Porsche Taycan, petrol-powered 718 Cayman, Boxster successors may be dropped in VW Group cost-cutting

A number of Porsche models could become casualties of planned cost-cutting by the Volkswagen Group, including the next-generation successors to the Taycan and petrol-powered 718 models, reported Road & Track.

The potential model cuts come as the Volkswagen Group looks to reduce production and cut jobs as a wider cost-cutting measure that could see the closure of a number of production plants.

While the Volkswagen Group has managed to reduce factory-related costs by an average of 20%, further reduction of costs is a main goal for increasing profitability, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume told German publication Bild. “Our products are very popular; we just don’t make enough money from them. That is why we have to cut costs further, across the board,” he said.

According to the Bild report, models including the Taycan, Cayenne Coupé and the petrol-powered successors to the current 718 Boxster and Cayman are at risk of being dropped. Porsche was previously reported to be considering merging the Taycan and Panamera model lines in a bid to reduce costs.

The petrol-powered Porsche 718 Cayman and Boxster successors and Cayenne Coupé could be dropped from the brand’s line-up

Last December, the sports car brand was reported to be adapting the successors to its 718 Boxster and Cayman models for internal combustion engines, having previously been engineered to be EV-only on the PPE platform.

Going the ICE route would require significant re-engineering as the PPE platform of the electric models use their battery packs as a stressed, load-bearing part of the structure, and these battery packs would be absent in ICE models.

The 911 is also being considered for a reduction in the number of variants offered, according to the report. “In the future, we want to increase sales volume per model. To achieve this, we are systematically streamlining our product portfolio,” Blume told Bild.

Beyond Porsche, other brands within the Volkswagen Group are also set to be discontinued, or are already discontinued as the group could cut its model line-up by up to half.

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