AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)07/23 Report--

According to reports, on July 22, local time, Porsche said it expected the transition to an electric car to take longer than thought five years ago. In March, Porsche said electric cars would account for more than 80% of Porsche's new car sales by 2030. Porsche said sales would depend on demand and the development of electric vehicles around the world, and it was still possible to meet 80 per cent of its sales target, but that was no longer Porsche's specific target.

As of press time, Porsche officials did not respond to the news.

In fact, as early as last month, Porsche was exposed to slow electrification. At that time, foreign media reported that Porsche shareholders called for a slowdown in the pace of electrification as the slowdown in the global electric vehicle market threatened Porsche's sales and profits.

It is understood that Porsche abandoned its electric vehicle sales target because sales in the two major car markets in Europe and China were lower than expected. Data show that Porsche delivered a total of 155900 vehicles worldwide in the first half of this year, down 7% from the same period last year. Among them, the Chinese market delivered 29600 vehicles, down 33% from the same period last year, making it the only market with a decline of more than double digits. At the same time, it lost its position in the world's largest single market.

In addition, according to the first quarter of this year, the decline in sales also led to a sharp decline in Porsche's performance. Porsche's total revenue in the first quarter was 9 billion euros, down 10.8% from the same period a year earlier. Of this total, vehicle sales fell 12.7 per cent from a year earlier to 8.1 billion euros; gross margins in the automotive business fell 30.3 per cent to 23.4 per cent; and sales margins also fell to 14.2 per cent, down 4 per cent from a year earlier.

Porsche's choice to abandon the sales target of electric vehicles is also incomprehensible. In the Chinese market, for example, Porsche's R & D and marketing spending reached a record high because of the electrified transformation, but Porsche did not achieve eye-catching sales results in pure trams, which led to its lagging behind in the Chinese market. It is understood that the Taycan, a key model in Porsche's electrified transformation, went on sale in September 2019 and then peaked in 2021. In the first half of this year, there were fewer than 10, 000 vehicles, down 51 per cent from the same period a year earlier. The Taycan is currently on sale as a new model, with prices announced on the eve of the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, covering sports cars and Cross Turismo body forms, with prices ranging from 103.8 yuan to 1.568 million yuan. Porsche's second all-electric car, the Macan EV, was not released until January this year, spanning more than five years, and the pace of product launch is extremely slow.

Of course, Porsche is not alone in abandoning its goal of selling electric cars. At present, most of the traditional luxury car brands are in the throes of electric transformation. with the strong rise of independent brands with the help of new energy track, the competitiveness of traditional luxury car brands in the domestic market has declined significantly. Against this backdrop, a number of multinational carmakers have abandoned aggressive electric vehicle development goals, including Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Ford and Cadillac. Among them, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would postpone its 50 per cent share of electric car sales from 2025 to 2030; GM abandoned its target of producing 400000 electric vehicles by mid-2024; and Cadillac also confirmed that it would continue to sell fuel cars after 2030. previously, it planned to no longer sell internal combustion engines by 2030.

Going back to the topic of Porsche, as one of the representatives of luxury brands, Porsche's brand heritage is incomparable to many automobile brands at present. judging from the current product structure of Porsche, fuel vehicles are still its main selling models. It is not clear whether Porsche will bet on electric vehicles in the future, but with the reform of the car market, Porsche urgently needs to adjust its product strategy in order to flexibly respond to the rapid changes in the market.

According to the latest report, Porsche cut its full-year revenue guidance due to a shortage of special aluminum alloy, which is expected to be 39 billion to 40 billion euros, compared with 40 billion-42 billion euros. In addition, Porsche production will slow due to the impact of the supply chain. Porsche said the supply shortage was due to flooding at the production facilities of an important European supplier, which has affected aluminium parts used in all its cars and production could be affected for weeks.

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