Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche founded his engineering consultancy in Stuttgart in 1931 at age 55. Its most significant early contract was from the German government: designing an affordable "people's car" — the Volkswagen Beetle. Porsche designed the Beetle; Volkswagen manufactured it. The relationship between Porsche and Volkswagen, established in the 1930s, would eventually become one of the most complex ownership structures in corporate history.

Ferdinand Porsche's son Ferry built the first Porsche sports car in 1948 — the 356 — using Volkswagen Beetle components because proper sports car parts were unavailable in postwar Austria. Ferry later said: "I couldn't find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself." The 356 established the Porsche formula: rear-engine, air-cooled, lightweight, driver-focused. The formula that Ferry had improvised from necessity became the foundation of one of the most recognisable automotive identities in history.

Porsche launched the 911 at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1963. The rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive sports car was unusual by any engineering standard — conventional wisdom held that the weight of the engine behind the rear axle made the car inherently unstable. Porsche engineers developed solutions that turned the layout's quirks into advantages at the limit of performance. The 911 has been in continuous production since 1963, making it the longest-running sports car nameplate in automotive history.

In 2008, Porsche attempted to take over Volkswagen — a company twelve times its size — by accumulating options on Volkswagen shares, briefly triggering a short squeeze that made Volkswagen the most valuable company in the world for two days. The scheme ultimately failed: the financial crisis made the required debt unserviceable. Volkswagen acquired Porsche instead in 2012. The hunter became the prey.

Volkswagen listed Porsche AG on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in September 2022, raising €9.4 billion at a valuation of approximately €75 billion — one of the largest IPOs in European history. Porsche reported revenues of €40.5 billion for 2023, with EBIT margin of 18.5%. The listing gave Porsche a market capitalisation larger than its parent company Volkswagen. The 911, still in production after sixty years, remained Porsche's most profitable and most iconic product. Porsche's order book extended to late 2027. The car brand that Ferry had improvised from surplus Beetle parts was now among the most valuable automotive companies in Europe.