Porsche revives gasoline Macan, shifts to higher margins

Porsche will bring back an internal-combustion Macan in 2028, CEO Michael Leiters said, as the company reshapes its lineup and cost base around slower-than-expected EV adoption and higher-margin models.

Leiters frames the plan as Sports Car Company 35, or in German Sportwagenschmiede 35, and says it will not abandon battery-electric vehicles but will stop assuming all segments and powertrains will convert at the same pace.

More details of the strategy will be disclosed at Porsche's Capital Markets Day on October 7.

The returning gasoline Macan will sit on the Audi Q5's Premium Platform Combustion, Automotive News reported. The project is codenamed M1 and also known internally as Octan.

Porsche handed over more internal-combustion Macans in the first half of 2026 than electric ones on paper, with 19,695 combustion Macans versus 15,620 Macan Electric units.

Combustion engines and plug-in hybrids will remain part of the lineup longer than previously planned, Leiters said, and some electric programs are being deferred.

The 911 will not receive a full-electric powertrain in the foreseeable future, Leiters confirmed, with performance-oriented hybrids regarded as central to the 911's future.

Porsche is pursuing higher-margin vehicles above its two-door sports cars and above the Cayenne, Automotive News reported. Leiters supports an S1 hypercar project that would use the 911 platform with a V8 instead of a flat-8 and that would sell for more than 500,000 euros as a successor to the 918 Spyder.

Automotive News said the flat-plane V8s from the Audi Nuvolari and Lamborghini Temerario have been discussed as candidates, and noted that using a V8 already fitted to lesser models could reduce the S1's appeal.

The K1 flagship electric SUV project has been paused. Porsche is instead examining a three-row combustion SUV positioned above the Cayenne on the Premium Platform Combustion, a concept understood to be similar in philosophy to the Audi Q9.

Under Sportwagenschmiede 35, Leiters is targeting an eventual operating margin of 10 to 15 percent, up from a forecast of 5.5 to 7.5 percent for 2026.

Porsche also plans to remove 5,000 jobs by 2035 through natural attrition, retirement programs, and voluntary severance.