Porsche is changing course in its strategy and now plans to expand its range of models with combustion engines

The Stuttgart-based company has spent recent years announcing an enormously ambitious strategy for transitioning to electric mobility. However, like other manufacturers, the company is being forced to change course to adapt to the current reality of the market.

In this new scenario, Porsche has just announced measures to strengthen its profitability in the short and medium term amid a challenging economic environment, which include expanding its range of combustion-engine vehicles, also including new plug-in hybrid models.

The German manufacturer began rethinking its strategy last year, taking a first step in this direction by considering the possibility of extending the life of its current platforms for combustion-engine vehicles, as well as transforming models initially planned as purely electric into plug-in hybrids.

The numbers don’t add up

The economic estimates for 2025 made by the company’s management team are not exactly encouraging, with an operating margin on sales falling to around 10 or 12 percent, compared with the 14 percent expected for 2024. A figure well below the 20 percent set as the target in the medium-term strategy announced in 2022.

Faced with this complicated outlook, Porsche has decided that the way forward is to try to boost sales of combustion-engine and plug-in hybrid models once again. Nevertheless, the company has not yet revealed more concrete plans detailing which models will be affected by this reorientation of its strategy. In any case, Porsche expects this change of course to require additional spending on the development of new vehicles and on activities related to battery packs , which it puts at around 800 million euros this year alone.

Although not officially confirmed, some sources now suggest that Porsche could even market hybrid or combustion-only versions of the new Macan, after launching the new generation of this compact SUV as an exclusively electric model.

To achieve this, everything points to Porsche potentially receiving support from Audi, a sister brand within the Volkswagen Group. The four-ring brand could provide a platform that could serve for a new combustion-engine Macan which could reach the market around 2028. However, this possible collaboration also seems to have sparked some criticism within Audi’s management, where there is concern that the company would have to bear the development costs so that Porsche could benefit without having contributed anything.