"The 911 will never be electric": here's how Porsche plans on turning itself around

When it launched the Taycan, Porsche expected that by 2030 eight out of 10 cars it sold worldwide would be electric or at a pinch PHEV.

That went well then… the prediction has now been pretty much inverted. It's rushing out two new petrol crossovers, a Macan and a big seven-seater above the Cayenne.

Plus it'll launch a mid-engined supercar, previewed by a concept called Mission S. This won't be a limited-edition car like the 918, nor an EV like the stillborn Mission X concept. It's a full production supercar, the first Porsche designed under the leadership of Tobias Sühlmann, who has been design chief since February.

Porsche's CEO Michael Leiters says that by 2030 two-thirds of the cars Porsche sells will still have an engine.

By last year it was painfully clear its buyers weren't that interested in Porsche's EVs. In America they wanted petrol. In China demand for most Porsches – which had been a third of the company's total output – collapsed as people switched to new expensive local brands. Porsche found itself without the petrol Macans many buyers wanted.

Because that car died in summer 2026, building a replacement is now top priority, to sell alongside the electric Macan. It'll be done in a hurry, but R&D chief Michael Steiner tells Top Gear that in any case all projects will be done faster because that cuts cost, and digital tools now let Porsche avoid the need to make hundreds of prototypes.

This ICE Macan will share its platform with the current Audi Q5, just as the original Macan did with the original Q5. Don't expect it to look or feel like an Audi clone though. Porsche has a fine record of making its cars very different from related Audis. Steiner tells us it will have V6 and four-cylinder engines, with a PHEV option. Launch is 2028.

In a similar vein as the electric and ICE Macans, Porsche has now decided on an indefinite life for the ICE Cayenne to complement the very different EV version. That'll help keep the company above water in the US.

Porsche's shift upmarket is reflected in its plan to launch a large top-of-the-range SUV by 2030. It's an addition not a replacement for anything, above the Cayenne. This too will be powered by petrol and PHEV drive. Expect the kitchen sink of luxury and tech. Its main target is rich buyers in the US. But it will be built in Germany, like all Porsches, says Leiters.

But EVs will remain: the Taycan is selling at about half the rate it did when launched, but it'll stay on sale, as will the electric Macan and Cayenne.

Conspicuously, the electric Boxster and Cayman, with no petrol equivalents, are finally going on sale next year, after a long delay caused by a swap in battery cell supplier. The battery pack is behind the seats, where the engine was in the old car, so the weight distribution isn't much altered and you sit lower than with an underfloor battery.

It will get the same E-Gear faked sound and gearshift system that works really well in the Taycan, so Top Gear is open to the possibility this could be a properly lovable electric sports car. Leiters talks the talk: "I was very, very sceptical. And then I drove it. It's a fantastic car."

Leiters is confident he can pull new levers with the Porsche brand to pull in more profit. Decades of rock-solid engineering and racing presence mean it can swerve upmarket with the new supercar and big SUV. Yet it's not just exclusive but inclusive; everyone's welcome at Porsche gatherings.

This wide brand stretch means it plans on launching more limited-run editions, especially of the 911. That includes more high-end GT and Manthey Racing versions, as well as 'heritage' special editions. These sell for much higher prices than the regular 911 Carrera. The old 911 GT2 RS Clubsport 25, for example, was a 30-off edition at more than £500,000 per car.

Then further up, customers can specify super-high levels of modification and custom builds. An example was the Flachbau car shown at Monterey car week. These one-offs peak above £10 million. The company's Sonderwünsch (special wishes) department is also fully restoring and re-trimming Carrera GTs at up to £750,000 per car. That's good business: 11 have been completed, and 37 more Carrera GT owners have signed up for the treatment.

Raising revenue through high-end projects will help Porsche to restore financial health. But costs must come down too. Having been consistently one of the most profitable companies in the business for decades, last year it made almost no money.

It's not just the misreading of the EV/ICE split that undid Porsche

It's not just the misreading of the EV/ICE split that undid Porsche. The Euro is painfully high. And because the Taycan and electric Macan weren't selling as strongly as it had predicted, it was having to pay compensation to suppliers for under-ordering.

So in 2025 Porsche, for decades one of the most profitable companies in the business, made almost no profit at all.

Leiters plans to lower its breakeven point from around 300,000 vehicles a year to 200,000. The company had grown fat with its big sales in the 2010s decade. So the plan includes cutting the number of management jobs by a huge 40 per cent over the next few years, and in the same period cutting production jobs by 30 per cent. That's 9,000 people in all.

Those are viciously hard targets. But Leiters keeps emphasising that this is still Porsche and always will be. His plan is called Sportwagenschmeide, German for 'sports car workshop'. He often refers back to Ferry Porsche's dream of a sports car, and how he set up a workshop to build one. Porsche's company went on to built its reputation on sportiness, high quality, racing success and yet cars with practicality and longevity too.

"I want Porsche to be futureproof," Leiters says. But some things will not change. He adds emphatically: "I can assure you the 911 will never be electric."