Porsche beats Covid-19 crisis with £1.1 billion PROFIT in the first half

Despite the huge problems the Covid-19 pandemic has wrought on the car industry, Porsche has posted a profit of £1.1 billion for the first half of 2020.

Not surprisingly, the issues arising for the car industry during the Covid-19 pandemic have led to some mighty losses, with car makers from WV to JLR and Renault to Nissan posting big black holes of up to £6.5 billion (Renault and Nissan) in the first half of 2020.

But one car maker which has managed to weather the Covid-19 storm and still stay profitable in the first half of 2020 is Porsche.

True, Porsche sales were down globally by 12.4 per cent in the first half of 2020, but they still managed to deliver a total of 116,964 cars, including 4,480 electric Porsche Taycans, and a return sales of 9.9 per cent for a £1.1 billion profit.

It was the cash-cow SUVs which kept Porsche sales moving with the Cayenne the top-selling model with 39,245 deliveries, and the Macan not far behind with 34,430. The 911 chipped in with 16,919 deliveries, a number actually up on the same period in 2019.

Lutz Meschke, Porsche’s board member responsible for Finance, was still cautious despite the results. He said:

The coronavirus crisis has also not left Porsche unscathed. In Europe and the USA, we suffered a significant downturn in the first half of 2020. In China and other Asian markets like Korea and Japan, things have already been running well again for some weeks.

We are optimistic that we will be able to offset some of the losses from March, April and May. Of course, this will only be possible if there are no more setbacks due to coronavirus. But we are making every effort to also achieve a double-digit return on sales in 2020.