Porsche Is Having Second Thoughts About Replacing Its Hottest Seller With An EV

Now the company will take a wait-and-see approach to go EV-only with its best-selling model, Porsche told its U.S. retailers at a two-day meeting in the Canary Islands this week.

“They are going to review it,” a retailer at the meeting told Automotive News. “They will see how sales go in the next two years.”

Last year, the Macan accounted for a third of Porsche’s U.S. sales.

The dealer said the apprehension about going all-electric with the volume model concerns the lack of well-maintained public charging infrastructure.

“They got customer pushback,” he said. “They realized there are not enough chargers out there” to support the Macan customer base.

At the meeting, attended by Porsche Cars North America CEO Kjell Gruner, executives demurred on plans to follow the auto industry in plugging into Tesla’s Supercharger network.

“[Executives] indicated they are trying to get as many chargers as possible,” the source said. “They know it’s a problem, and they’re trying to figure out how to do this most efficiently.”

Retailers saw the electric Macan and the freshened Taycan fastback arriving next year at the event. Also displayed was the recently revealed Mission X hypercar concept, which will likely evolve into an all-electric 918 successor.

Historically, a 24-year-old who walked into the showroom might have been dismissed as not a serious buyer, the dealer said.

Porsche is “trying to get that mentality to change,” he said. Expanding the customer base is essential to driving volume for the niche brand.

Owners are advised not to charge their vehicles until the remedy is completed, according to a Ford filing with NHTSA. If charged, the battery energy control module might become damaged because of excessive voltage and current flow.

The number of potential vehicles affected is 14,452. There have been seven fires and 270 warranty claims, according to the filing.

A remedy for the power loss and fire risk is under development. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk are expected to be mailed July 10, according to the filing.”

We’re instructing customers with 2019 and 2020 Ford Fusion Energi [cars] that have 30Ah plug-in hybrid cell batteries to not charge their vehicles,” Ford said in a statement. “Until the remedy is available, lowering the battery’s state of charge will reduce the risk of power loss and fire around the vehicle’s battery control module, which is located in the trunk. We are committed to keeping customers informed as we work to resolve this issue.”

VW Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume, who’s been leading Europe’s biggest carmaker for less than a year, singled out Audi for falling short of its potential when he outlined measures to improve performance across the group. On Thursday, VW announced Döllner would replace Markus Duesmann, 54, at the helm of the brand, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report.

Döllner earned Blume’s trust by leading Porsche’s product development and overseeing the sports-car brand’s popular Panamera model series. Audi, together with Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, generated roughly a third of the VW group’s operating income last year.

Autonomous trucking company TuSimple is considering selling its U.S. business, according to documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The decision to explore strategic alternatives for the U.S. business, including a possible sale, “was guided by the company’s review of multiple business factors and commercial opportunities,” according to a TuSimple press release.

A company spokesperson said Thursday that the board was “regularly evaluating a range of business factors that includes macro environment, access to capital, commercial partnerships and timelines. Those factors led to the board to make the decision to explore a possible sale at this time. We are very early in the process, so we don’t have any specific prospects that we are able to discuss at this time.”