Porsche, a year 2024 to forget?

Growth had been almost uninterrupted for years for Porsche, but 2024 was synonymous with a halt with a big drop in China. And 2025 already looks like a challenge.

We were used to starting each year with a positive result from Porsche but 2024 will therefore be an exception. With 310,718 new vehicles delivered and registered worldwide last year, Porsche experienced its first setback since the beginning of the 2000s. It must be said that Porsche finds itself faced with unexpected difficulties for the brand which is taking the wall of electrification in full force. The end of the career of the thermal Porsche Macan, replaced in Europe by a single electric model, is the perfect illustration of this: Porsche will probably have great difficulty reaching the volumes achieved by the old Porsche Macan range with the new zero-emission generation. The manufacturer may be pleased to have delivered “18,000 electric Porsche Macans in recent months worldwide”, the brand sold a little less than 90,000 per year when it was thermal. And these 18,000 are qualified by the fact that this is the launch of the new model. But fortunately for Porsche, not all regions of the world apply European regulations, which allows the manufacturer to continue to sell the thermal Porsche Macan in certain markets alongside the electric one. For now…

A less popular Porsche Taycan

The two problems are clearly identified for Porsche: the Porsche Taycan range, whose sales have fallen sharply in 2024, and China, which is the manufacturer’s second market globally behind the United States. For the sedan, the fall can also perhaps be explained by the disenchantment with large electric sedans as SUVs emerge in these same segments. The case of Porsche is not isolated since Mercedes clearly sells fewer EQS than S-Class. The fault, too, lies in high-end Chinese competition which is getting organized and which is gradually gaining ground in China. Result: 20,836 Porsche Taycans sold in 2024, or 49% less than in 2023. Production teams were also reduced at the factory, even after the restyling. Porsche claims that the delay in launching the update would explain the drop, but the German giant also recognizes that “electric mobility is progressing more slowly than expected”. Which has also led Porsche to review its plans for the “new” Porsche Cayenne and probably other models.

The Chinese problem

But the biggest thorn in Porsche’s side is called “China”. The Middle Kingdom was on track to overtake the United States in 2023 to become Porsche’s leading market but activity collapsed in 2024, falling from 79,283 sales to 56,887 (- 28%). We had already mentioned it in our columns, Porsche’s room for maneuver in China was very limited in the face of the anger of distributors which pushed the highest managers to travel there to put out the fire.

But the “product” strategy as a whole and a boss who continues to wear two hats (CEO of Porsche and the Volkswagen group at the same time) are all things that will have to be resolved or clarified in the months to come for Porsche. Because the schedule remains busy with the next Cayenne, the launch of a large electric model (K1 project) and especially the Porsche 718 range whose launch has reportedly been postponed.