QOTD: Is Porsche Making Shocking Decisions?

by Tim Healey

Published: July 9th, 2024

qotd is porsche making shocking decisions

Bad puns in the headline aside, Porsche has some electrification plans that might not sit well with you.

I know I will miss the ICE versions of the Boxster and Cayman, even if EV versions of those cars are good. The idea of Porsches that were more affordable than a 911 yet still good-looking and a hoot to drive appeals to me, and I had fun in my limited experiences driving both those vehicles.

Then again, EVs can be fun to drive, too -- I enjoyed a Taycan at Sonoma a few months ago -- and Porsche has to make decisions that make sense for it as a business. It's also no longer a small automaker -- it's now a small automaker that's part of a much-larger auto group.

So, is Porsche making good decisions? Or will we be reporting, three years from now, that sales are down and/or the ICE will be back?

Sound off below.

[Image: Porsche]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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5 of 19 comments

Tassos on Jul 10, 2024
I posted a WISE comment and some CLOWN took it off. No time to repost (did not save it either)

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- Original Guy on Jul 10, 2024
  It's ok.
  
  Like
Macca on Jul 10, 2024
It is somewhat shocking to this non-Porsche owner/auto-enthusiast who keeps a decently close eye on such topics. The previous article that mentioned Taycan sales diminishing with the eye toward the Euro-EV-ambivalent Chinese market sounds like a recipe for disaster. This must come down to a new strategy (seriously) of degrowth. That they'll shrink in volume and make up for it on unit price and diminished G&A and production costs. The brand will continue as a purveyor of exclusive, expensive automotive toys (per their plans). Theflyersfan said it in the Taycan article - there are only so many buyers for $100-200k "sport"/lux EVs. If anyone can find that demand it's Porsche, but think about Jaguar going down the same path. Talk about being in for a shock. In the event that regulations change or get pushed out, it does seem like falling back to ICE/hybrids might be easier than the initial ramp up to develop new BEV platforms - I'm just trying to imagine what the fallback plan looks like.

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- See 1 previous
- Jkross22 on Jul 10, 2024
  "I'm just trying to imagine what the fallback plan looks like."We are seeing this now. Car companies are scaling back plans for EV production expansion due to demand slowing.
  
  1
- Macca on Jul 10, 2024
  Sure, and noted - but this from Porsche seems like the exact opposite...outside of the 911, their volume sellers will be EV only.
  
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