"Porsche Reflects On Its First Electric Car: 'Timing Wasn't Ideal'" - article

[Tooney]

Porsche Reflects On Its First Electric Car: 'Timing Wasn't Ideal'
The man in charge in Zuffenhausen believes the Taycan arrived too early for people to really appreciate it.
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[Flying ace]

The numbers look bad today, but careful to draw trend conclusions from events that already happened, and from retrospect of timing and profit metrics (Porsche is more focused now on margins than top line).

IMO, Porsche did very well during COVID. Sure a lot of it was subsidy and tax credit money paying for the car, but in the US, people are paying over MSRP for periods of time.

I purchased my car without tax credits in 2024 and I was able to financially justify the price (paid $112k)

The sales drop off is directly related to tax credit expiration and increasing price point of the car. IMO, I also feel the j1.2 is a bit stale and is a lackluster update.

Here's a video of how tax credit is affected the EV market in Germany. It took 3 years to rebound. There are many other factors that probably drove the growth, and in the United States, those factors are matching with what Europe experienced, namely DCFC build, cheaper competition, and gas price rises.

 

[Flying ace]

Also Hyundai CEO is very bullish on the long term trend, bc they've seen it play out in Europe.

 

[Sar]

I've said this recently and I'll say it again. Very lazy writing to not include any mention of continuous price increase and how that hurts their positioning, especially in the EV market where their unique engine design doesn't exist as a unique selling point.

 

[Murph7355]

He's deluded.

Unless he meant "too soon" in that they failed to get their act together on the software side, and had a good number of fundamental issues that they took way too long to remedy and should probably never have made it into the public domain.

Government incentives didn't help, but putting the price up in such circumstances was stupid. (On that I think they got over-excited about residuals when supply was difficult).

Porsche needed to get some serious faith back in the product. If they'd publicly backed the battery better than anyone else, committed to a strong software update path and resourced up properly to be able to deal with any issues quickly, I think things could have been different. But that's not their thinking.

(It's also an expensive sports saloon...residuals on those are always a challenge).

 

[Zcd1]

He's deluded.

Unless he meant "too soon" in that they failed to get their act together on the software side, and had a good number of fundamental issues that they took way too long to remedy and should probably never have made it into the public domain.

Government incentives didn't help, but putting the price up in such circumstances was stupid. (On that I think they got over-excited about residuals when supply was difficult).

Porsche needed to get some serious faith back in the product. If they'd publicly backed the battery better than anyone else, committed to a strong software update path and resourced up properly to be able to deal with any issues quickly, I think things could have been different. But that's not their thinking.

(It's also an expensive sports saloon...residuals on those are always a challenge).

Exactly.

 

[Dabz]

I think a major issue is with EVs in general not Porsche specifically. As soon as sales started ramping up, governments started reversing incentives to adopt EVs, oil companies went on the offensive with scare stories, the media found that anti-EV stories generate clicks, (they all catch fire, the batteries last 3 years max, you need a new mortgage every time you charge, etc), social media bots went mad with anti-EV stuff to get engagement from the Facebook crazies.

Business need long term certainty to invest because they're beholden to shareholders who expect fast returns. The days of buying stock for a long term hold have been replaced with people expecting a Bitcoin-style return.. just look at how many people (me included!) have an app on their phone to check stock prices, where a couple decades ago it would be a quarterly meeting with your investment manager.

So Porsche have join the rest in losing their heads because change is hard at the best of times let alone when governments keep changing their minds, and have reverted to type by focusing on ICE engines that they understand.

The amount of people who still tell me "oh I couldn't go full EV" is baffling but it's a direct result of the governments and their wealthy backers putting a lot of money behind convincing people to continue to buy fuel so the tax revenues don't dry up.

 

[Zcd1]

I think a major issue is with EVs in general not Porsche specifically. As soon as sales started ramping up, governments started reversing incentives to adopt EVs, oil companies went on the offensive with scare stories, the media found that anti-EV stories generate clicks, (they all catch fire, the batteries last 3 years max, you need a new mortgage every time you charge, etc), social media bots went mad with anti-EV stuff to get engagement from the Facebook crazies.

Business need long term certainty to invest because they're beholden to shareholders who expect fast returns. The days of buying stock for a long term hold have been replaced with people expecting a Bitcoin-style return.. just look at how many people (me included!) have an app on their phone to check stock prices, where a couple decades ago it would be a quarterly meeting with your investment manager.

So Porsche have join the rest in losing their heads because change is hard at the best of times let alone when governments keep changing their minds, and have reverted to type by focusing on ICE engines that they understand.

The amount of people who still tell me "oh I couldn't go full EV" is baffling but it's a direct result of the governments and their wealthy backers putting a lot of money behind convincing people to continue to buy fuel so the tax revenues don't dry up.

While I don’t disagree with this take, I also don’t think this has been a major factor in Porsche’s EV struggles.

 

[daveo4EV]

Porsche Reflects On Its First Electric Car: 'Timing Wasn't Ideal'
The man in charge in Zuffenhausen believes the Taycan arrived too early for people to really appreciate it.
. . .

strange I'd consider the continuous price increases (as other's have mentioned) to be the major problem…along with lack luster enthusiasm from dealers/manufacturer…

I'm no longer a Taycan customer because "price"…I was happy with my 2020 Turbo - planned to get a 2025/2026 model - then I saw the pricing…it's simply ridiculous.

 

[Dabz]

I was going to make the same comment about price increases but I've just configured a Black Edition with everything I have on my current 2023 4S (and a few more bits thrown in) and it's only £199 more than I paid in 2023.

 

[DerekS]

I've said this recently and I'll say it again. Very lazy writing to not include any mention of continuous price increase and how that hurts their positioning, especially in the EV market where their unique engine design doesn't exist as a unique selling point.

I agree, the prices have gotten absolutely absurd across their entire product line.

 

[DerekS]

strange I'd consider the continuous price increases (as other's have mentioned) to be the major problem…along with lack luster enthusiasm from dealers/manufacturer…

I'm no longer a Taycan customer because "price"…I was happy with my 2020 Turbo - planned to get a 2025/2026 model - then I saw the pricing…it's simply ridiculous.

100% with you. Sky-high price + massive depreciation is a bad combo.
I would have ordered a new Targa last year (instead of the current 2025 Taycan GTS CPO) if they hadn't gone nuts with the pricing.

 

[mystermykee]

The amount of people who still tell me "oh I couldn't go full EV" is baffling but it's a direct result of the governments and their wealthy backers putting a lot of money behind convincing people to continue to buy fuel so the tax revenues don't dry up.

How about folks with range anxiety? Is that a government thing?

 

[Sebcbien]

then I saw the pricing…it's simply ridiculous.

Probably a lot of this is due to Trump and the tarifs ?

 

[Dabz]

How about folks with range anxiety? Is that a government thing?

Nope that’s a media thing, and a lot of the media is funded and influenced by the same folk as the governments. Man where’s my tin hat, I’m starting to sound like one of those crazies

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