisions are usually timed to model years just for minimizing needing to use a complete VIN, but they can get replaced at any time if there's a need to and it won't shut down production (like a new version of a module that has the same connector and attachment points).