- Porsche will not pursue plans to make its personal high-performance battery cells, calling the pursuit “not economically viable.”
- The carmaker stated slower demand for EVs within the U.S. was a part of the rationale why it shelved its battery plans.
- Porsche’s battery division, Cellforce, will shift focus to R&D as an alternative.
Porsche is abandoning plans to make its personal high-performance electrical automobile batteries attributable to slower-than-expected demand for EVs and “difficult circumstances” within the U.S. and China.
On Monday, the corporate introduced that its battery division, Cellforce, will scale down operations and shift focus to cell analysis and growth. Battery manufacturing is brutally costly, requiring billions of {dollars} in upfront funding and scale that’s powerful to attain. And Porsche stated it not noticed a viable path ahead for producing its personal cells, given the tempo at which the EV market is growing.
“For quantity causes and a scarcity of economies of scale, Porsche is not pursuing its personal manufacturing of battery cells,” Oliver Blume, CEO of each Porsche and its dad or mum firm, the Volkswagen Group, stated in a press release.
Photograph by: Porsche
Porsche’s EV gross sales are rising. EVs and hybrids made up 36% of the automaker’s world gross sales within the first half of 2025.
About 60% of the Macan’s 45,137 gross sales worldwide within the first two quarters of 2025 had been the absolutely electrical trims, which is sort of 26,000 models. And within the second quarter of this yr, Taycan gross sales within the U.S. elevated 31% year-over-year, from 807 models to 1,064 models.
Nevertheless, Porsche is not alone in saying that the market is growing slower than it anticipated. And coverage adjustments within the U.S., the model’s most essential market, are having ripple results throughout the EV business. Slower EV demand within the U.S., rollbacks to gasoline economic system rules, the looming finish of EV tax credit that spur gross sales and a broader rollback of unpolluted power packages below the Trump administration all imply that Porsche’s fuel vehicles could have a for much longer future than it had deliberate for.
“Sadly, the marketplace for electrical autos worldwide has not developed as initially thought. The framework circumstances have modified basically and we’ve to react to them,” stated Michael Steiner, Member of the Government Board for Analysis and Improvement at Porsche. “We have now to conclude that the deliberate enterprise mannequin isn’t economically viable.”
Cellforce had developed cells and began pilot manufacturing, Porsche stated. The unique plan was for the unit’s manufacturing facility in southern Germany to supply one gigawatt-hour of batteries per yr, about sufficient to produce 10,000 Taycan sedans. That was to be adopted up by a bigger second plant.
Now Porsche says Cellforce’s R&D efforts will help the broader Volkswagen group and V4Smart, a battery firm Porsche acquired this yr. It provides the high-performance cells for the 911 GTS hybrid sports activities automobile.
Reuters reported that 200 of the practically 300 Cellforce staff could be let go, citing a supply conversant in the matter. The remaining staff may very well be provided roles at dad or mum firm Volkswagen Group’s battery subsidiary PowerCo, Porsche stated. PowerCo may also use the R&D facility.
2025 Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismo
Photograph by: Patrick George
For European battery firms, it’s an extremely tough interval. China’s battery makers not solely have a stranglehold over the provision chains, however their manufacturing is mature and so they can promote high-tech batteries to Western manufacturers at decrease prices.
Swedish battery maker Northvolt was an rising European rival to China’s battery makers, however it filed for chapter within the U.S. final yr after burning by means of billions of {dollars} and failing to attain the required manufacturing and scale.
Now, smaller in-house battery bets like Porsche’s are being shelved, whereas bigger gamers are compelled to recalibrate. LG Vitality Answer, as an example, is doubling down on grid-scale storage batteries as EV gross sales develop inconsistently.
CATL provides the batteries for the favored Macan Electrical, whereas LG Vitality Answer provides the cells for the Taycan. And Porsche has extra EVs within the pipeline, notably the Cayenne Electrical and an all-electric sports activities automobile within the 718 household.
World and U.S. EV battery manufacturing continues to be rising, however the development is being led by fewer, extra highly effective, and bigger gamers, reminiscent of CATL, BYD and LG Vitality Answer, amongst others. Smaller battery makers are dealing with the wrath of the brutal economics of this enterprise.
The Volkswagen Group’s personal battery plans are underway in full swing, too. It has invested tens of millions of {dollars} in uncooked materials sourcing, next-generation solid-state batteries and three massive battery vegetation scheduled to return on-line in Spain, Germany and Canada.
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