Porsche Ag

Ferdinand Porsche founded Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in 1931 alongside Adolf Rosenberger and Anton Piëch, with offices at Kronenstraße 24 in central Stuttgart. The name reflects Ferdinand's honorary doctorate title in German engineering. In its earliest years the company offered vehicle development consulting rather than manufacturing under its own name. Its most consequential early commission came from the German government: the design of a people's car, which resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most produced automobile designs in history. The Porsche 64, developed in 1939, drew heavily on Beetle components and represented an early step toward a distinct Porsche identity.

During World War II the company worked on tank designs, losing out to Henschel in the Tiger I and Tiger II contracts; the chassis designed for the Tiger I was adapted as the base for the Elefant tank destroyer. Post-war testimony and research documented that Porsche's factories used forced labor during the war.

At the end of the war Ferdinand Porsche was arrested on war crimes charges and held for twenty months. During his imprisonment his son Ferry Porsche, unable to find a car he wanted to buy, decided to build one himself. The first examples of what became the Porsche 356 were assembled in a small sawmill in Gmünd, Austria. The 356 was road-certified in 1948. After production was absorbed by Ferdinand's company in Stuttgart in 1950, Porsche contracted Reutter Karosserie in Zuffenhausen to build the steel body. The 356 went through several evolutionary generations — A, B, and C — progressively replacing Volkswagen-sourced parts with Porsche-developed components.

In 1964 Porsche launched the 911, an air-cooled rear-engined six-cylinder sports car that would become the marque's defining product. The body shell was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The 901 designation was changed to 911 after Peugeot objected to the three-digit-with-central-zero naming convention.

In 1972 the company converted from a Kommanditgesellschaft to an Aktiengesellschaft, introducing an external executive board. The change prompted most family members to leave operational roles, including F.A. Porsche and Ferdinand Piëch. F.A. Porsche subsequently founded the luxury goods design firm Porsche Design, while Piëch pursued an engineering career that eventually led him to the chairmanship of the Volkswagen Group.

Ernst Fuhrmann became the first CEO of Porsche AG and oversaw a strategy that favored front-engined grand tourers — the 928, 924, and 944 — over the 911. His successor Peter Schutz reversed course and recommitted the company to the 911. The CEO succession from Schutz to Arno Bohn and then Wendelin Wiedeking (from 1993) ultimately stabilized and greatly expanded the business. Wiedeking's transformation of Porsche into an unusually profitable company was accompanied by a controversial strategy to build a controlling stake in Volkswagen AG.

The Porsche-VW connection predates the company itself: the Beetle was a Ferdinand Porsche design. In 1969 the two companies collaborated on the VW-Porsche 914. In 1976 the jointly developed 912E and 924 emerged, the latter built at Audi's Neckarsulm plant. The Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its platform with the Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7.

In 2007 Porsche SE was created by renaming the original holding company, becoming the families' investment vehicle. The car manufacturing operations were placed in a new Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG. In August 2009 Volkswagen AG and Porsche SE agreed to merge their car manufacturing operations, with VW ultimately acquiring full ownership of Porsche AG. As of 2015 Porsche SE's primary asset is a 52.2% controlling interest in Volkswagen AG, which controls brands including Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Ducati.

In September 2022 Porsche AG completed an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Share capital was divided into 50% non-voting preference shares and 50% ordinary shares. Volkswagen AG retained 75% of ordinary shares while Porsche SE acquired 25%. Of the preference shares, 25% were offered to the public; Qatar Investment Authority committed to acquiring 4.99%. At the upper limit of the offering price at 82.5 euros per share, Porsche AG was valued at approximately 75 billion euros.

The main factory and headquarters are in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, where Porsche produces flat-six and V8 engines. The Cayenne and Panamera are manufactured at a second plant in Leipzig, Saxony, opened in 2002. In 2018 Porsche acquired a 10% minority stake in Croatian electric sports car manufacturer Rimac Automobili. The company also wholly owns consulting firm MHP Management- und IT-Beratung, fully acquired by January 2024, and holds a 29% share in engineering consultancy Bertrandt AG.

In 2025 Porsche's operating profit fell sharply, dropping from approximately 5.3 billion euros in 2024 to around 90 million euros, an operating margin of roughly 0.3%. The decline was attributed to a 3.9 billion euro restructuring charge related to electric vehicle investment write-downs, continued sales declines in China, and the impact of US import tariffs. Global vehicle sales fell from 310,718 in 2024 to 279,449 in 2025. Michael Leiters became CEO on 1 January 2026, succeeding Oliver Blume.