Porsche: History, Landmark Models and Today's Range

Porsche at a glance

Porsche is a German maker of sports cars, SUVs and electric cars within the Volkswagen Group. Key facts as of October 2026:

1875–1931: Ferdinand Porsche before his own company

Ferdinand Porsche designed cars for other firms for three decades before opening his own office. He was born on 3 September 1875 in Maffersdorf, Bohemia, today Vratislavice nad Nisou in the Czech Republic.

His first known design was the Lohner-Porsche Mixte of 1901, a petrol-electric hybrid; over 300 chassis were built to 1906. He then worked at Austro-Daimler from 1906 to 1923 and as technical director of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in Stuttgart from 1923 to 1929, then briefly at Steyr in 1929.

In April 1931 he founded Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in Stuttgart together with Adolf Rosenberger and his son-in-law Anton Piëch. The company sold design work to other manufacturers and built no cars of its own.

1931–1948: the Beetle commission and the war years

The "people's car" contract shaped the young company. It was signed in June 1934, and the first two prototypes ran in 1935. The result became the Volkswagen Type 1, or Beetle, which went on to sell more than 20 million units, with a royalty paid to Porsche per car.

During the Second World War the Porsche businesses designed military vehicles, including the Kübelwagen, and tank designs, and forced labour was used in this work. Ferdinand Porsche, a Nazi Party member from 1937, was arrested in France on 15 December 1945 and held for about 20 months, until August 1947. His son Ferry Porsche ran the company from 1944 and led it until 1972.

1948–1963: Gmünd, the 356 and the move to Zuffenhausen

The 356 was the first car sold under the Porsche name, and it was first built in Austria. The prototype, today known as the Porsche 356 No. 1 Roadster, was road-certified in Austria on 8 June 1948 and won its class at a race in Innsbruck the same year. The first cars were built in Gmünd.

Like the Beetle, the 356 used a rear-mounted, air-cooled flat-four, and many early parts came from Volkswagen. Production moved to Zuffenhausen in 1950, and the Werk 2 factory there opened in 1952. A typical engine was the 1.6-litre unit with 44 kW (60 PS).

The Speedster, built from late 1954 at the request of the importer Max Hoffman, reached 4,854 units. The four-cam Carrera engine appeared in late 1954 and became an option on the 356 A in late 1955. Ferdinand Porsche died in Stuttgart on 30 January 1951. The 356 stayed in production until April 1965, with about 76,000 built, and about half of them are thought to survive.

1963–1980s: the 911, the 914, the transaxle cars and the 959

The 911 replaced the 356 and became the core of the brand. It was presented at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show as the 901. Peugeot objected because it used three-digit names with a zero in the middle, so the car went on sale in September 1964 as the 911.

The first 911 had a 1,991 cc (121.5 cu in) air-cooled flat-six mounted behind the rear axle, rated at 96 kW (130 PS). The layout stayed, while the car was redeveloped many times:

The current open-top version is the 911 Carrera Cabriolet.

Porsche also tried cheaper and front-engined cars. The 914 of 1969 was a joint project with Volkswagen. The 924, launched in November 1975 and built from 1976 to 1988, began as VW-Porsche Project 425: a 2.0-litre water-cooled four at the front, a rear transaxle for a 48/52 weight split, and assembly at Neckarsulm. About 150,000 were built; the 924 Turbo of 1978 had 125 kW (170 PS). The 928, 944 and 968 followed the front-engine idea.

The technical high point of the decade was the Porsche 959, shown at Frankfurt in 1985 and delivered from 1987. Its 2,849 cc (173.9 cu in) twin-turbo flat-six produced 331 kW (450 PS), its top speed was 317 km/h (197 mph), and its PSK all-wheel drive could send up to 80% of the torque to the rear wheels. A 959 won the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1986, with René Metge first and Jacky Ickx second. About 292 customer cars are usually quoted to 1988; with prototypes, the total stays below 350.

Racing: 19 overall wins at Le Mans

Porsche has won the Le Mans 24 Hours outright 19 times. The first win came in 1970, with a car entered by Porsche Salzburg. The winning years are 1970, 1971, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981–1987 (seven in a row), 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

The last three wins came with the 919 Hybrid in the top prototype class. In the 1990s the factory also raced GT cars such as the 911 GT1. Porsche returned to the top class with the 963; in 2025 the No. 6 car finished second overall, 14 seconds behind the winning Ferrari 499P.

1990s–2000s: the water-cooled 911, the Boxster and the Cayenne

In the 1990s and 2000s Porsche added a cheaper mid-engined roadster and then an SUV. The Boxster concept was shown in January 1993, and the production 986 arrived in late 1996 with a 2.5-litre flat-six mounted ahead of the rear axle. Valmet in Finland built Boxsters from 1997 to 2011 and Caymans until 2012.

The coupé version, the Cayman, followed as the Cayman S in late 2005. From June 2016 both cars were renamed 718 Boxster and Cayman and switched to turbocharged 2.0- and 2.5-litre flat-four engines.

The bigger gamble was the Cayenne, built in Leipzig from August 2002 as a 2003 model. It shared its chassis with the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7. The first generation reached 276,652 units. Leipzig also built the Carrera GT supercar from 2004, and the four-door Panamera, revealed in Shanghai in April 2009, followed.

Ownership: Porsche SE, Volkswagen and the 2022 listing

Porsche's ownership involves three companies: Porsche SE, Volkswagen AG and Porsche AG.

The family business became a public limited company (AG) in 1972, with Ernst Fuhrmann as its first chief executive. In June 2007 the old Porsche AG was turned into a holding company, Porsche SE, which built up a large stake in Volkswagen. In August 2009 the two sides agreed to merge their car operations, and the car business, Porsche AG, became part of the Volkswagen Group.

On 29 September 2022 Volkswagen listed Porsche AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at EUR 82.50 per share. Volkswagen kept the majority. Porsche SE, in turn the main shareholder of Volkswagen, also took a direct block of Porsche AG ordinary shares. The sports-car maker itself is therefore a Volkswagen Group brand.

Macan, Taycan and the electric turn

From 2014 Porsche's growth came largely from the smaller Macan SUV, revealed in 2013, built in Leipzig from February 2014, and the best-selling Porsche since 2015.

The Taycan, Porsche's first series electric car, was unveiled on 4 September 2019. Its 800-volt system allows a charge from 5% to 80% in about 22.5 minutes under ideal conditions. A facelift followed in February 2024.

The second-generation Macan followed as an electric car, revealed on 25 January 2024 on the PPE platform shared with the Audi Q6 e-tron and built in Leipzig from May 2024. It received five stars from Euro NCAP in 2024. The Cayenne Electric was unveiled on 19 November 2025 and entered series production in February 2026. Cayenne models with combustion engines, such as the Cayenne GTS, were still part of the range in 2025.

Production of the combustion 718 Boxster and Cayman ended in October 2025. Porsche has announced fully electric successors for the medium term but, as of October 2026, no launch date has been confirmed.

Porsche today: deliveries and line-up in 2025–2026

In 2025 Porsche delivered 279,449 vehicles worldwide, 10% fewer than the 310,718 of 2024. The fall was largest in China, where deliveries dropped by 26% to 41,938. North America held level at 86,229; Germany fell 16% to 29,968. Electrified cars made up 34.4% of deliveries, 22.2% fully electric and 12.1% plug-in hybrids. The record year remains 2022, with 309,884 cars.

By model, Porsche reports 84,328 Macans (+2%), 80,886 Cayennes (-21%), 51,583 911s (+1%), 27,701 Panameras (-6%), 18,612 718s (-21%) and 16,339 Taycans (-22%).

Oliver Blume led Porsche from 2015 until the end of 2025; Michael Leiters became chief executive on 1 January 2026. The line-up in October 2026:

All models with specifications are listed in the Porsche catalogue.

Landmark models that defined Porsche

These cars mark the turning points of Porsche history.

Porsche timeline

The main dates of Porsche history:

Porsche in numbers

• About 76,000 Porsche 356s built, 1948–1965.
• The millionth 911 was built in May 2017.
• 19 overall Le Mans wins between 1970 and 2017.
• 276,652 first-generation Cayennes.
• 279,449 deliveries in 2025, of which 34.4% were electrified.

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