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 is not convincing 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.