Porsche AG

What they do

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG designs and builds sports cars, SUVs and electric saloons with its headquarters and main plant in Zuffenhausen, a district of Stuttgart. The business began in 1931 as an engineering consultancy founded by Ferdinand Porsche with Adolf Rosenberger and Anton Piëch; it did not sell a car under its own name until the 356 was road-certified in 1948.

Why it matters

Few car makers have built so much identity around a single shape. The 911, shown at the Frankfurt motor show in 1963 as the type 901, has kept its rear-mounted flat-six layout ever since. Porsche turned that stubbornness into a method: continuous refinement of one concept rather than periodic reinvention. The same discipline now runs through the Taycan and the electric Macan, which carry the brand's chassis tuning into battery-electric cars.

Products to know

• 911: the rear-engined sports car in production since 1964.
• Taycan: the brand's first all-electric four-door sports car.
• Cayenne and Macan: the SUVs that broadened the customer base.

The German angle

Porsche is a case study in the Swabian engineering culture of Baden-Württemberg, where suppliers, toolmakers and research institutes sit within a short drive of the factory gate. Its 2022 listing in Frankfurt valued it at about EUR 75 billion, though the company remains firmly inside the Volkswagen group, with the Porsche and Piëch families exercising influence through Porsche SE. Recent years have been harder: the shift to electric cars has been slower than planned and the company booked heavy write-downs in 2025. That makes the next generation of the 911, and how far it electrifies, the most closely watched decision in Stuttgart.