Tesla Faces Q2 Delivery Test

German Transport Minister Birger is advocating for rapid European Union approval of Tesla's driver-assistance system, Full Self-Driving. In a statement on the 6th, Birger said the move followed talks with Tesla last month on numerous technical details and liability issues, and Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk posted "thank you" in German on X on the 7th, welcoming the German government's support. As part of the talks, Germany agreed with Tesla that Full Self-Driving may exceed the speed limit by up to 10 percent, and Germany plans to support this approach in the European approval process, where speeding is one of the main points of contention. Meanwhile, traffic safety experts and some regulators argue that the speed offset function Tesla uses should be removed before approval in Europe. Birger also revealed that Tesla proposed changing the system's name to "Tesla Assist Driving" to address concerns that the name is somewhat misleading. Full Self-Driving has already been approved in parts of Europe including the Netherlands and Belgium, but several EU member states, including Sweden and France, have expressed concerns about exceeding speed limits, and an EU vote scheduled for October was postponed until at least December while some countries conduct additional testing.

German luxury sports carmaker Porsche said on the 7th that it will restructure its business on the assumption of declining sales. Under the restructuring plan, the company aims to lower its future break-even sales volume to under 200,000 vehicles, a level far below last year's total deliveries of 279,449. Porsche's global deliveries have already fallen by nearly 10% since its 2022 listing, hit by a sharp drop in demand in China and U.S. tariffs. At an investor briefing held at its development center in Weissach in southwestern Germany, CEO Michael Leiters argued that the company can turn itself around by focusing on high-end sports cars such as the 911, and said it aims to raise prices for the 10,000 vehicles in its highest annual sales price segment. With this strategy, Porsche has set a long-term target of a 15% group operating margin, and aims for 10-15% over the medium term, roughly within five years. However, its margin has plunged from the upper 10% range four years ago, when it listed, to 1.1% in 2025. Leiters said that under current conditions the company expects to achieve the lower end of its medium-term target, but explained that further improvement will require deeper business restructuring or a more favorable business environment. He said the company will strengthen its management base by cutting development and sales costs, in addition to existing workforce reduction measures and a plan to cut management positions by 40%, and indicated it will expand platform sharing with Audi, a fellow luxury carmaker under Volkswagen, to reduce costs. Following the announcement, the share price rose 3.2%.

German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz said on the 7th that, amid difficult conditions in the Chinese market, third-quarter sales in its core passenger car division fell 8% year on year, extending its declining trend. Third-quarter vehicle sales totaled 407,200 units, of which the Chinese market accounted for 86,800 units, down 31% year on year. High-end segment sales came to 53,900 units, down 21%, hit by the deteriorating market environment in China and ongoing model changes. In the United States, meanwhile, passenger car sales rose 6%, and in Europe they rose 5%. Group-wide battery electric vehicle sales, including passenger cars and vans, rose 52% to 78,100 units.

Porsche plans to lift the average price of its most expensive models by roughly 20% by 2030, taking inspiration from Ferrari's use of exclusivity to drive profits. Chief executive Michael Leiters, who joined from McLaren in January and previously served as Ferrari's chief technology officer, presented the multi-year plan at an investor day in Weissach, saying Porsche wants to further elevate its positioning and gain pricing power. The average price of top models is expected to climb from about €270,000 this year to more than €330,000 by the end of the decade, and those models will rise to 45% of the portfolio from about a third today. Leiters is pursuing a value-over-volume approach that will make Porsche smaller, with the break-even point falling below 200,000 units, product development costs and model variants each cut by 20%, and 9,000 jobs, about a fifth of the workforce, to be eliminated by 2035 under an agreement with unions. Porsche maintained its goal of a 10% to 15% operating margin and an automotive net cash flow margin of up to 12% by 2030, with a 15% margin targeted for 2035, after deliveries fell from about 320,000 in 2023, when the operating margin was 18%, to 279,449 last year, with the margin collapsing to 1.1%. A new combustion-engine Macan due in 2028 is expected to revive profits and offset weaker Chinese sales, alongside a new SUV in petrol and plug-in hybrid versions that year and a new super-sports car priced above the 911, while an electric 718 arrives next year and there will be no electric 911.