Stephanie Gotch loved the idea of the Porsche Taycan. To her, the six-figure sedan was a cool electric vehicle with the design of a sports car and the practicality of an SUV. After a test drive impressed her with its speed and maneuverability, the Los Angeles-based founder and chief executive officer of Partners+Associates marketing agency got one for herself.
It was a decision she soon came to regret.
Gotch estimates she has received notice of almost 10 recalls since she leased the 2023 model last March, including a current one requiring a possible battery replacement. “Thank God I leased it, given the battery issues,” she said, relieved she doesn’t have to worry about reselling it someday. “With all the recalls, it’s hard to consider it a daily driver.”
Her story is not an outlier. Conversations with dozens of Porsche owners in recent months have revealed widespread dissatisfaction with the company, once unimpeachable in the eyes of its customer base, since it has waded into the world of pure electrification with the Taycan in 2019. Customers from California to England, and on countless Reddit chat boards, are bemoaning the foibles of the car Porsche dubbed “Soul Electrified.”
“The number of recalls this car has had is a little wild,” says Michael Jo, who lives in San Ramon, California, and leases a white 2023 Taycan. It’s his third Porsche but first EV; he’s unsure whether he would do it again. “At least the dealership is pleasant to work with,” he says.
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On Feb. 6, Porsche AG reported a downturn in its outlook for 2025, estimating that profit margins could sink to 10%, half the level management had floated before Porsche’s €9.4 billion initial public offering in 2022. Executives blamed investments in battery subsidiaries, supply chain shortages and the expenses of increasing customization offerings.
Meanwhile, Taycan sales have slowed; the electric Macan SUV has had a slow, late rollout; and talk of a new supercar, long anticipated as a critical halo product, has ceased. In an email, a spokesperson declined to comment on the program to develop the vehicle but noted that because Porsche had presented only a concept car thus far, “expressions of interest are accepted, but we have never accepted orders.”
Results in China have disappointed, too, with sales dropping 28% last year to 56,887 and reflecting a tepid appetite for German EVs in the face of cheaper and more efficient domestic models from companies such as BYD Co. This year, China will account for 5% of sales of Porsche’s highly profitable 911 model, down from 9% last year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence data, largely because Chinese consumers crave the advanced technology of EVs more than the athletic handling of a sports car.
Chinese consumers also expect luxury objects to retain their value, like a Birkin handbag, says Michael Dunne, CEO of Dunne Insights LLC, an automotive advisory firm. But aftermarket values of the Taycan have fallen hard, hovering around half of retail. “That would be one of the things that might cause the Chinese to defect from Porsche,” Dunne says, “if they see values dropping.”
On Feb. 13, after reducing shifts at the Taycan factory in Zuffenhausen, Germany, Porsche announced it would eliminate 1,900 jobs by the end of the decade because of weak EV demand. By Feb. 26, Porsche ousted two of its most powerful executives: its chief financial officer, Lutz Meschke; and its sales and marketing director, Detlev von Platen.
What a difference three years makes.
When Porsche went public in September 2022, its IPO was the largest Europe had seen in a decade, earning comparisons to Ferrari NV and leading to an €82.7 billion valuation that placed it higher than the total market capitalization of parent Volkswagen AG.
Porsche earned the fattest margins at VW and enjoyed hype that resulted in 100% dealer markups and yearslong waiting lists. In 2023 sales had more than tripled since 2009, when Porsche sold about 81,000 vehicles worldwide.
That swell of excitement makes the slowdown and 49% drop in Taycan sales last year all the more jarring. “No one expected to see this,” Dunne says. “It’s a shock to the company, and it’s a shock to the market.” Porsche’s market value now rests around €50 billion.
Joel Levington, the global director of credit research for Bloomberg Intelligence, agrees: “It’s likely going to get worse before it gets better.” Porsche will hold its annual press conference on March 12.
Trouble, Electrified
So what happened? Analysts and insiders saw flaws in Porsche’s electric program from the start. Between 2018 and 2022, the company invested at least €6 billion toward “electromobility” — expanding factories to accommodate EV manufacturing, extending a charging infrastructure and developing the Taycan. About €500 million alone was used to develop the concept that became the Taycan, the company reported in 2018. Early reviews on the car, which had as much as 750 horsepower and a $185,000 price tag, were promising. So was customer feedback on performance. It still is.
“I like the futurism of it,” says Gunther D’hondt, an air-cooled Porsche owner who lives in Hasselt, Belgium. He has put 34,000 miles on his Taycan Cross Turismo since buying it in 2023. It is his first EV. “I love old-school sports cars, but I also grew up with Tron and Back to the Future.” Painted in Porsche’s signature GT Silver Metallic, the car “drives beautifully,” he says.
“It’s leaps and years ahead of anything from Tesla,” says Jason Buxbaum, a Phoenix resident who owns a Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo in the popular hue known as Chalk. But, he adds, “I did have to go back to the dealership for a potentially dangerous issue with the battery, and another one with the brake lines.”
Reliability problems abound, including malfunctioning heating systems, potentially faulty brake hoses and short-circuiting battery modules. In 2024, Porsche recalled Taycans seven times, more than half of the 13 total recalls Porsche issued across all model lines, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recalls included model years 2020-24 and affected more than 60,000 vehicles.
Matt Farah, founder of Westside Collector Car Storage in Los Anglese, recently spent $64,800 on a 2022 Taycan 4 Cross Turismo. He reports erroneous headlight error warnings, phantom braking and faulty driver assistance programming-plus “some open recalls” he’ll address at the dealership. He says he’s still excited about owning the car.
A Second Chance
It doesn’t bode well for Porsche’s sophomore EV effort, the Macan. Porsche’s bestseller in the U.S., and second-best worldwide behind the Cayenne, the small SUV accounted for 26% of all Porsche sales in 2024. Porsche couldn’t afford to fail when they decided to plug it in, so the vehicle was delayed for years as the company sorted out software problems. Things got so bad that VW fired its CEO at the time, Herbert Diess.
The Macan started limited U.S. deliveries in September, with all four variants available by December-unfortunate timing as EVs sales had been cooling for months. Still, it outsold its combustion counterpart worldwide in the fourth quarter, bolstered by its gas-powered sibling being discontinued in Europe. And its 630-horsepower performance and elegant interior make it feel superior to competitors.
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But there are some red flags. One dealer who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak says that, under pressure to bolster delivery numbers, last year Porsche shipped dozens of Macan EVs from the factory with malfunctioning software and problems with parking brakes, tire pressure and power distribution.
The issues prompted stop-sale recalls as they arrived at dealerships, the person said, which meant they couldn’t legally sell the vehicle until the issue was remedied. The factory shipments still counted as deliveries toward Porsche’s quarterly sales reports, they said, even as errors resulted in a backup of about 40 Macan EVs sitting on the lot for a month.
“It’s typical to have cars delivered that do need some sort of minor update, but it’s unusual for cars to be delivered with stop sales in place,” the person said. “It’s frightening really. Normally it’s a week turnaround.”
In a written response, Porsche said it would be inaccurate to describe the software as faulty and said that at the time of the response, there were no stop-sale orders placed on the Macan: “Most new cars (across all model lines) receive some form of software update as a part of the port delivery and/or Post Delivery Inspection (PDI) process as new versions become available between the point the car is built and it’s delivered.”
Wary Drivers Look to the Future
For some devotees, their issue with Porsche EVs goes beyond reliability— it’s philosophical. They say that Porsche, which earned its credibility with its flat-six boxer engines on the most grueling racetracks of the world, should categorically avoid EVs. Plugs run counter to the essence of Porsche’s roaring, vibrating, engaging cars, they say.
“It’s not just a sports car company anymore like it used to be, and therein lies some of the risk,” says Tony Salerno, the vice president of business development for automotive analytics at J.D. Power and Associates. “Nobody’s got a poster of a Macan on the wall.”
In its push to electrify, Porsche is sacrificing its core value and most vital asset, says Tony King, a Porsche collector and the founder and CEO of the branding company King & Partners. “Porsche engineers an incredible car,” he says. “I just don’t think full EV is the right strategy.”
The success of the 911 emphasizes the matter. Last year, Porsche delivered 50,941 of the legendary combustion-engined sports coupes worldwide, up 2% over 2023, which was already up 24% over 2022. The plucky two-door contributes more than 40% of the company’s profits despite comprising only 16% of deliveries. “The 911 makes or breaks the Porsche brand,” Salerno says.
Porsche currently sells 19 versions of them including the $120,100 911 Carrera, the mild-hybrid $165,000 911 GTS and the $292,000 911 S/T. New S/Ts are selling at dealerships for more than twice list price, according to multiple people. Only Ferrari, which sells almost 14,000 vehicles annually, beats Porsche’s margins, with an average sale price per vehicle of $457,000 in 2024-four times that of Porsche.
Yet on and off the record, enthusiasts report mounting inefficiencies they say have seeped from its EV production into Porsche at large. Longtime collector Marcus Hodge describes miscommunication and mismanagement between the factory and his local dealership in the U.K., which he says has worsened over the past few years.
“It’s one thing after another,” Hodge says, describing parts and paint delays, and gearbox and engine issues that have stymied his ownership experience. “It doesn’t feel like the company it was. It feels like chaos.” Fed up with the inconveniences, he ultimately passed on a highly coveted 911 GT3 RS, which has an MSRP that starts around $242,000, and got a Ferrari 296 GTS instead, which costs more than $100,000 more. “I would say it’s probably the best car I’ve ever had, if I’m honest.”
Automotive adviser Dunne says there’s still time for Porsche to back away from EVs altogether. “They absolutely could pivot. No one would be too disappointed,” he says.
Porsche declined to comment on that assertion, though it will take a $837 million hit this year to develop more combustion and hybrid models rather than full EVs. In 2024 the share of electric vehicles within its portfolio, a figure that includes hybrids, increased from 22% to 27% worldwide, and almost half of those are pure electric.
“Porsche’s strategic shift sends a clear message that German cars running on gasoline may get a longer lease on life,” says Matthias Schmidt, an independent auto analyst in Germany.
Porsche’s staunchest customers aren’t counting out the company’s ability to bounce back. Many owners remain loyal and optimistic. Buxbaum in Phoenix says the Taycan is “a keeper.” Jo in San Ramon remains stalwart: “I still have a very positive outlook on Porsche.” Farah in L.A. says the recalls haven’t prevented him from putting 4,000 miles on his Taycan so far. “We are just driving and enjoying it,” he says.
Even marketing executive Gotch isn’t totally put off by her EV experience. Her advice? “Wait a few more years for Porsche to perfect the bugs.” In the meantime, she says, “I’m just going to get a 911.”
Hannah Elliott.