Profit collapsed in 2025, China keeps shrinking and the new CEO wants a smaller, more exclusive Porsche. The Mission S concept, due October 15 in New York, is the first look at a car that sits above the 911.
Porsche has spent most of 2026 explaining how a company that earned €5.64 billion in operating profit in 2024 earned just €413 million in 2025. On October 7 its new chief executive, Michael Leiters, laid out what comes next: a smaller, leaner and more expensive Porsche, with a mid-engined super sports car sitting above the 911 for the first time. The first look at that car, the Mission S concept, is due in New York on October 15.
For buyers this is the biggest change in Porsche's direction in a generation. It tells you where prices are heading (up, at the top of the range), what's being cut (model variants, jobs, side businesses) and what's still undecided, which is almost everything about the Mission S itself.
The numbers are stark. In its 2025 annual results, Porsche reported revenue of €36.27 billion, down from €40.08 billion, and 279,449 deliveries, down 10%. Operating profit fell from €5.64 billion to €413 million, a margin of 1.1% against 14.1% a year earlier. About €3.9 billion of the damage was one-off: roughly €2.4 billion to rework the product plan and shrink the company, about €700 million tied to its battery business, and about €700 million in US tariffs.
The product rework is the heart of it. Porsche bet heavily on electric cars and demand didn't arrive on schedule. Its first-half delivery report blamed the slower-than-expected EV ramp-up, the end of US tax incentives and the end of the gas 718 Boxster and Cayman for a 16% drop in deliveries. The third quarter didn't change the picture. Porsche delivered 178,532 cars in the first nine months, down from 212,509 and still 16% lower, and said it is sticking to a 'value-oriented' sales strategy that keeps supply in line with demand. China, once the growth engine, fell 33% to 21,493 cars, and Porsche told just-auto it is putting the brand's long-term health ahead of volume there. North America, now Porsche's largest region, fell 13% to 56,088.
There's one bright spot that matters to enthusiasts: 911 deliveries rose 19% in the first half, to 30,534, with what Porsche called a significant share of GTS, Turbo and GT models. In the US the gap is wider. Porsche Cars North America's third-quarter report shows 11,778 911s delivered through September, against 8,872 a year earlier, while total US deliveries fell to 49,038 from 57,099, mostly because the 718 has run out. The sports cars aren't the problem. Cost-cutting is already showing up too. First-half operating profit rose to €1.35 billion from €1.01 billion, a 7.8% margin, Porsche said, though it expects more restructuring costs in the second half and in 2027.
Leiters took over in January. He ran McLaren until its merger with Forseven in 2025 and, before that, was Ferrari's chief technology officer. Autocar reports that McLaren's former chief designer, Tobias Sühlmann, followed him to Porsche. No previous Porsche boss has run a company that sells cars the way Ferrari does, and it shows in the plan.
The strategy is called Sportwagenschmiede '35, roughly 'sports car forge 2035', and was presented at Porsche's Capital Markets Day at its Weissach development center. Porsche's own summary and reporting by evo, newmobility and Automotive World agree on the main points:
evo added a telling detail from Leiters' presentation. Buyers of Porsche's 10,000 most expensive cars spend about €270,000 on average today, and Porsche wants that closer to €330,000. The benchmark on the slide was Ferrari, at about €440,000 per car. Porsche has also raised its stake in Manthey Racing to 67%, and evo reports the factory has refitted 11 Carrera GTs with 37 more in progress.
Confirmed: Porsche is developing a super sports car platform, and the first car on it will be mid-engined and sit above the 911. The Mission S concept previews what that car might look like. It will be shown on October 15 in New York. Porsche's second teaser, reported by Car and Driver on October 9, shows an 8,000-rpm redline. Two days before the reveal, Leiters added more. Autocar reported on October 13 that he said the car will be combustion-only, with no hybrid or electric version, and mechanically separate from Lamborghini's and Audi's mid-engined cars, though some parts could still be shared across the group. Top Gear reported the same day that it will be a full production supercar, not a limited edition like the 918 Spyder, and the first Porsche designed under Tobias Sühlmann, design chief since February.
We are developing a super sports car platform, and we intend to use it as the basis for a new mid-engined car, a car that will sit clearly above the 911.
— Michael Leiters, speaking to evo and other media at Weissach
Not confirmed: the exact engine, power, price, production numbers and timing. Porsche's own release calls it a 'potential' platform. Car and Driver lists the Ferrari 849 Testarossa and McLaren 750S as likely rivals, and evo calls it 'undoubtedly a Ferrari rival'. The Park and Drive indicators in the second teaser point to an automatic, most likely Porsche's PDK dual-clutch, as carandbike and HT Auto noted, but Porsche hasn't said.
The engine is where reporting splits. Car and Driver reports rumors of a flat-eight, which would be unique among today's supercars. Automotive News, as summarized by HotCars on October 11, reports that the project, known internally as S1, would instead pair a V8 with a heavily modified 911-based structure, and that Leiters is personally backing it. autoevolution says either layout is possible and points out that the obvious V8 within the Volkswagen Group is the flat-plane unit Lamborghini developed for the Temerario, which also powers the Audi Nuvolari. It also cites a rumored production price of around €500,000. Motor1, as cited by HotCars, reports a dedicated mid-engine architecture with a combustion engine rather than the electric drive of the 2023 Mission X concept. Leiters' latest comments cut against that last idea. If the car is mechanically separate from Lamborghini's and Audi's mid-engined models, as Autocar reports he said, a straight lift of the Temerario V8 looks unlikely. He didn't rule out shared parts, though, and he didn't say what engine it will use.
Some of this is now clearer. The car is gas-only and, per Leiters, not a reskinned Lamborghini or Audi. What's still open is the engine itself, flat-eight or V8, and how much of the 911 sits underneath. None of the engine reports is confirmed, and October 15 should settle at least some of it.
It also matters what the Mission S isn't. Porsche's last two halo cars, the Carrera GT and the 918 Spyder, were limited runs that came and went. Top Gear reports this one won't be: it's planned as a full production car. That means a permanent tier above the 911, the way mid-engined cars are the core business at Ferrari and McLaren.
Porsche builds no cars in the US. EU-built cars pay a 15% US tariff under the 2025 US-EU deal, and a May 2026 threat to raise that to 25% hasn't taken effect, according to the Suspension auto tariff tracker. Road & Track, citing Automotive News, reported that Porsche paid about $811 million in US tariffs in 2025, and that Leiters called US production 'compelling, but it's a huge investment.' Any US plant would most likely build Cayennes and Macans, so 911 and Mission S buyers should expect the tariff to stay in the price.
Exotic Car Trends started tracking 911 asking prices in the US and Canada on October 10, and counted about 1,200 listings on October 11. That's too new for trends, but it shows where the top of today's range sits, and that's the territory a car above the 911 has to clear:
These are asking prices, not sale prices, and we'll report how they move after the reveal. Live numbers are on the Porsche dashboard.
The diagnosis is right. Porsche's problem was never the 911. It was everything it tried to sell in volume around it, especially electric cars in China. Shrinking to the demand that actually exists, and charging more for the cars people wait for, is the Ferrari playbook, and Leiters knows that playbook better than anyone who has run Porsche.
But 'value over volume' cuts both ways. It's good news if you already own a limited Porsche: fewer variants and tighter supply tend to support values. It's bad news if you're trying to get in. Porsche is openly planning higher prices at the top, more paid personalization and, according to evo, an electric 718 at a considerably higher price than the old car.
On the Mission S, keep expectations in check. A concept is a statement of intent, not a product. Leiters has already answered two big questions, gas-only and a regular production car rather than a limited run, so what to watch on October 15 is the rest: the engine, a timeline and a price. A high-revving gas mid-engined Porsche with a firm date would take buyers from Ferrari and McLaren. A vague one is still a design study.
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