Porsche sells fewer cars - but profits still increase

The sports car and SUV manufacturer Porsche AG recorded slightly less business than expected in the third quarter due to lower sales. However, it helped that Porsche increased the proportion of more expensive cars. This somewhat cushioned the significant decline in deliveries.

Sales fell by 7.5 percent to 8.05 billion euros, as the MDax company announced in Stuttgart. Operationally, the car manufacturer from the VW Group earned money again with 387 million euros, after special costs had caused the operating result to plummet to minus 966 million a year earlier.

Analysts had a little more on their cards when it came to sales and operating results. However, profitability met expectations with a margin of 4.8 percent. Porsche boss Michael Leiters confirmed the annual outlook.

After nine months, the Stuttgart-based company had a profit after taxes of 1.82 billion euros. A year earlier there was only a profit of 114 million euros due to the realignment of the ailing sports car manufacturer.

Porsche is under significant pressure, especially because of the slump in China, and import duties in the USA are also affecting it. In the year to date, deliveries fell by a total of 16 percent to 178,532 cars. The Swabians also changed their electrical course. In the future, they will again invest more money in the development of combustion engines because customers in the luxury and sports car segment are unfamiliar with electric cars.

This led to high special costs, especially last year, but this year it will still cost around 800 to 900 million euros, as CFO Jochen Breckner confirmed the previous planning. Porsche booked a further around 300 million euros in the third quarter for the strategic shift towards greater development of combustion engines.

Next year there will probably be another 400 million euros in special costs, said the manager. In any case, the environment remains difficult. Because the current combustion Macan is being phased out in Europe and in the rest of the world and business remains difficult in China, sales and operating results are likely to decline in 2027 compared to the current year.

Own production in the USA in order to avoid import duties is still out of the question for Porsche. Production in the newly announced Audi plant could use synergies there, said Breckner. However, this would create new complexity - engine exports to the USA would then be necessary and the group would also have to invest in the supplier system. Given Porsche's size, it's not worth it for the time being.