Porsche Abandons Production to Focus on Research! Battery Business Adjusts, Targeting Solid-State Battery Breakthroughs

On August 25th, Porsche officially announced that its subsidiary Cellforce will cease efforts to expand the production of high-performance batteries and will instead focus on the research and development of core battery technologies as an independent R&D unit. This decision marks a significant strategic adjustment in Porsche's path toward electrification. Meanwhile, Volkswagen Group's battery technology center, PowerCo, will absorb some of Cellforce's employees, initiating a new round of internal resource integration within the group.

From a cost perspective, Porsche's move is clearly considered. For example, in the case of Porsche's all-electric model, the Taycan, the battery pack accounts for nearly 40% of the entire vehicle's cost. In the fourth quarter of 2024, the global lithium carbonate price rebounded to 120,000 yuan per ton, marking a 20% increase compared to the beginning of the year. The drastic fluctuations in raw material prices severely compressed profit margins. As a luxury brand, Porsche has relatively limited annual production and sales volume, making it difficult to achieve optimal cost control by maintaining an independent large-scale battery production line. Meanwhile, Volkswagen's PowerCo has established a production capacity of 40GWh, effectively reducing construction costs and startup time through standardized factory design. By entrusting the production process to PowerCo, which has greater advantages in standardized production and vertical integration, Porsche can leverage economies of scale to significantly reduce costs.

Technical bottlenecks are also a key factor driving Porsche’s strategic adjustments. Previously, Porsche planned to convert the 718 series to electric versions, but the R&D team found it difficult to maintain the original driving characteristics of the models with existing battery technology. High-performance sports cars face numerous unique challenges in the process of electrification—not only the demands for range and fast charging, but also the need to balance weight distribution and handling precision to ensure an ultimate driving experience. After Cellforce shifted to a pure R&D model, it has been able to focus on overcoming these technical obstacles, especially making breakthroughs in next-generation battery technologies such as solid-state batteries and silicon-based anodes. Notably, QuantumScape, a company invested in by the Volkswagen Group, has made progress in ceramic separator membrane technology. In the future, once PowerCo achieves mass production, Porsche is expected to be among the first to benefit from related technical support by leveraging the group’s advantages.

Porsche’s strategic adjustment reflects a new trend in today’s new energy vehicle industry. With increasing fluctuations in battery raw material prices and the accelerated pace of technological iteration, automakers are gradually forming a division of labor characterized by “focused R&D and specialized production.” NIO’s plan to spin off its battery manufacturing division and focus on building core R&D capabilities exemplifies this trend. According to a report by Western Securities, the lithium battery industry chain in 2025 is shifting from pure price competition to technological competition. The demand for 5-6C fast charging and high energy density batteries in high-end models is extremely urgent, which is the broader industry context behind Porsche’s decision to bet on R&D.

Porsche has halted battery capacity expansion while retaining the option of internal combustion engine models, and has adjusted its 2030 target of 80% pure electric vehicles to a "flexible adjustment based on market conditions." This pragmatic approach allows Porsche to strike a balance between preserving its brand heritage and adapting to the trend of electrification. By focusing on battery research and development, Porsche is expected to maintain its technological leadership in the high-performance electric vehicle sector, while leveraging group resources to optimize production costs.

As the new energy vehicle industry enters a new stage of development, the professional division between technology research and development and large-scale production is becoming increasingly evident. Porsche's recent strategic adjustment offers a new approach for luxury brands' electrification transformation: instead of pursuing full industry chain coverage, it focuses on core technology R&D to create differentiated competitive advantages, while relying on group synergy to achieve optimal resource allocation. Whether this model can stand out in the fierce market competition is worthy of sustained attention from the entire industry.