LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY ngineers are a unique breed: exacting, precise, keen to find order and the most efficient path to success. Like Michael Leiters, the man appointed at the start of the year to save Porsche from declining revenues and deliveries. Announced in late 2025 as successor to former CEO Oliver Blume – who continues to serve as CEO of parent company Volkswagen Group – Leiters has set about a comprehensive restructure eyeing a retreat from volume chasing and a focus on reclaiming the brand’ s refined, value-driven heritage. It’ s an approach that’ s entirely necessary from the Porsche board’ s perspective – the company saw a drop of roughly 92.7 % in operating profit between 2024 and 2025, leading Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Dr. Wolfgang Porsche to say, in no uncertain terms“ Porsche is in a challenging phase of transformation”.

the impact of the US Tariff to Porsche in 2025

It’ s also an approach that should be entirely expected of Leiters, a doctor in engineering widely regarded as‘ the product guy’ whose methodical, disciplined approach to business has previously brought success to the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. The numbers that greeted Leiters when he arrived at Porsche in January were stark. Deliveries in 2025 fell 10 % to 279,000 vehicles. Revenue dropped 9.5 % to € 36.3bn( US $ 41.90bn). Operating profit – once one of the most celebrated in the automotive sector – fell to € 413m( US $ 486.87m), a return on sales of just 1.1 %. China, once a growth engine, saw a 26 % collapse in deliveries to 42,000 units. One-time charges totalling € 3.1bn( US $ 486.87m) – from strategic realignment, battery write-downs and organisational restructuring – compounded the challenge. The company’ s big bet on an electric future had met a market moving more slowly than anticipated and, in trying to grow its volumes across a sprawling portfolio, Porsche had lost some of the precision that made it exceptional. It was into this that Leiters walked. His reaction thus far has been characteristically measured.“ We are falling short of our own standards and the expectations of the market,” he said at Porsche’ s annual press conference in March, with a directness that felt more diagnostic than defensive.

businesschief. com

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