German luxury carmaker Porsche AG reported a 34% rise in first-half operating profit to €1.35 billion on Wednesday, despite lower revenue and a double-digit decline in vehicle deliveries. The result was ahead of analysts’ average projection of €1.26bn, according to S&P Global Visible Alpha.
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Once Volkswagen’s most reliable source of profit, Porsche has been hit especially hard by slumping Chinese demand for German luxury cars and weaker-than-expected electric vehicle sales.
The German sports-car maker attributed the increase in profit to tighter management of costs, prices and its product mix, alongside its “value over volume” strategy.
However, the company’s stronger profit was also helped by significantly lower restructuring costs. Porsche recorded a net charge of around €100 million from its strategic realignment in the first half of 2026, compared with approximately €800 million a year earlier.
Revenue fell by 5.1% to €17.23 billion, from €18.16 billion in the same period last year. Its operating return on sales nevertheless rose to 7.8%, from 5.5%.
“Over the past six months, the Porsche team has worked very intensively and with great discipline on our strategy. However, we still have a lot of work ahead of us to position Porsche robustly for the challenging future,” CEO Dr Michael Leiters said in a press release.
Higher sales of the company’s high-value 911 sports cars also helped support the brand’s annual guidance and earnings, especially for GTS, Turbo and GT models. However, sales of the Taycan, Panamera and Macan models fell.
Deliveries in the first half of the year came to 122,306 vehicles, a drop of 16.5% compared with the previous year. In China, deliveries plunged by 32% to 14,501 vehicles amid what the company described as a challenging market environment and its continued focus on value-oriented sales.
Despite this, Porsche expects its full-year revenue to come in between €35bn and €36bn. Revenue totalled €36.27 billion in 2025. The company expects its operating margin to be between 5.5% and 7.5% this year.
The decision stands out as several other major German carmakers have lowered their financial expectations amid deteriorating conditions in China, cost pressures and weaker consumer sentiment.
Porsche to eliminate another 5,000 jobs by 2035
Porsche AG announced on Monday that it will cut a further 5,000 jobs by 2035 as it seeks to reduce costs while protecting its principal German sites from compulsory redundancies. This decision is part of a deal with labour officials.
This comes on top of a previously announced plan to slash 3,900 jobs by 2030, including 2,000 temporary workers. Reuters estimates that Porsche’s overall planned cuts amount to about 9,000 positions.
The strategy for eliminating the 5,000 positions will involve a mix of expanded partial-retirement plans, natural attrition and voluntary severance agreements, according to the company and its general works council.
In return, employment and site protections at Zuffenhausen and Weissach will be extended until the end of 2035, ruling out compulsory redundancies during that period.
Tougher competition from Chinese manufacturers, US tariffs and high costs in Germany have added to the pressure on Porsche.
The company said its long-term strategic and restructuring programme, “Sportwagenschmiede 35”, was close to completion and would focus Porsche more closely on its core sports-car business, while streamlining its organisation and improving profitability and resilience.
“With ‘Sportwagenschmiede 35’ strategy, we aim to strengthen Porsche’s profitability, cashflow and resilience in the coming years. We are firmly aligning our company with our core business. We are focusing on our brand, our customers and our products,” Leiters said.
Porsche is due to present the strategy in detail at its Capital Markets Day on 7 October 2026.
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