Porsche plans massive job cuts: 5,000 more jobs at risk

(Motorsport-Total.com/Motor1) – To say Porsche is in trouble would be a strong understatement. The decline from a record 320,221 deliveries in 2023 to 279,449 vehicles last year illustrates the seriousness of the situation. While we are not prophets, 2026 is likely to be even more difficult after demand fell by 15 percent in the first six months of the year. It is more likely that things will continue to go downhill before any improvement is in sight.

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The internal combustion engine Macan will be discontinued this month, leaving a large gap in the model range. Its direct successor will not be ready until 2028 at the earliest. Elsewhere, Porsche already stopped production of the 718 models last October; Boxster and Cayman will not return until 2027 at the earliest. The small sports cars are then to return with electric drives, with revived versions with internal combustion engines planned in parallel – and the latter can hardly come soon enough.

In the meantime, Porsche is trying to tighten its belt to improve its balance sheet before a wave of new models potentially turns the tide again. In addition to the already announced 3,900 job cuts, which were decided under the leadership of Oliver Blume, further cuts are expected in the coming years. Colleagues at Automobilwoche report, citing sources close to Zuffenhausen, that CEO Michael Leiters presented his future strategy to the supervisory board earlier this week and proposed around 5,000 additional job cuts.

This would bring the total number of jobs cut to around 9,000. For comparison: Porsche’s workforce has already fallen from 42,615 employees in 2024 to 41,780 last year. In addition to further job cuts, salary reductions are apparently also possible. In return, the remaining workforce is to receive an employment guarantee until 2035, meaning that compulsory redundancies would be ruled out until the middle of the next decade.

The deeper cuts are likely to affect the R&D sector in particular, as Michael Leiters wants to reduce complexity. Porsche has already announced closer cooperation with Audi to accelerate the development of new models and distribute costs, which will require fewer personnel in research and development.

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Nevertheless, the company still plans to expand its model range beyond the return of the 718 and the new internal combustion engine crossover mentioned above. A three-row SUV is still under development and is to be positioned above the Cayenne, while a new hypercar as a successor to the 918 Spyder is still being considered.

The additional job cuts at Porsche would come at a time when parent company Volkswagen Group reportedly plans to double its planned cuts to around 100,000 jobs, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

More on the VW Group’s austerity agenda:
These model series could be cut by the Volkswagen Group by 2030
Volkswagen Group: 50 percent fewer models by 2030

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Sources: Automobilwoche, Reuters