Porsche officially puts EV plans on hold, developing new petrol models instead

It’s been on the cards for some time now, but Porsche has officially announced its plans to scale back its electric vehicle plans while extending the lifespan of its combustion-powered models in the process. The move comes in response to a lack of growth in demand for high performance electric vehicles, and while it’s great news for drivers, it will come at a significant cost to Porsche.

Costs related to the strategy change are expected to hit in the region of £2.7bn for the 2025 financial year, but sitting still would be far worse long-term. Porsche CEO, Oliver Blume, said: 'We are currently experiencing massive changes within the automotive environment. That's why we're realigning Porsche across the board. In doing so, we want to meet new market realities and changing customer demands – with fantastic products for our customers and robust financial results for our investors.' In other words, we're getting petrol-powered Porsches for some time to come.

> Panic over. The Porsche Cayman and Boxster aren’t going electric-only after all

As part of the announcement, the firm made it clear that while it will still produce EVs, its incoming product range will be supplemented by combustion-powered models that ‘define’ the brand, making complete electrification of halo products like the 911 GT3 highly unlikely. Models that have combustion engines will also remain on sale for a longer period, with Porsche even putting plans in place for entirely new generations of these models – the Panamera, Cayenne and most importantly, 911, will be available with combustion engines ‘well into the 2030s’. In fact, according to Porsche’s new plans, it has no pure-electric variants planned for the 911, Panamera or incoming ‘K1’ SUV at all.

As much as it seems like the high-displacement, high-cylinder count engine is going out of fashion, Porsche's twin-turbocharged V8 will comply with Euro 7 regulations to make its use in future Panamera models and the re-engineered K1 Cayenne possible. Look closely and this does follow the industry trend, with both Mercedes and BMW quietly holding onto their V8 powertrains. 

Back in 2023, Porsche teased an all-electric 'K1' Cayenne with three rows and seven seats, but development for this too has officially been put on hold. Now, the model will be launched only as a pure-combustion and plug-in hybrid model in response to ‘market conditions’. Given its underlying platform was also set to underpin a future Bentley model, this too will see a delay. On a similar note, the Porsche Macan will also receive new pure-combustion and plug-in hybrid variants by the end of the decade in addition to the pure-electric model on sale today.

As for the divisive electric Cayman and Boxster, Porsche insists that they are still in the pipeline, but it's very clear that these models have the same lack of demand as the rest of the EV range. In response to this, Porsche has made a U-turn and announced that it will produce pure-combustion (not hybrid) range-topping derivatives to sit alongside the EV – the precise form these will take is unknown for now, but we’re fascinated to see where the new strategy takes things.

While it’s already been numerous years since we heard the first murmurings of this electric sports car from Porsche, it seems it will be delayed further regardless, pushing it towards the end of the decade. Porsche is rescheduling the development of all new EV platforms as part of the strategy change, with launches set to take place at a later date than originally planned.

As much as this update is music to the ears of those who love combustion-powered performance cars, there are tough times ahead for Porsche and the industry as a whole. Making this move will undoubtedly put the brand in a better place long-term, but as made very clear in the statement, it will cost them significantly in the short term.