The storied sports car maker, which was facing challenges from China and slumping demand for electric cars, now has to grapple with tariffs from the Trump administration.
This year was already shaping up to be a tough one for Porsche. Chinese customers were losing interest in the luxury sports car, its bet on electric vehicles was failing with drivers long enamored by the rumble of its combustion engines and its stock price hovered near record lows.
Then President Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on all cars imported to the United States starting in April. Last week, he doubled down on that, threatening a 50 percent tariff for all products from the European Union, sending Porsche’s shares tumbling further and E.U. leaders and auto executives scrambling to make a deal.
All of Europe’s leading carmakers have been hit by the tariff turbulence, at a time when they are already facing increasing competition from Chinese automakers. But unlike BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen, Porsche manufactures its vehicles exclusively in Germany, leaving it more vulnerable to the combined threat of advancements from China’s rivals and tariff increases in the United States.
“It is literally a perfect storm,” said Harald Hendrikse, a managing director covering the European auto sector at Citi Research. “You have a triple threat, which is China, an E.V. strategy that was wrong — despite being lauded at the time — and then Trump’s tariffs, which nobody had guessed would be as severe as they are.”
That has led Porsche to scale back its forecast for the year, by about 2 billion euros, or $2.2 billion. Its profit margin range is also expected to drop between 6.5 percent and 8.5 percent, from 10 percent to 12 percent.