Porsche is pulling the plug on Porsche eBike Performance, its high-performance e-bike drive system subsidiary, as the automaker trims projects that no longer fit its core business.
The move is part of a wider strategic realignment. Porsche says it will discontinue three subsidiaries: Porsche eBike Performance GmbH, battery unit Cellforce Group GmbH and software company Cetitec GmbH. Altogether, more than 500 employees are affected by the planned reductions.
For the e-bike operation specifically, Porsche points to changed market conditions for e-bike drive systems. The division was created to develop and sell high-performance motors and batteries worldwide, with sites in Ottobrunn, Germany and Zagreb, Croatia. Porsche says closing those operations affects around 360 employees.
Porsche says the cuts are part of a push to refocus on the core business.
That is a sharp turn for a company that was still promoting its premium Porsche eBike lineup last year. The fifth-generation eBike Sport and Cross models leaned heavily into Porsche design, high-end components and eye-watering pricing, but the division behind the broader drive-system ambitions now looks like a casualty of a tougher mobility market.
The shutdown also lands alongside Porsche closing Cellforce, which had already been scaled back after the company moved away from plans to build its own high-performance battery cells at volume. Cetitec, which developed data-communication software for Porsche and Volkswagen Group, is also being wound down after Porsche said market conditions and development needs shifted.
This is not happening in isolation. Porsche recently agreed to sell its stakes in Bugatti Rimac and Rimac Group, another sign that new CEO Michael Leiters is trying to simplify the company after years of expensive electric-mobility bets.
The e-bike brand itself may still exist as a product line, but Porsche eBike Performance as a technology supplier is done. For a company famous for making performance feel expensive on purpose, the bicycle experiment suddenly looks like one more non-car project that could not justify the ride.
