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Porsche Chooses Tobias Sühlmann to Shape Its Future

For more than 20 years, Porsche’s look has been guided by one steady hand. From the evolution of the 911’s timeless silhouette to the once-controversial but now indispensable Panamera, Michael Mauer didn’t just design cars—he defined what modern Porsche means. But starting February 1, 2026, that responsibility will pass to a new generation, as Tobias Sühlmann steps in as Porsche’s new Head of Design.

Sühlmann, 46, arrives from McLaren, where he’s been Chief Design Officer since 2023, and his résumé reads like a greatest-hits album of modern performance brands: Volkswagen, Bugatti, Aston Martin, Bentley, and now Porsche. If there’s a common thread in that lineup, it’s high-speed elegance—and that’s exactly what Stuttgart is betting on as it navigates an electrified, software-driven future.

The End of the Mauer Era

Michael Mauer, now 63, leaves behind one of the most influential design legacies in Porsche history. Since taking the job in 2004, he’s been the caretaker of one of the most recognizable shapes in the automotive world: the 911. Under his leadership, Porsche modernized without losing its soul, a balancing act that many legacy brands have fumbled.

Mauer also helped Porsche expand its design language beyond sports cars. The Panamera, launched in 2009, was a gamble—a four-door Porsche sounded like heresy at the time—but it became a cornerstone of the brand. Then came the 918 Spyder, which proved that electrification could coexist with exotic performance long before hybrids were cool.

More recently, Mauer led Porsche into the EV era, making sure the Taycan and future electric models still look unmistakably Porsche. His philosophy was simple but demanding: a Porsche should appeal to all the senses, not just the stopwatch.

And he’s not disappearing overnight. Mauer will stay on during a transition period, ensuring that Porsche’s design DNA doesn’t get lost in the handoff.

Enter Tobias Sühlmann

If Porsche wanted a safe, conservative pick, Sühlmann wouldn’t be it—and that’s the point.

He, like Mauer, studied at the legendary Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, but his career has taken him through some of the most daring design studios in the industry. From shaping Bugatti hypercars to refining Aston Martin’s elegance and helping craft Bentley’s ultra-exclusive Batur, Sühlmann has spent his career where luxury, performance, and bold styling collide.

His most recent stint at McLaren is especially telling. Woking isn’t known for nostalgia—it’s about aerodynamic aggression and futuristic surfaces. That influence could push Porsche’s design language into sharper, more expressive territory without abandoning its iconic roots.

Porsche CEO Michael Leiters has made it clear what he expects: Sühlmann is there to “sharpen Porsche’s profile.” In other words, this isn’t about reinvention—it’s about turning up the contrast.

What This Means for Future Porsches

This leadership change comes at a critical moment. Porsche is preparing for a future where electrification is the rule, not the exception. The next-generation 718 will be electric. More battery-powered models are coming. And design will have to do more than ever to preserve emotional appeal when engine noise fades away.

Sühlmann’s background in high-end sports and supercars makes him uniquely suited to that challenge. Expect Porsches that look more sculpted, more aggressive, and perhaps more experimental—especially as new EV platforms free designers from traditional packaging constraints.

But don’t expect the 911 to suddenly forget who it is. Porsche is famously cautious with its icons, and Mauer’s continued involvement during the transition will ensure continuity. The headlights will still look like Porsche headlights. The roofline will still whisper “911.” The soul will still be there.

A Generational Shift, Not a Revolution

Porsche isn’t ripping up its design rulebook—it’s passing it to a new author.

Michael Mauer wrote one of the longest and most successful chapters in the brand’s history, guiding Porsche through SUVs, sedans, hybrids, and EVs without losing its visual identity. Tobias Sühlmann now gets to write the next one, armed with experience from some of the world’s most exciting performance brands.

For Porsche fans, that’s not something to fear. It’s something to watch closely.

Source: Porsche

News

A Million-Dollar Porsche 911 Speedster That Lost Six Figures Before Its First Oil Change

In the high-stakes world of Porsche restomods, depreciation is supposed to be something that happens to Cayennes, not carbon-fiber 911 Speedsters. But this Gunther Werks build just proved that even the bluest of blue-chip air-cooled exotica isn’t immune to gravity.

This particular Gunther Werks 911 Speedster—one of just 25 ever made—recently sold for $965,000. That sounds outrageous until you realize it had traded hands for $1.15 million only a few months earlier. That’s nearly $200,000 gone in under a fiscal quarter, which is about the same rate of value loss as a Bentley leaving the showroom.

Ouch.

The car left Gunther Werks’ Huntington Beach facility in October 2022, built to the firm’s obsessive standards and finished in a bespoke Gin Tree Green metallic. A year later, it landed at New York–based HK Motorcars, who apparently saw it less as a toy and more as a rolling financial instrument. That gamble didn’t quite pay off.

The dealer tossed it onto Bring a Trailer, where bidding topped out at $905,000—well shy of their reserve. Soon after, a private deal closed at $965,000, locking in a $185,000 loss for the seller. Whether that means the dealer overpaid or the new buyer scored a bargain is something the next resale will reveal. But either way, it’s a reminder that even seven-figure Porsches don’t always go up.

Fortunately, if you’re going to lose six figures on a car, it might as well be one that looks like this.

Gunther Werks doesn’t restore 911s so much as re-engineer them. Each Speedster begins as a donor 993 that’s stripped to its steel skeleton before being reborn with a full carbon-fiber body. Every panel is lighter, stiffer, and shaped with modern aerodynamic intent, even if the silhouette still screams late-’90s Stuttgart.

This one’s custom green paint is offset by matte green stripes and yellow Porsche script, a subtle nod to motorsport heritage wrapped in boutique-level craftsmanship. It’s less “classic 911” and more “what Porsche would build if it ignored accounting.”

Underneath the carbon lies a 4.0-liter air-cooled flat-six that’s about as far from stock as a Mezger can get. With Mahle pistons, forged rods, and a billet crankshaft, it produces 430 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque—numbers that would’ve sounded absurd in a 1990s 911 but now feel perfectly at home in a carbon-skinned Speedster.

Power goes through a six-speed manual, because of course it does, and the chassis is handled by adaptive coilovers with Brembo brakes big enough to stop a small aircraft. Six-piston calipers up front, four in the rear, and more grip than a tax audit.

Inside, the same no-expense-spared philosophy continues. Gunther Werks cabins are more private jet than vintage Porsche, blending bespoke materials with modern hardware while still preserving the basic 911 layout.

So yes, someone lost nearly $200,000 on this Speedster in record time. But the person who bought it for $965,000 may have just landed one of the most exquisite air-cooled Porsches ever built for what passes as a bargain in this rarefied world.

In the restomod market, timing is everything. And sometimes, even a million-dollar Porsche has a bad day on Wall Street.

Source: Bring a Trailer

News

Porsche to Close Nearly a Third of Its China Showrooms Amid Steep Sales Drop

For years, China was Porsche’s turbocharger. It took the brand’s already bulletproof balance sheet and spooled it up with relentless growth, seemingly immune to global slowdowns or shifting buyer tastes. Now, that same market is acting more like a blown head gasket.

Porsche is preparing to shut down roughly 30 percent of its Chinese dealerships, a dramatic retreat that underscores just how badly things have turned. By 2026, the brand plans to operate only about 80 showrooms in China—down from 114 by the end of 2025 and roughly 150 just a year earlier. That’s not a trim. That’s a hard reset.

Officially, Porsche China CEO Pan Liqi says the move is about cost control. But the timing tells a harsher story. Late in 2025, multiple Porsche stores reportedly closed outright, some leaving behind half-finished deals, missing paperwork, and customers chasing refunds after franchise operators simply disappeared. In the ultra-polished world of Porsche retail, that kind of disorder is a flashing warning light on the dash.

The Sales Collapse Behind the Curtain

The numbers explain the urgency. Porsche delivered 41,938 vehicles in China in 2025, a 26 percent drop from the year before. That alone would be painful. But zoom out a little more and it gets ugly: in 2022, Porsche sold nearly 96,000 cars in China. In just three years, the brand has lost more than half its volume.

That collapse is dragging down the entire company. Global Porsche deliveries fell 10 percent in 2025, to 279,449 vehicles, with declines in every region except North America, which merely held steady. China isn’t just underperforming—it’s the anchor tied to Porsche’s bumper.

And while macroeconomic factors matter, Porsche’s product mix isn’t helping. Electric vehicles, once supposed to be the brand’s next growth engine, are getting absolutely steamrolled by domestic Chinese rivals.

Taycan Meets Its Match

The Taycan, Porsche’s technological flag bearer, is bleeding. Sales fell another 22 percent in 2025, following a steep drop the year before. Local competitors like Xiaomi are offering flashy, high-tech electric sedans at far lower prices, and Chinese buyers—long loyal to European prestige—are no longer automatically paying extra for a Stuttgart badge.

The result? Porsche is quietly backing away from its all-in EV posture in China. In the near term, the company is shifting focus back toward internal-combustion engines and hybrids, where its brand cachet and engineering reputation still carry more weight.

A Retreat That Looks Like Repositioning

The money saved from all those shuttered showrooms won’t just pad the balance sheet. Porsche says it will funnel the cash into research and development, including a new integrated R&D center in Shanghai designed to tailor future products more closely to Chinese tastes.

Two new crossovers—both offered with gasoline and plug-in hybrid powertrains—are slated to debut later this year. That suggests Porsche has realized what many Western automakers are learning the hard way: Chinese buyers don’t just want electrification. They want choice, and they want it wrapped in cutting-edge software and design.

But even with new models on the way, expectations are being reset. Porsche has said that in 2026 it will prioritize “quality over quantity” in China—a corporate way of admitting that another weak year is likely.

From Growth Engine to Reality Check

China didn’t just make Porsche bigger. It made the company believe that demand for premium German performance was effectively unlimited. That illusion is now gone.

What remains is a brutally competitive, tech-driven market where local brands are fast, smart, and cheap—and where prestige alone no longer guarantees sales. Porsche is still Porsche, but in China, the road ahead is no longer a high-speed autobahn. It’s a tight, crowded street, and the brand is finally being forced to slow down and pick its line carefully.

For a company built on momentum, that may be the hardest shift of all.

Source: Car News China