Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer Porsche is scaling back its non-core operations, shuttering its battery cell subsidiary Cellforce and other ventures, resulting in approximately 500 job losses across Germany and Croatia. As part of a strategic realignmnent favoring a technology-neutral powertrain strategy, Porsche announced on Friday that Cellforce no longer offers a sufficiently viable outlook. Management is set to enter talks with the works council regarding the closure of the unit, a move affecting around 50 employees.

Cellforce was originally intended to build a battery cell factory with an annual production capacity of approximately one gigawatt-hour. However, those plans were scaled back in mid-2025, and the factory project was scrapped. Instead, Cellforce was to pivot exclusively toward research and development. Porsche is responding to sluggish demand for electric sports cars, a market segment that has failed to develop as rapidly as initially projected.

The company is also exiting the e-bike business, with approximately 350 positions being eliminated in Ottobrunn and Zagreb. According to the company, Porsche eBike Performance was established to develop and globally market high-performance e-bike drive systems. An additional 90 jobs will be cut at the software subsidiary Cetitec in Pforzheim and Croatia. The firm specialized in data communication software, but Porsche noted that the market environment has since shifted and development scopes have been relocated.

(Reporting by Christina Amann. Editing by Olaf Brenner. For inquiries, please contact our editorial office at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for corporate and markets)