The Porsche luxury car brand announced this weekend the surprise game of two of its leaders, a turbulence signal within the flagship of the Volkswagen group, whose sales fall, especially in China. The Porsche Supervision Board provides “the early friendly game” of the Vice President of the Board of Directors, Lutz Meschke, and the brand’s sales director, Detlev Von Platen, said a statement published on Saturday night, without explaining the reasons of this separation.
The German press informs growing differences and tensions between Lutz Meschke, who is also the financial manufacturer of the luxury manufacturer, and the head of Porsche, Oliver Blume, who combines this function with that of the management of the Volkswagen Group as a whole. According to several German media, the decision came from the Supervision Board and one of its particular members, Wolfgang Porsche, grandson of the founder of the luxury brand.
Autumn of the Sales of the Mother’s House
The financial director is the main responsible for the fall in Porsche in the stock market, which has been unbridled in half for two years, at 60 euros. The manufacturer’s supervisors would not have appreciated press revelations on real estate matters led by Lutz Messchke, at the elegant Kitzbühl station, in addition to their functions in the car, says the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
In general, this surprise announcement is part of the difficulties of the luxury brand, so far very profitable. Porsche does not save the fall in the sales of the Volkswagen parent company, which announced this winter to want to eliminate 35,000 jobs in Germany in its main VW brand and stop production in two of its factories, a historic first. In 2024, Porsche underwent a 3% decrease in his deliveries worldwide, and 28% in China, his first market. It is an even greater decrease than in VW, whose sales fell 1.4%.
Competition of Chinese manufacturers
The entire European automotive sector has been in crisis for more than a year, overwhelmed by the fall in world demand, the increase in costs and the growing competition of Chinese brands. Porsche reviewed his forecasts by 2024 this summer and reduced his margin target to a range between 14% and 15% (against 15% to 17% before). These dismissals impair a “big problem” for Porsche and reveal “the difficult situation of the German automotive industry” competed by China, says Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an expert in the automotive sector.
“Chinese young car manufacturers have become extremely hard competitors and snatched customers from high -end German brands,” he explains.
At the same time, the threats of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to increase customs tariffs in European imports, weaken the US market, a source of income for Volkswagen. “Customs duties make Porsche love in the United States and manufacturing in the United States is difficult to conceive” for the brand, explains Ferdinand Dudenhöffer.
Source: BFM TV
