PORSCHE’S NEW CEO MAY KILL TWO ELECTRIC SPORTS CARS BEFORE THEY EVER LAUNCH

As 2024 begins, Porsche is undergoing more than a CEO change. Newly appointed chief Michael Leiters has reportedly launched a sweeping internal review of the company’s operations, triggered by collapsing China sales, rising costs, and pressure on margins. One of the first programs under serious threat is the all-electric Porsche 718 Boxster and Cayman.

According to industry sources, the electric 718 project has been plagued by delays, escalating costs, and battery supply chaos following the bankruptcy of Swedish cell supplier Northvolt. What was once positioned as Porsche’s emotional bridge into an electric future is now being questioned on basic financial grounds.

The battery problem appears to be the breaking point. Insiders speaking to German media say replacing Northvolt with another supplier would dramatically raise costs, pushing the project further out of reach. Some within Porsche reportedly blame former CEO Oliver Blume for allowing the issues to drag on too long without decisive action.

If Porsche walks away, the fallout won’t stop in Stuttgart. Audi’s highly anticipated Concept C sports car—rumored to revive the TT nameplate—depends on the same Porsche-developed EV platform designed for the electric 718. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner has positioned Concept C as the emotional and design reset of the brand, the halo car meant to redefine Audi’s future.

That strategy now hangs by a thread. Without Porsche’s backing, Audi would either have to cancel Concept C outright or shoulder the cost of completing the platform alone. Industry estimates put that burden in the nine-figure USD range, with no guarantee of a timely launch.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Volkswagen Group’s next-generation SSP EV platform, which is meant to unify future models across brands, isn’t expected to be production-ready until at least mid-2028. That leaves Audi stuck between a canceled shared platform and a future architecture that simply isn’t ready yet.

Meanwhile, Porsche is dealing with brutal market realities. Taycan sales have collapsed in China, projections for the market have been slashed from 100,000 units to as low as 30,000–40,000 by 2026, and the company has responded by closing more than a third of its Chinese dealerships. U.S. tariffs are adding even more pressure.

Audi, for its part, went all in. The Concept C was unveiled publicly in Milan last year with celebrity fanfare, and Döllner called it the clearest signal yet of Audi’s transformation. More importantly, the Concept C’s platform was meant to underpin future Audi models well beyond a single sports car.

Now, the industry is waiting. Will Audi double down and spend hundreds of millions to save Concept C on its own, or will Porsche’s cost-cutting reality quietly kill another generation of electric sports cars before they ever reach showrooms? For now, both brands are saying nothing—but silence doesn’t feel reassuring.