“Additional investments would be necessary”: Porsche “does not plan to transfer its production” to the Audi factory which could see the light of day in the United States

Luxury sports car maker Porsche, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group, said on Tuesday it was not interested in Audi's potential factory project in the United States, which is causing controversy in Germany. “In the event that an Audi factory is built in the United States, we do not plan to transfer Porsche production to this site,” Jochen Breckner, its chief financial officer, said at a results conference. On Saturday, during a Donald Trump election rally in Georgia, United States, Audi boss Gernot Döllner made a surprise appearance on stage alongside the president, who had just announced an investment of $4.2 billion from the German group to build its first American factory.

This sparked an outcry in Germany and the anger of the works council of Volkswagen, Audi's parent company, regretting that Gernot Döllner "allowed himself to be transformed into a puppet in a propaganda show in the service of a highly questionable political figure". An Audi factory "would still not be favorable for us at this stage", explained Jochen Breckner, pointing out "the complexity" of the 911 manufacturer's product range, as well as "smaller volumes and additional investments [for Porsche] which would still be necessary". “We are of course observing whether Audi will actually make this investment or not,” he said.

Nevertheless, the financial director points to "synergies" between the two brands, Audi and Porsche already sharing production lines in the Bratislava factory, in Slovakia. Return to gasoline vehicles The group from Zuffenshausen (southern Germany) decided last year to turn again to gasoline vehicles in the face of low demand for electric vehicles, which had weighed heavily on its profitability. Its operating profit stood at 1.74 billion euros between January and September, compared to 40 million over the same period in 2025.

The operating margin thus increased to 6.9% over the first nine months of 2026, compared to 0.2% a year earlier, thanks in particular to the reduction in expenses linked to the strategic reorientation, reduced to around 500 million euros compared to 2.7 billion over the same period of the previous year. The manufacturer maintained its financial forecasts for 2026 “despite a still difficult economic environment and geopolitical uncertainties”.

Machine-translated from French