Audi boss Döllner, Concept C: The manager wants to realign the struggling premium brand with the sports car. Photo: PR (2)
Düsseldorf, Stuttgart. Michael Leiters has been running Porsche since the beginning of the year. His mission: to save the sports car manufacturer, whose model range does not convince enough buyers, especially in the important Chinese market. And whose return has recently been almost zero after many years of high profits. The pure electric strategy of his predecessor and still VW CEO Oliver Blume is considered a failure in view of the numbers.
Accordingly, Leiters is currently questioning all processes at Porsche in Zuffenhausen. According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, this also includes the idea of possibly stopping the development of the 718 Boxster and Cayman electric sports car series in view of sharply rising costs. A company insider told Handelsblatt: “Leiders definitely needs to address this issue.” Under no circumstances could it stay like this, otherwise it would blow up in his face later.
The problems with the 718 are massive and threaten to cause difficulties elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group: At the VW subsidiary Audi, the launch of an urgently needed source of hope is at risk.
If Porsche stops developing the so-called Cayman platform, this will probably also affect Audi boss Gernot Döllner’s plans to restart the brand. Döllner took over Audi in 2023 with an outdated model range. The CEO has been implementing far-reaching restructuring measures in the company for a good two years.
The Audi boss is planning the restart with the Concept C model. The electric sports car, which Audi presented in Milan with a huge amount of effort and a star line-up in September last year, is to be built on the same Porsche platform. This means that production is designed in such a way that as many of the models’ structural and body parts as possible overlap in the basic structure – this enables cost advantages.
The two-seater Concept C breaks with the Ingolstadt-based company’s previous design language and also stands out technologically from the current electric models that were developed before Döllner’s time. When asked, Audi did not want to comment on possible problems surrounding the Porsche platform. But Audi also left the question about the future of the Concept C open.
Döllner wants to use Rivian software in Audi models as quickly as possible
Döllner himself emphasized the importance for the VW subsidiary in Milan: “The Concept C is the first visible evidence of the change in Audi as a company.” When the top manager started at Audi two years ago, the auto industry was in a critical situation. “We therefore had to transform Audi for this new era.”
All subsequent vehicles, such as the electric mid-range sedan A4 E-Tron, will carry the design language and technological foundations of the Concept C.
Gernot Döllner presents the Concept C at the IAA in Munich: The VW Group’s platform is not coming fast enough for the Audi boss. Photo: REUTERS
The question now is whether Döllner will follow Leiter’s economic savings logic or whether he will continue the Concept C project at great cost and development expense in order to be able to realize his vision for Audi as early as 2027. There is talk in corporate circles of a nine-figure sum if Audi takes over Porsche’s platform and finalizes it on its own.
Porsche’s problems in developing the Cayman platform, however, are serious. Among other things, they affect the most important component, the battery. Batteries from the now insolvent company Northvolt were actually supposed to be installed.
Adequate replacement seems difficult to find, and if so, then only with high cost increases. The possible implementation of plans to add a hybrid variant would cost a lot of money and a lot of time. “Blume let all of this go on for far too long,” says a company insider about the long-time Porsche boss
The reason why Döllner is tying the Concept C to the Porsche platform is not just the cost, but also scheduling reasons. The electric sports car should come onto the market next year. All subsequent models that follow the design language will not be released until mid-2028. This will then be based on Volkswagen’s standard SSP platform, which is still under development. Döllner doesn’t want to wait that long.
New Porsche boss has to clean up
Döllner also wants to separate itself from in-house development of the software and instead use an operating system from the US electric car manufacturer Rivian as quickly as possible. Audi’s parent company Volkswagen has invested 3.5 billion euros in the loss-making US brand and holds almost ten percent of the shares. The Rivian software will be installed on all models within the Volkswagen Group in the future.
While Döllner wants to realize a vision at Audi, Leiters is tasked with cleaning up hard at Porsche, according to insiders. Oliver Blume had handed over the sports car manufacturer to him in a dilapidated state and thereby lost the trust of the Porsche and Piëch families who owned it.
After a slump in sales in China and the tariff burden in the USA, Porsche has to make do with an unusually tight budget. According to estimates, the brand only expects to sell 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles in China in 2026. At the beginning of the decade, the target was around 100,000 units.
There is now little understanding in the owning family that the brand under Blume tried to play a pioneering role in electric models such as the Taycan. It was said in December that Blume had driven no less than the sports car manufacturer “against the wall”.
Archive image of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 RS at the LA Motor Show 2021: The combustion engine models have already been discontinued. Photo: Reuters
On the electric market in China, Porsche has nothing to gain against the Chinese competition. Porsche sold fewer than a thousand Taycan electric sports cars last year on the market there, which is generally very oriented towards luxury. Industry experts therefore assess the chances for electric variants of the 718 series as poor.
What Döllner needs for Audi is likely to play a subordinate role for Leiters. Correcting the entire electric strategy is costing Porsche billions because combustion engine versions of numerous models still have to be developed.
New Taycan platform unlikely
If that happens, the Concept C would not be the first Audi model to be built on a Porsche platform. It will be built at the Audi factory in Böllinger Höfe, where the E-Tron GT electric sports car is currently being manufactured on Porsche’s Taycan platform.
Audi RS E-Tron GT at the New York Motor Show: The electric sports car is currently being built on a Porsche platform. Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire
The electric sports car is to be spruced up again this year with a few features at manageable costs. But whether Leiters will spend a lot of money again on a subsequent generation of the Taycan in order to also put the Taycan on a new individual platform in the next generation seems more than unlikely given the sales figures.
Related topics Porsche Follow Audi Follow Gernot Döllner Follow Oliver Blume Follow China Follow Software Follow
Tariffs in the important US market are putting a strain on Porsche’s profits. Trump’s anti-electric policy makes things even more difficult. And a new platform is hardly worthwhile for the European electrical market, which is only doing well.
Porsche declined to comment on the company’s electrical plans. No decisions have been made yet.