Porsche hits the brakes on its electric-only plan – and it’s not the only major manufacturer keeping gas engines running

• Porsche could introduce engines to its pure EV models
• The V8 petrol unit will live on into the 2030s
• Lotus, Bentley and Volvo have all back-tracked on pure EV plans

Porsche plans to stick with internal combustion engines for a lot longer than it originally intended, according to the company’s chief financial officer Lutz Meschke – and it isn’t the only big EV maker making those noises.

Back in 2022, Porsche said that 80% of its new deliveries would be battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by 2030, committing several of its most popular models to make the switch to electric propulsion.

Citing slumping electric vehicle sales and a cooling of demand from customers, Porsche is now rowing back on its plans, with Meschke telling Automotive News Europe that there is a strong possibility those pure electric models slated for future release will also come with a combustion engine or hybrid option.

“What is clear is that we are sticking with the combustion engine for much longer,” he explained in an interview following the German marque’s third quarter earnings results, which revealed the all-electric Taycan model had experienced a 50% dip in sales compared to the previous quarter.

More recently, Porsche said that the V8 petrol engine that is found in the most potent Cayenne and Panamera models will remain in production “well into the 2030s”, while future models that have previously been touted as BEVs (Macan, Boxster and upcoming Cayman) are looking increasingly likely to feature combustion engines in the near future.

“A lot of customers in the premium and luxury segment are looking in the direction of combustion-engined cars, there’s a clear trend,” Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke told journalists during a conference call last month.

It is highly unlikely that the latest Macan will feature a combustion engine in its current guise, as it has been built on the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) platform that is dedicated to electric vehicles.

Similarly, there has been a massive investment in making sure its future Boxster and Cayman models would also…