Porsche Has a Plan to Get Out of Its Crisis: Cut Costs, Rebuild Confidence in the Electric 718 Cayman, and Continue with the Taycan

Six months into his tenure, Michael Leiters, the former McLaren executive and Porsche’s new CEO, outlines the strategic plan meant to salvage Porsche. Amid workforce cuts and the announced return of the Taycan and the electric Porsche 718 Cayman (which signals yet another turning point toward electrification), the Stuttgart-based brand walks a tightrope where industrial decisions sometimes collide with the logic of the Volkswagen Group.

In an interview granted to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Michael Leiters sketches out a ten-year strategy, named “Sports Car Forge 2035”, which includes layoffs, early retirement, and voluntary departures of 9,000 employees by 2035.

The Electric 718s Porsche No Longer Wanted Will Be Built

The former McLaren chief executive officer Michael Leiters joined Porsche earlier this year, replacing Oliver Blume, head of the Volkswagen Group. Under Blume at the helm, Porsche invested too much, in the view of Leiters, in electric vehicles and saw its operating profit shrink by €1.8 billion. Leiters’s goal is to steer the German brand back onto a sustainable path, and to do so he returns to embracing the brand’s electrification.

This continues to fuel a sense of ambiguity about Porsche’s future vision, as shown by the back-and-forth in two key areas. The first is the electric version of the 718 (Boxster and Cayman) and the second is the Taycan’s future.

The case of the electric 718s, Boxster and Cayman, on its own illustrates the complexity of internal decisions within the Volkswagen Group. “With the electric 718, we’ve come to the conclusion that we will manufacture the model because it’s the best solution from an economic standpoint and it will be a fantastic car,” he stated. Yet Audi needs the same technical base for its future electric Audi TT, which would have led them to reconsider the cancellation.

Nevertheless, the executive asserts that he first reasons apart from the group’s synergy logic. He says he analyzes each project “primarily from Porsche’s perspective,” before considering whether it is viable with the rest of the group. 

Still, this decision, presented as dictated solely by Porsche’s economic rationality, aligns with a broader industrial need of another brand within the group, and a significant one. What would have happened if Audi did not have a new TT in its plans?

In fact, by late 2025, Porsche revealed that it was also adapting the new 718 electric family to offer internal combustion engines in the entry versions. As long as these gasoline models remain price-competitive against the electric ones, it is hard to imagine they won’t outsell the electric versions with ease.

Facing the difficulties in Taycan sales, Porsche has opted for prudence. And the issues are not limited to China. With 16,339 units sold, Taycan sales fell 22% in 2025 from the year before. This year it is on track to sell barely more than 12,000 units. In the first half of 2026, only 6,219 units were sold (-25% compared to H1 2025). 

Nevertheless, Michael Leiters, even while acknowledging that they rushed the Taycan, has confirmed that in the near term the model will remain in production. The rationale is clear: the substantial investments already made and the interest in analyzing demand trends argue for its continued presence in the lineup. Rumors had even pointed to a possible replacement with a new Panamera hybrid.

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