Porsche plans to cut around 1900 jobs at the main plant and Weissach by 2029
Weak sales of e-cars in particular are weighing on earnings and the share price, Porsche wants to develop new combustion engines.
Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo (Test)
(Image: Clemens Gleich)
Around 1900 jobs at Porsche's main plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and the traditional site in Weissach are to be cut by 2029, as the company announced in Stuttgart on Thursday.
According to Porsche, this is a socially responsible reduction in jobs, as Porsche AG employees have job security until 2030. This agreement rules out compulsory redundancies until then. Porsche's plan therefore relies on voluntary redundancies.
In addition to the savings that have already been agreed, it is also aiming to cut jobs among temporary production employees whose contracts have been gradually expiring since last year. The company had announced in 2024 that it would no longer be renewing temporary contracts.
Redundancies at the top too
The management is leading the way: at the beginning of the month, Porsche fired CFO Lutz Meschke and Sales Director Detlev von Platen without giving reasons for their dismissal. Porsche and VW boss Oliver Blume had become too ambitious for Meschke, it is said, and Meschke had shown too much interest in Blume's position. Porsche has not yet named successors for the two managers.
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One reason for the dismissals is likely to be the share price, which has been sagging significantly for some time, as well as the current weak business in China. Last year, Porsche sold around 310,700 cars, three percent fewer than in 2023. The decline in China, the world's most important car market, was 28 percent. The ambitious goal of achieving an electric car share of over 80 percent by 2030 is receding further and further into the distance. Sales of the Porsche Taycan electric car, for example, have roughly halved during this period.
Porsche has therefore canceled its previous targets and wants to build more cars with combustion engines again. In order to develop such cars or plug-in hybrid models, Porsche is expecting additional costs of up to 800 million euros for 2024, which is apparently one reason for the company to thin out its workforce, among other things.
(fpi)