German maker of sports cars, synonymous with high performance. It was spun out from Volkswagen in 2022; VW still owns 75% of the company. In 2022, the last year their results were combined, Porsche sold 314,000 cars out of VW's total of 8.5m but accounted for well over a quarter of the group's operating profit. Operating margins were typically between 15% and 18% over the past decade, stellar by industry standards.
Oliver Blume ran both Porsche and VW after the spin-out, but gave in to investor unease over his ability to run two struggling carmakers. Michael Leiters, formerly the chief executive of McLaren, a British super-car firm, was appointed to take the wheel on January 1st 2026.
Porsche's customers proved more reluctant to embrace battery-powered sports cars than expected. An aim for 80% of sales to come from EVs by 2030 has been abandoned. The Macan, a hugely successful small SUV, will be available only as an EV from 2026; a replacement petrol model will not be ready until 2028. A new range-topping SUV, originally planned as a pure EV, will now be offered as a hybrid or petrol vehicle, adding costs and delaying the car by several years.
Porsche invested around €1bn in a battery plant at Horna Streda, Slovakia, which opened in 2024. Robots outnumber the 150 employees roughly two to one. The batteries are assembled into packs at another factory near Bratislava before being fitted into electric Porsche Cayennes, which will be built alongside petrol and hybrid models.
China was once Porsche's biggest market, but the company may sell only around 40,000 vehicles there in 2025, down from 93,000 in 2022. A lacklustre market for luxury EVs, local competition from the likes of Xiaomi's SU7 (which resembles Porsche's Taycan EV in all but price), and infotainment systems developed in Europe that fall below the expectations of Chinese buyers have all contributed to the decline.
America has overtaken China as Porsche's largest market, accounting for about a quarter of sales. Porsche has no factories in America. Donald Trump's imposition of a 15% tariff on cars from Europe could wipe €700m from profits.
By late 2025 Porsche's market value stood at a little over €40bn, down by half since its listing three years earlier. It issued three profit warnings in 2025 and unveiled an operating loss of almost €1bn ($1.1bn) in the third quarter. It reckons operating margins will be between zero and 2% for the year. Sales fell in 2024 and continued to decline in the first nine months of 2025.
He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.