Top Gear's foolproof three-point plan to save Porsche

Since the early 2000s, Porsche has been an SUV company with a sideline in sports cars.

For the past few years it’s tried to pivot into being an EV company with a petrol side hustle. But despite the Taycan and Macan Electric being undeniably good bits of kit, they’ve ended up symbolising EV jitters.

Taycan depreciation. Old petrol Macans outselling new ’leccy ones. Fast-tracking combustion-powered SUVs to shore up the coffers. All while China shuns posh Euro-metal and America is trousering a fortune to import them. One ousted CEO later, new boss Michael Leiters has the task of steering the VW Group’s one-time cash tanker back on course.

His track record glints with success. After a previous life at Porsche where he introduced the first hybrid Cayenne, he left for Ferrari and oversaw technical development of all-timers like the 812 Superfast, 488 Pista and 296 GTB (and less loved but undeniably influential fodder like the SF90 and Purosangue).

Poached by archrivals McLaren, Leiters had to steer the Woking outfit through open-heart surgery, as the troubled Artura hybrid was delayed, the core V8 models aged, and the whole company was gobbled up by an offshoot of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund. Romantic.

Somehow, he stemmed the losses. Put McLaren on track to deliver a new family of models, while build quality improved. At last. Small wonder his old employer came knocking with an open chequebook and a snaking to-do list.

Leiters’ credentials are top class... but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a go too. Top Gear’s had a high-powered overcaffeinated blue-sky thinking office pow-wow, and here’s what we’d do if we were in Stuttgart’s driving seat…

Step 1: Balance the books

Porsche’s handsome profits plummeted 93 per cent to €90 million in 2025. How to make savings and conjure quick-fire cash?

First off, we’d cut our losses on the electric Boxster. Porsche’s share price actually rose early this year when rumours circulated that Leiters had sidelined the project. It’s since been confirmed to still be on course, albeit with petrol ‘top models’. But how can you swing an EV entry-level sports car with petrol GT4s when EVs are pricier than ICE?

We say: bin off the ‘mid-batteried’ platform to Audi for the new TT, then farm it out to VW as a halo product (ID.Scirocco) and even sprinkle some glitter on Cupra. They don’t have the sports car heritage that makes a Porsche EV two-seater sacrilegious (for now).

Next up, slim down the bloated 911 range. There are 21 versions of the rear-engined icon right now. AWD Cabrios, Carreras base, ‘S’ and ‘T’. Not a single one can be had for under £100,000. The 911 is being stretched too thinly over multiple roles as a sports car, boulevard cruiser and all-out supercar. And follow the GT department’s lead on power: no one is bothered that the GT3 has flatlined around 500bhp for a decade. That noise and character is 10 times as exciting as warp-drive e-turbos and 1,000bhp.

Lastly, merge the Taycan and the Panamera. With China’s appetite for long wheelbase Eurobarges withering, Porsche makes two four-door saloons which are no longer flavour of the month. Sum up the sedans into one five-door liftback model which, like BMW’s successful i7, supports petrol, hybrid and full EV power. Surely that platform could also support the next Cayenne, plus Bentayga and Urus MkII? We’ll leave the techy bits up to the Germans...

Step 2: Refine the designs

OK, we’ve shed the flab. Now we need to make people want a Porsche like they used to. That means bringing back the glory days of Porsche design common sense.

Electric pop-out doorhandles are banished. We’ll reintroduce the pop-out adjustable cupholders from the 991 and outgoing Cayman – an elegant space saver that doesn’t afflict gearchanging like the 992’s MegaGulp receptacle.

We’ll also lean into the Singer-esque love of retro and introduce an Analogue Interior Pack. Watch it become Porsche’s most profitable option. For a modest sum, you can swap out the dashboard screens for classic dials. Knurled temperature knobs replace touchscreen heater menus. Starter buttons out, twisty keys return.

Also heading for the scrapheap: a total ban on LED light bars. OK, so Porsche design has never been the most radical brush in the painter’s palette, but all these dull lightsabers slapped across the arses of Taycans, 911s, Macans and Panameras smacks of laziness.

Step 3: Make the future exciting

It’s hard to be a car company right now. Trust us, we’re having a go. Meeting every law, every political whim, every customer trend, and trying to be cool at the same time is an impossible task. But there are projects which could bring back that lustre of ‘anything is possible’ to Porsche.

Foremost: a new analogue supercar. There’s a reason it’s radio silence on the all-EV Mission X forming a new Holy Trinity alongside the turbo-hybrid Ferrari F80 and McLaren W1: no one wants e-supercars. So, go the other way. Lean into what’s made 911 Rs, S/Ts and Carrera GTs go up in value like anti-apocalypse bunkers.

Imagine a lengthened GT3 RS engine – a nat-asp flat eight revving to 9,000rpm and beyond – with some e-assist for town, and a beechwood manual gearlever. All wrapped up in that 919 Street concept shell Porsche showed off a few years ago. Make 500 at a million quid a pop. A bargain next to a GMA T.50. You’d sell them three times over.

Meanwhile, shout louder about the e-fuels programme. When Porsche announced it’d set up a synthetic petrol plant in Chile in 2022, the car world rejoiced – this would surely be the moment that hobby driving was saved. But it’s gone ominously quiet. Sure, it’s powering the Porsche Supercup race series and there’s a vague promise about Porsche-petrol going on sale by the end of the decade, but that might be too little too late.

Lastly, if all of the above has gone to plan (and we see literally no reason why it wouldn’t – Stuttgart, you have our office number) then take a look to the past. What saved Porsche time and again were cars like the 924, the original Boxster, and the Cayenne. Affordable cars that people were telling you they wanted.

Don’t just chase the billionaire bonuses. That’ll get you out of a hole now, but by losing sight of the grassroots car lover’s aspirations, it’ll drive you into a bigger one later. Recycle the front half of a 911 and give us a new mid-engined baby Porsche for safely under £50k. People will even forgive that flat four turbo engine now – it’s not electric...