Porsche is hitting the brakes on several side projects, announcing Friday that it will shutter its battery subsidiary Cellforce Group, its e-bike division Porsche eBike Performance, and its networking software arm Cetitec as part of a company-wide overhaul spurred by falling sales and declining profits.
Cellforce Group, once envisioned as the company’s ticket to battery independence, had already been downgraded to a research and development role in August after Porsche abandoned plans to make its own batteries. Now, Porsche says it’s pursuing a “technology-open powertrain strategy,” which is German for “we’ll just buy batteries from someone else.” More than 500 employees across the three subsidiaries will lose their jobs.
“We must refocus on our core business,” said Porsche CEO and Executive Chair Michael Leiters in a statement, who took the helm early this year. “This is the indispensable foundation for a successful strategic realignment. This forces us to make painful cuts - including our subsidiaries.” Leiters first signaled this shift in March, promising to make Porsche “leaner, faster and the products even more desirable.” Since then, the company has also sold its equity stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group to a consortium led by HOF Capital.
Porsche’s EV journey started promisingly with the Taycan in 2019, but the sequel proved harder. The Macan Electric was delayed by nearly two years thanks to software struggles at Volkswagen’s Cariad division. Sales have suffered across key markets: North America dropped 11%, China fell 21% in the first quarter, and European sales were down 18%, though Germany saw a slight uptick. Porsche has blamed EV adoption for its troubles, but its ongoing China slump - where EVs now claim over half the market - suggests the problem might be more about Porsche than about EVs.
“The battery cell is the combustion chamber of the future,” Oliver Blume declared in 2022 when he chaired Porsche’s executive board. Now that future appears to be on hold. Porsche is instead reviving internal combustion platforms that were originally slated to be a minority of sales by 2030, though it still plans to roll out new EVs, including an all-electric Cayenne this year, while sunsetting the gas-powered Macan.