German sports carmaker Porsche is reportedly planning to cut between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs by 2035 as it attempts to reduce costs and respond to a sharp deterioration in its business.
Next to the job cuts, the company will cap annual special payments to employees at €1,500 and reduce Christmas bonuses.
In previous years these bonuses and special payments could reach several thousand euros when the company was performing strongly.
Porsche’s supervisory board has backed the current state of negotiations over a restructuring package, although the company has not confirmed the reported number of job cuts. Management, the works council and trade unions are still negotiating the final details.
A company-wide meeting is scheduled for July 27, where management will brief staff on the scope of the cuts.
The cuts would come on top of around 4,000 jobs already scheduled to disappear by 2029 in the Stuttgart region. Contracts for around 2,000 temporary workers have also expired, while Porsche has announced the closure of three subsidiaries affecting around 500 employees.
The company is facing a combination of weak sales in China, US tariffs and the costly consequences of its changing electric vehicle strategy. Porsche’s net profit collapsed by 91.4 per cent in 2025 to €310 million, while revenue fell by almost 10 per cent to around €36.3 billion.
Porsche’s operating margin fell to just 1.1 per cent last year, compared with the double-digit margins it had traditionally enjoyed.
New CEO Michael Leiters has said Porsche’s product portfolio has become too complex and that the company will reduce the number of model variants. The manufacturer is also considering expanding its range of higher-margin vehicles, including sports cars and large SUVs.
Leiters has said the company will focus on a leaner model range and higher-margin vehicles, while continuing to invest in its most profitable segments.
The job cuts are expected to focus particularly on administration, management and development. Porsche has reportedly offered longer employment guarantees at its German sites as part of negotiations with workers’ representatives.
The restructuring comes amid a broader crisis in Germany’s automotive industry. The country’s automotive association VDA estimates that 225,000 jobs could disappear from the sector by 2035, on top of around 100,000 positions already lost since 2019.
Porsche’s parent company Volkswagen is also considering major cuts, with up to 100,000 jobs potentially affected worldwide in the coming years.
The latest plans underline the pressure facing Germany’s car industry, where manufacturers are attempting to cut costs while navigating weaker demand in China, intense competition in electric vehicles and the expensive transition between combustion engines and electrification.
