Porsche warns of challenging H2 after 6% sales decline
The sportscar maker's global deliveries fell 6 per cent in the first half of the year, an improvement on the sharper decline recorded in the first quarter. In North America, where Porsche relies solely on imports, growth slowed to 10%, from a 37 per cent surge in the three months through March.
'We expect the environment to remain challenging,' Matthias Becker, Porsche's board member for sales and marketing, said Tuesday in a statement. The company cited fierce competition in China as the main factor behind its 28 per cent sales slump in the world's biggest auto market.
European luxury-car makers are losing momentum in the US and continue to fall behind in China, where local brands are taking over. Mercedes-Benz Group AG on Monday said its sales dropped 10 per cent in the second quarter after President Donald Trump's tariffs curbed deliveries in the US and China. Porsche is one of the manufacturers most exposed to the levies because it lacks a factory in the US.
Addressing its performance in China, the Volkswagen AG-controlled brand pointed to fierce competition in the luxury and electric-vehicle segments that are increasingly dominated by homegrown manufacturers led by BYD Co.
Global sales of the 911 fell 9 per cent due to the phased introduction of updated versions. The Macan sport utility vehicle was the brand's top performer, with sales up 15 per cent in the first half — almost 60 per cent of them the all-electric version.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
29 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Norris on pole as McLaren lock out front row at Belgian Grand Prix
Lando Norris resisted mounting pressure from his McLaren team-mate and series leader Oscar Piastri on Saturday to take pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix. HT Image The 25-year-old Briton, whose mother is Belgian, shrugged aside concerns over his struggles on Friday to clock a best lap in one minute and 40.562 seconds, beating Australian Piastri by 0.085 seconds as McLaren reeled off a convincing front row lock-out. It was his fourth pole this year and the 13th of his career. Charles Leclerc qualified third with a late improved lap enabling him to overhaul defending world champion Max Verstappen's best effort for Red Bull. Alex Albon was fifth for Williams ahead of Mercedes' George Russell, Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull, Racing Bulls' rookies Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson and Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of the Q1 session for Ferrari and will start Sunday's 44-lap race from 16th on the grid in the company of Mercedes' mercurial rookie Kimi Antonelli, who was 18th with two-time champion Fernando Alonso 19th for Aston Martin. After victories in Austria and Britain, Norris will be seeking a third consecutive win to overhaul Piastri's nine-point lead in the title race. "It was a decent lap and I'm happy," said Norris. "Everyone was a bit worried after yesterday, but I wasn't that far off. "There were just a few little issues we had. I was confident that I could get back to the top." Piastri, who had been faster than Norris in Friday's action, said: "It's a bit disappointing. The second lap was coming together well and then I made a mistake into turn 14 and I lost a lot of time. The car was very good again, but it's about fine margins." Leclerc said he was surprised by his time. "I didn't expect it. We thought we were a lot more behind. We thought we had something more in the car with the upgrade, but it was a good lap. It takes time to maximise those upgrades." After a masterclass from Verstappen in the sprint race earlier, Red Bull chose to change his 'skinny' rear wing to a bigger high-downforce version in anticipation of Sunday bringing heavy rain to the sweeping Ardennes circuit. Norris found his pace to clock 1:41.010, six-tenths better than the Ferrari, followed by Piastri two-tenths down in second, the pair showing McLaren's intent under grey skies before a frantic finale during which Hamilton found a late survival lap which was promptly deleted for exceeding track limits. That left Gabriel Bortoleto 15th for Sauber and eliminated the Ferrari driver along with Alpine's Franco Colapinto, Mercedes' rookie Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton, and the two Aston Martins of Alonso and Lance Stroll. Q2 began with everyone on softs and Verstappen fastest, trimming Norris's time, before Piastri and Norris took over for the opening runs. The Dutchman chose not to run again, leaving the usual suspects a clear run to the top-10 shootout while the Haas pair Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman exited along with Alpine's Pierre Gasly, Hulkenberg and Sainz. Russell, who was stripped of victory last year because of an underweight car, was first out for Q3, but it was Verstappen again on top before the McLarens flexed their muscle, Norris beating Piastri by 0.189 on their first runs. Verstappen's final run on fresh softs was not enough to resist an improved lap from Leclerc as Piastri also failed to improve, leaving Norris to claim pole position. "Oh my god, that was really, really bad," said Verstappen, as a rise in track temperature subdued his performance. "Ideally, of course I would like to at least be P3, but fighting the McLarens will be very hard." "The wet around here, it's always very tricky," he added. "We have to wait and see how much rain is going to fall." str/mw Mercedes-Benz Group
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Company founded by the man called Donald Trump's guy in Silicon Valley hits another milestone, after beating IBM and Cisco in market cap
Peter Thiel America has a new entrant in the list of most-valuable companies. And it is Peter Thiel 's defence technology company Palantir Technologies . This week, Palantir hit another major milestone in its meteoric stock rise seen in 2025. The company is now one of the 20 most valuable US companies, achieving a market capitalization of $375 billion. The provider of software and data analytics technology to defense agencies saw its stock rise more than 2% on Friday, July 25, to another record, taking the company's market cap above $350 billion, which puts it ahead of Home Depot and Procter & Gamble. With this, Palantir is now also bigger than Bank of America and Coca-Cola in market value. Earlier this year, Palantir soared ahead of Salesforce, IBM and Cisco into the top 10 U.S. tech companies by market cap. Peter Thiel, Donald Trump's Man in Silicon Valley The Denver-based Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp, and others. Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel has been one of the most vocal supporter of Donald Trump during his 2024 Presidential campaign. Thiel is popularly known as the far-right billionaire investor. Not just in 2024, In the 2016 election too, Thiel eagerly embraced his role as the public face of support for Donald Trump from the tech sector. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like After Losing Weight Kevin James Looks Like A Model 33 Bridges Undo A prominent conservative donor, he has reportedly contributed significant funding and public endorsements, aligning Palantir's strategic interests with a potential Trump administration. This political alignment has sparked speculation about further government contracts, boosting investor confidence in Palantir's growth trajectory. In 2025, the company's stock more than doubled, driven by investor enthusiasm for its artificial intelligence capabilities and deepening ties with the U.S. government. Revenue in Palantir's U.S. government business increased 45% to $373 million in its most recent quarter, while total sales rose 39% to $884 million. The company next reports results on August 4. With $3.1 billion in total revenue over the past year, Palantir is a fraction the size of the next smallest company by sales among the top 20 by market cap. Mastercard, which is valued at $518 billion, is closest with sales over the past four quarters of roughly $29 billion.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
Bad news for NASA employees as Trump administration forced 3870 workers to...
New Delhi: Washington: 3,870 employees will lose their jobs from the US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). These employees are going to resign under the Voluntary Resignation Program. Why did these employees resign? US President Donald Trump's administration has launched a programme to reduce the number of employees to cut the budget. Under this, employees have been asked to resign on their own instead of being fired from NASA. To comply with the Trump administration's goal of reducing the federal workforce, space agency NASA officials are taking the path of resignation to avoid layoffs. NASA is world's most prominent space agency. What did NASA say about resignations? At present, 3,870 employees have resigned from NASA. However, NASA has said in its statement on Friday, July 25, that this number may change after reviewing the applications. NASA has given employees two separate opportunities to leave the job in 2025. After both resignation programmes and about 500 people leaving their jobs in general, NASA will be left with about 14,000 employees. This is the second round of resignations The first round of resignations at NASA came in the early part of the Trump administration. This effort was driven by the government efficiency department DOGE led by Elon Musk. NASA launched its second round of deferred resignations in early June, giving a chance to join it till July 25. The agency said that 3,000 employees accepted it, which is 16.4 percent of the total workforce. NASA issues statement NASA has said in its statement that safety is our top priority. Along with becoming a more efficient organization, we are also ensuring that our capabilities for missions like Moon and Mars remain fully intact. However, experts believe that such a huge reduction in the number of employees may harm NASA's future missions and technical expertise.
