Porsche

Mission S: Porsche Takes Aim at Ferrari With a Combustion-Engine Supercar

co-produced by AI20. October 2026, 20:12

No battery, no central touchscreen, but an engine behind the driver: With the Mission S, Porsche is showing where it is headed under its new chief executive, Michael Leiters, and the direction points straight at Ferrari. Last Thursday in New York, the Stuttgart-based sports car maker unveiled the concept of a mid-engine supercar that is meant to sit above the 911. The premiere comes at a time when Porsche’s business is in worse shape than it has been in years.

What Is Behind the Mission S

Officially, the Mission S is a “vision model,” in other words a design study. But behind it is a new mid-engine supercar platform that Porsche says it is already developing. Unlike the Carrera GT or the 918 Spyder, it is not meant to become a limited run of a few hundred cars but a permanent model line above the 911. Mr. Leiters calls it a “permanent and versatile addition” to the lineup.

Porsche has not officially disclosed the powertrain. According to the British magazine Autocar, however, Mr. Leiters confirmed that the production version will come exclusively with a combustion engine. Insiders told the German business daily Handelsblatt about a newly developed flat-eight engine, which would be the first in a Porsche road car.

Visually, the Mission S is a trip through the brand’s history: The flat front comes from the GT1 Le Mans racer, the roofline recalls the 959, an exposed cooling fan above the engine quotes the 917, and the wheels borrow the design of the 928. Inside, there are five round gauges with an analog rev counter, classic switches and no fixed central or passenger display. Instead, the driver’s own smartphone, held in a retractable MagSafe mount, provides navigation and information. “A Porsche must be recognizable as a Porsche at first glance,” Mr. Leiters said.

Price and Availability

The Mission S cannot be ordered yet, and there are no technical specifications, no price and no launch date. Porsche says only that the new design language will “soon” make its way into the lineup. Trade publications such as AutoGuide expect a production car for the 2029 model year.

Industry observers expect a price of around €500,000 (about $560,000). Mr. Leiters’s own comparison shows how high Porsche is aiming: Ferrari earns an average of about €440,000 per car, while the average for Porsche’s 10,000 most expensive cars is €270,000 today. In the medium term, that figure is supposed to reach about €330,000, helped by the new supercar and more personalization options.

Pros and Cons

What speaks for the Mission S:

Combustion instead of batteries: Demand for expensive electric sports cars has not materialized. Taycan deliveries fell 31 percent in the first nine months of the year, while the 911 grew 12 percent.
A permanent model line: Rather than a small series limited to a few hundred units, the platform is meant to generate steady revenue and could underpin several models.
A high-margin segment: Expensive sports cars earn far more profit per unit, which is exactly what Porsche needs to reach its targeted operating margin of 10 to 15 percent.
A clear brand identity: The analog cockpit deliberately stands apart from the screen-heavy interiors offered by Chinese automakers and Tesla.

What speaks against it:

Only a concept: Without an engine, output, price or date, the Mission S remains a promise for now. The electric Mission X from 2023 was also billed as a successor to the 918, and it has yet to become a production car.
A smartphone as the screen: What looks purist in a concept car could come across as cost-cutting in daily use of a €500,000 car.
Strong competition: In the supercar segment, Ferrari, Lamborghini with the Temerario and McLaren with the 750S have been established for years, and Ferrari also has much higher margins.
Costly development at the wrong time: Porsche is investing in a new platform and a new engine while cutting thousands of jobs.

What Is Happening in Porsche’s Business

The Mission S is the first visible result of the new “Sportwagenschmiede ’35” strategy, which Mr. Leiters presented at the Capital Markets Day in early October. The former Ferrari technology chief and McLaren chief executive replaced Oliver Blume at the top at the beginning of the year and took over a company in crisis. In 2025, Porsche delivered 279,449 cars, 10 percent fewer than the year before, and its operating margin plunged from 14.1 percent to 1.1 percent.

The decline has continued in 2026. In the first nine months, deliveries fell 16 percent to 178,532 vehicles. Sales in China collapsed by 33 percent, and the dealer network there is set to be roughly halved, from about 150 to 75 to 80 locations, by the end of the year. After an operating margin of 7.8 percent in the first half, Porsche expects 5.5 to 7.5 percent for the full year. Volkswagen, its majority owner, has just announced a write-down of about €6 billion (about $6.7 billion) on Porsche’s goodwill.

The countermeasures are drastic:

Jobs: About 9,000 positions will be eliminated in a socially responsible way, and the number of management positions is to fall by 40 percent.
Holdings: The stakes in Rimac and Bugatti Rimac have been sold, the consulting subsidiary MHP is going to Tata Consultancy Services, and the battery subsidiary Cellforce is being wound down.
Models: About 20 percent fewer variants, but a new small S.U.V. with combustion and plug-in hybrid drives in 2028, along with the all-electric 718 Boxster and Cayman. A large S.U.V. above the Cayenne is under review, and the 911 will remain a combustion car.
Targets: The break-even point is to fall below 200,000 cars sold per year, and in the medium term, Porsche is targeting an operating margin of 10 to 15 percent.

On the stock market, little remains of the former euphoria. At the 2022 initial public offering (in German), the shares cost €82.50; most recently they traded at around €42. The next figures will show whether the strategy is working: Porsche reports its third-quarter results next week.