Porsche achieves record profit - car manufacturer for the use of e-fuels

The sports car and SUV manufacturer Porsche AG has jumped in profits in 2022 thanks to higher prices. At 6.8 billion euros, earnings before interest and taxes were 27.4 percent above the previous year's figure, as the VW subsidiary announced on Monday. In the year of its IPO, the Stuttgart-based company increased sales by 13.6 percent to 37.6 billion euros.

"Under difficult conditions, we achieved by far the best result in the history of Porsche," said Porsche boss Oliver Blume, who is also the boss of Volkswagen. As already known, sales increased by 2.6 percent to 309,884 cars.

The shareholders should have a share in the good business. For 2022, the Executive Board proposes a distribution of 911 million euros. Plus a premium of five million for the preference shares, the total amounts to 916 million euros. This corresponds to a dividend of EUR 1.00 per ordinary share and EUR 1.01 per preference share.

Blume also commented on the debate about the approval of e-fuels for new cars with combustion engines from 2035. Porsche supports this technology and operates a pilot plant for the production of e-fuels in Chile. "There is no conflict between ramping up electromobility and e-fuels," said Porsche boss Oliver Blume. For climate protection, "every corner has to be swept out and fought for."

The debate is sometimes very emotional, said Blume. "I would like to use more expertise." E-fuels are still inefficient in production. However, they make sense if they are made in places like Chile where there is an abundance of renewable energy to produce them. They could be imported and existing infrastructure and engines could be used with them. A political decision by the EU for e-fuels could attract investors and accelerate the ramp-up of production. That would not only help in the decarbonization of cars, but also of ships and airplanes.

Porsche itself wants to be the only model so far to build the iconic 911 sports car as a combustion model in Europe “for as long as possible”, but is also planning a hybrid version. Irrespective of the e-fuel question, the carmaker is pursuing the goal of covering more than 80 percent of its sales with purely electric cars by 2030, said Blume.

Volkswagen took Porsche public at the end of September. Since then, the share price has risen steadily, the sports car subsidiary is now worth significantly more than the Wolfsburg parent company. The partial IPO and the sale of shares to the family holding company Porsche SE raised Volkswagen almost 20 billion euros, part of which the group is investing in its electric strategy. About half of the income went to the shareholders as a special dividend, including the holding company of the Porsche and Piech families, the state of Lower Saxony and the Emirate of Qatar.

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