Porsche is today updating the world on its financial results and, by extension, its plans to remain relevant in a world that’s clearly not going to survive climate change. The German luxury brand said that it had seen sales leap by €4.4 billion (around $4.8 billion) and plenty of interest in its models. For the third year running, Porsche's pure-EV Taycan line managed to outsell the iconic 911, with 41,296 units of the electric ride out the door, while the flagship managed 38,464 units. To Mother Nature’s chagrin, however, both were outsold by the Macan and Cayenne SUVs, which sold around 171,433 units between them.
The company has said that it wants 80 percent of its sales to be “all-electric” by 2030, with an additional plan to be carbon-neutral at the same time. Part of that push will be led by a new version of the mid-engine 718, which will be released “exclusively in an all-electric form” at some point around 2025. Of course, it won’t be until we get an entirely electric 911 and Cayenne that we’ll see the real extent of Porsche’s commitment. But hopefully the baby steps so far will translate into much faster action the closer we get to the end of this decade.
Porsche has also announced that it will invest in “premium charging stations” and “its own charging infrastructure.” The company has experience in this area, after launching a high-profile charging station in Leipzig, but this is likely to be a neat euphemism for taking a leaf out of Tesla’s book, launching or franchising a wide network of own-brand EV stops explicitly designed to cater for its own customers. It’s something that (stablemate) Audi has also spoken about doing, and showed off a concept for an Audi-only, premium charging hub last year. The company added that it is looking to get new, high-performance battery cells from Cellforce which are due to begin shipping in 2024.