- Porsche profits dropped 40.6 percent in Jan-March 2025 to €0.76 billion.
- Global deliveries fell 7.9 percent to 71,470, China sales sank by 42 percent.
- Porsche downgraded 2025 forecast partly over negative impact of US tariffs.
Porsche is feeling the pinch. Profits at the sports car company sank by 40.6 percent in Q1, dropping from €1.28 to just €0.76 billion ($1.46 to $0.87 billion), newly released financial figures show. Turnover fell 1.7 percent to €8.86 billion ($10.1 billion) and the return on sales plummeted from 14.2 to 8.6 percent in a period where global deliveries dropped 7.9 percent to 71,470.
Related: Porsche’s China Collapse Is Brutal But US Sales Just Hit A Shocking New High
Porsche had already revealed the sales slip earlier in April, data showing that demand in China took a real beating, deliveries there dropping by 42 percent, and Europe was down 10 percent (including a shocking 34 percent decline in Germany). In contrast, US sales were up 37 percent, but that North American performance wasn’t enough to offset the slowdown elsewhere.
Porsche blamed its profit collapse on “ongoing economic and political challenges,” as well as investments and other changes happening within the company. One of those investments, completed in March, was Porsche’s acquisition of a majority stake in V4Smart, a battery-making subsidiary of Varta, which will develop round lithium-ion cells for Porsche’s EVs. The automaker originally stepped in to save Varta, who already builds batteries for the 911 GTS Hybrid, when in hit the skids last year.
In other battery-related news that will impact Porsche’s profitability going forward, the company has scrapped plans to expand high-performance battery cell production by Cellforce Group, a joint venture between Porsche and Customcells. The decision is the result of slower-than-expected ramp-up of electric sales and contributes to an increase in special expenses from €800 million to €1.3 billion ($911 m to $1.48 bn).
Those extra costs, plus the bleak outlook in China and the introduction of US import tariffs has forced Porsche to downgrade its forecast for 2025. It now estimates the Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization margin (EBITDA; a profitability metric) at 16.5-18.5 percent, down from 19-21 percent, but that’s only taking into account the impact of tariffs on April and May.
The tariff situation is so unpredictable Porsche is unable to guess what impact they might have for the rest of the year. But this week the company denied reports that it had stopped shipping cars to the US as a result of President Trump’s new levies on imported vehicles.
