Porsche: An impairment loss of approximately 1.08 trillion yen and the possibility of further job cuts. And Porsche's thoughts on its move towards electric vehicles.

Porsche presents VW with a new long-term plan, including impairment charges based on reassessment.

On September 18, 2026, Volkswagen Group (VW) announced that it had significantly revised its evaluation of Porsche.

One of the reasons announced was that the company would record an impairment loss of approximately 6 billion euros on the goodwill allocated to the Porsche business. This amount is a very large sum, equivalent to approximately 1.08 trillion yen at an exchange rate of approximately 180 yen per euro.

* "Goodwill" refers to intangible assets such as a company's brand power and reputation.

According to the announcement, Porsche AG has updated its long-term plan and reported to VW(AG) on key financial indicators it expects going forward. In response, VW has updated the medium- to long-term assumptions it uses when calculating Porsche's enterprise value (including the medium-term profit margin range of 10-15% indicated by Porsche).

And as a result of examining the value using these new assumptions, it was determined that a non-cash impairment of approximately 6 billion euros was necessary for the "goodwill" allocated to the Porsche business.

This approximately 6 billion euros will reduce the VW Group's operating profit for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026.

This does not mean that Porsche's market capitalization has fallen by 6 billion euros.

This announcement does not mean that "Porsche AG's market capitalization has been reduced by 6 billion euros," but rather that the target is the "goodwill" allocated to the Porsche business on the VW Group's financial statements.

Also, as it is described as "non-cash," this approximately 6 billion euros will not flow out as cash this time... however, the fact that VW updated its assumptions for valuing the company in response to Porsche's new long-term plan, resulting in such a large impairment loss, is quite shocking.

In fact, they had also written off approximately 3 billion euros in impairment the previous year.

And this impairment is actually not the first time; in September 2025, VW also announced a non-cash impairment of approximately 3 billion euros on the "goodwill" allocated to the Porsche business, based on Porsche's long-term plan.

At the time, Porsche had lowered its medium-term operating profit margin target from 15-17% to 10-15%, and now, with Porsche's medium- to long-term assumptions being updated again, an impairment loss of approximately 6 billion euros has been incurred.

Further layoffs may occur.

And there was another report that came out, which was that "Porsche is considering cutting approximately 4,100 more jobs."

This is a German business newspaper.HandelsblattAccording to a report, a document related to a recent resolution by VW's supervisory board stated that Porsche is "considering cutting approximately 4,100 additional jobs."

The approximately 4,100 people mentioned here areThe personnel reductions that were announced the other day have already been decidedThis is a separate matter, and essentially it's a proposal for additional personnel reductions.

What we know so far is that Porsche has decided to cut approximately 4,000 jobs in 2025, and in July 2026, it was announced that Porsche's management and employee representatives had agreed to cut another 5,000 jobs by 2035.

Adding the information from this latest report to the already announced 4,000+5,000, the total number of personnel cuts comes to approximately 13,100.

Overseas mediaAccording to reports, if these layoffs go through, it would amount to roughly one in three of Porsche's employees. One-third is quite a lot.

According to reports, the proposed reduction of approximately 4,100 additional jobs is intended to address a deficit of around 700 million euros in overhead costs at Porsche.

BigGo FinanceAccording to reports, Porsche aims to improve its profitability by 3.8 billion euros by the end of 2030, with plans to achieve 1.8 billion euros of that through overhead cost reductions... however, at present, concrete measures have been put in place to support approximately 1.1 billion euros, leaving a shortfall of about 700 million euros.

Therefore, it is said that an additional reduction of approximately 4,100 jobs is being considered to address this shortage.

However, this is merely a media report, and Porsche has not officially announced any additional layoffs of 4,100 people.

Furthermore, Porsche will not implement mandatory layoffs until the end of 2035.They should have already reached an agreement with the Central Labor-Management Council.Therefore, I believe it will be practically difficult to implement the additional cuts reported this time through forced layoffs.

At this time, both VW and Porsche have refrained from commenting on this report.

The news reports show that Porsche is still going through a very difficult time, but I hope that this will lead to stable management so that they can continue to produce wonderful cars in the future.

Personally, I find it very disappointing when I see people, after reading reports like this, saying things like, "That's why Porsche shouldn't have aimed for EVs," or "They should have stuck with the Porsche (ICE) as they were before."

While Porsche's move towards electric vehicles was certainly driven by a desire to challenge new technologies and grow in the EV market, it wasn't just that. Considering the EU regulations at the time, Porsche had no choice but to move towards electric vehicles. If the EU regulations had remained as previously announced and not been relaxed, Porsche would, in principle, not have been able to sell new gasoline-engine cars within the EU by 2035.

Given that EU regulations would dictate this, Porsche had no choice but to adapt, first by reducing the average CO₂ emissions across the entire manufacturer so that they could continue selling ICE-powered cars like the 911, and secondly, by the reality that ICE cars might truly become unsaleable.

And if it really becomes impossible to sell ICE vehicles, then I believe that Porsche's response was based on the idea of creating the best sports cars and SUVs as EVs, and having Porsche once again become a leader in the future EV society (due to EU regulations) by creating and promoting amazing cars, and making cars that allow people to continue to feel the joy of driving a Porsche, even as an EV.

Of course, I sometimes think that there could have been better ways of selling and marketing those EVs, and also in how we responded when EU regulations gradually began to ease.

However, I think it's wrong to dismiss Porsche's focus on EVs without considering the existence of strict EU regulations that absolutely had to be met as a prerequisite. When I've heard the opinions of Porsche executives through various reports and in person, they have all spoken earnestly about their love for ICE with manual transmissions and their desire to keep ICE as much as possible, and I believe they have done their utmost to accommodate that.

Frankly speaking, I think they're overflowing with the feeling of wanting to say, "Even Porsche didn't choose to end up like this!"

That's all!

*Sorry, the last part is all just my personal feelings.

Ah, that being said, I do think it's questionable that layoffs are being made in response to what happened, and that those affected are being held responsible. I understand that it's a very difficult situation, but I hope that some kind of relief measures will be taken.

Source:
◆Volkswagen AG updates its forecast for fiscal year 2026
◆Volkswagen AG adjusts 2025 forecast in light of the effects of changes in product planning and the medium-term ambition of Dr. Ing. hc F. Porsche AG
◆Volkswagen Eyes 4,100 More Job Cuts at Porsche Amid Deepening Restructuring
◆Nearly 1 in 3 Porsche Employees Could Go by 2035
◆VW Group proposes 4,100 more Porsche layoffs after profit warning

Related article:Porsche to protect jobs until 2035: Future package including €2.1 billion investment and 5,000 job cuts