In a stunning reversal for the luxury automaker synonymous with speed and prestige, Porsche AG has posted its first quarterly operating loss since going public in 2022. The German icon hemorrhaged €967 million ($1.1 billion) in Q3 2025 alone, a gut-punch compared to the €974 million profit from the same period last year. For the first nine months of the year, operating profit cratered 99% to a measly €40 million, down from over €4 billion in 2024. This isn't bad luck or a fleeting market hiccup—it's the bitter fruit of Porsche's boneheaded bet on electric vehicles (EVs), a strategy that prioritized virtue-signaling over viable business sense.
Let's rewind: Porsche, under pressure from regulators and greenwashing investors, went all-in on electrification faster than a 911 Turbo on a straightaway. The Taycan, their flagship EV, launched amid fanfare in 2019, but sales have sputtered amid range anxiety, charging woes, and sticker-shock prices. Then came the Macan EV, delayed repeatedly due to software gremlins and homologation headaches, only to face a market that's cooling on high-end batteries like yesterday's fad diet. Porsche poured billions into battery tech, gigafactories, and R&D, aiming for 80% EV sales by 2030—a timeline that now looks as realistic as a vegan steakhouse in Texas.
The dumbass decision? Doubling down on EVs when global demand flatlined. Luxury buyers, Porsche's bread-and-butter, crave the visceral thrill of combustion engines, not the sterile hum of electrons. EV adoption stalled amid economic headwinds, subsidy cuts, and China's tariff walls squeezing exports. Now, with sales slumping 20% year-to-date, Porsche's scrambling: writing off €3.1 billion in EV-related impairments, slashing production targets, and firing up hybrid lifelines. Their new CEO inherits this mess, forced to "recalibrate" what was essentially a reckless pivot from proven petrol profits to unproven pixel power.
This fiasco underscores a harsh truth for the auto elite: EVs aren't the silver bullet they hyped. Porsche's zeal ignored the physics of consumer behavior—people want green, sure, but not at the expense of joyrides that bankrupt the balance sheet. By chasing ESG brownie points over engineering excellence, they've alienated core fans and torched shareholder value. The operating margin? A pathetic 2.6% in Q2, versus 14% earlier this year. Profits plunged 95.9% overall.
Porsche's loss is the industry's wake-up call. Ditch the EV echo chamber; blend batteries with burnouts, or watch your heritage go up in smoke. For now, the Stuttgart speedster's grounded—pedal to the metal on hybrids, lest the next quarter's a full stall.