After a costly EV mistake, Porsche is betting on gas engines, hybrids, and eFuels to protect its identity and rebuild profits:
For a fleeting moment, it seemed like the iconic roar of a Porsche flat-six was destined for the history books. However, after a reality check from the global automotive market, the legendary German automaker is officially hitting the reset button. Instead of rushing toward an all-electric lineup, Porsche is placing its faith, and its financial future, squarely back on the internal combustion engine.
This change of heart comes on the heels of a financially disastrous 2025. The company was forced to absorb approximately $4.5 billion in one-off charges, with a staggering $3.5 billion directly attributed to scaling back its battery-electric vehicle ambitions. The aggressive EV push nearly wiped out the brand's profitability, dragging its operating margin down to a razor-thin 0.3% and halving its share price compared to 2022 highs.
Porsche CEO Michael Leiters has admitted that the brand simply pushed too hard and too fast toward electrification, vastly overestimating how quickly premium buyers would abandon gas pumps for charging stations.
The clearest indicator of this miscalculation was the Taycan, which experienced a sharp sales drop as consumer enthusiasm for high-end EVs plummeted and cheaper Chinese electric sedans flooded the market. But the most painful misstep involved the Macan.
Porsche initially planned to completely kill off the gas-powered Macan to make way for an EV-only successor. When EV demand cratered, the automaker found itself without a combustion-engine option in one of its most profitable segments.
Engineers are now scrambling to develop a new petrol-powered Macan, but the delay means the brand will have a glaring hole in its lineup until at least 2028.
Previously: Porsche EV Roll-Out Delay Deals $6 Billion Hit to Parent Volkswagen
Related Stories
Porsche AG on Friday dialled[sic] back plans for its electric vehicle rollout due to weaker demand, pressure in key market China and higher U.S. tariffs, causing the luxury sportscar maker and its parent Volkswagen to slash their 2025 profit outlooks:
The move highlights the challenges for one of the most well-known car brands, which has been squeezed by its two most important markets - China and the United States - over price declines and trade barriers.
Volkswagen, Europe's top carmaker, said it would take a 5.1 billion euro ($6 billion) hit from the far-reaching product overhaul, which delays some EV models in favour of hybrids and combustion engine cars, at its 75.4%-owned subsidiary.
The changes are a major shift for the Stuttgart-based maker of the iconic 911 model, and are expected to hit Porsche's operating profit by up to 1.8 billion euros this year, it said.
[...] Porsche said it would delay the launch of certain all-electric vehicles, adding that the new SUV above the Cayenne model would initially not be offered as an all-electric vehicle, but with combustion-engine and hybrid models.
Also at ZeroHedge.
Previously: Porsche's New Cayenne Will Charge Itself Like No Other EV
Related:
- Canadian EV Sales Collapse by 35% as Gas Car Purchases Surge
- Tesla Continues Slide As Musk Warns Of "Rough Quarters" Ahead
- Electric Truck-Maker Nikola Falls Into Bankruptcy Joining a Procession of Failed EV Startups
Registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Europe's key automotive markets surged by 51% in March as the Iran war pushed gasoline prices to multi-year highs, data published by research firm New Automotive and trade association E-Mobility Europe showed on Monday:
More than 224,000 new electric passenger cars were registered in March alone across 15 key EU + EFTA markets, the analysis found. These sales accounted for as much as 22% of all new passenger car sales across the key European markets.
In another sign that expensive gasoline is pushing drivers to EVs, European Union member states registered more than 500,000 new electric cars in the first quarter of 2026, a surge of 33.5% compared to the same period last year, the data showed.
New BEV registrations accelerated across every major EU market in the first quarter of 2026. Europe's five largest countries — Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Poland — all recorded BEV growth above 40% year-to-date.
[...] Energy security was the catalyst for change in driver choice in recent weeks, analysts at New Automotive and E-Mobility Europe say.
Previously:
- Honda Hits Brakes On EV Rollout Amid Rising Losses
- Porsche Puts Its Faith Back in Internal Combustion Engines
- After a $26 Billion Hit, Stellantis Shifts Focus Back to What Buyers Want
- Stellantis Drops Jeep, Chrysler Plug-in Hybrids Amid EV Sales Slowdown
- Canadian EV Sales Collapse by 35% as Gas Car Purchases Surge
(Score: 2, Insightful) by FunkyLich on Tuesday March 17 2026, @11:13PM (1 child)
1. "... how quickly premium buyers would abandon gas pumps for charging stations."
2. "... consumer enthusiasm for high-end EVs plummeted and cheaper Chinese electric sedans flooded the market."
Which in other words means that the ones that they mostly sell to, are in the ballpark of the super rich sheikhs, and the super rich westerners who equate noise with exposure for the showoff, quite similar to that "loud pipes save lives" mentality that the Harley Davidson niche has. Combine this with the fact that the Chinese deliver the same quality of car and performance and drive experience for a vastly cheaper price (which would make one think twice to pay that non trivial 'premium' simply for the brand name on the hood), it all basically boils down to: "We can't compete, the future looks scary for us and we will just try to make as much easy money as we can now from the wealthy with a certain mentality with we're are so happy they have it such."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:58AM
I assume there's an implied "lobby against all competition being legal" in that process somewhere.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:53AM (9 children)
Right now, with gasoline prices skyrocketing due to an oil supply interruption, is when you'd choose to announce you're switching back to gas? Brilliant!
I mean, maybe wait a bit to see if the prices come back down first?
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:20AM
That was my thought, but it's only been several weeks of this war.
(Score: 4, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:38AM (6 children)
First: you have to understand the Porsche target market. Their cars cost more than the median household income of the majority of U.S. zipcodes. Until the recent real-estate run-up (bubble?) there were many people buying houses that cost less than new Porsches.
Next: All while talking/doing EV stuff, Porsche has been developing "green gasoline" - gasoline that somehow convinces everyone that its production and use is net carbon negative. I suppose with enough solar power input capturing enough CO2 from the atmosphere you might do that. Needless to say, this gasoline is on the expensive side, even by European standards - but perhaps they will get some tax breaks on it over there because it's so virtuous. As for U.S. buyers - these are the people willingly paying an extra dollar a gallon already, they might just welcome $10 per gallon gasoline, you only get "the right kind of people" buying that gasoline - it's an exclusive club.
I'm not aware of what all perverse incentives their corp. may have to lose money, but I'm sure there are a few and particularly around investment in new technologies like EVs.
Also, while EV sales in Norway surpassed petrol some time ago, Porsche has never done very well there...
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 18 2026, @11:08AM (5 children)
Ah yes, rich idiots trying to impress other rich idiots. Got it.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @11:58AM (4 children)
The rich may be trying to impress all kinds of people, but the real idiots are the ones who can't really afford the things but buy them anyway to impress other people who can't afford them either.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:21PM (3 children)
I'm not sure you could have less of a clue.
You can find a very nice used Porsche Boxster in the range of $USD 15-20K. It costs about $1000/yr to maintain and is nothing but pure fun. Or, you can buy a new Toyota Camry Hybrid (approved for use by the proletariat) for $USD 35K, and live a life of mindless conformity.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:02PM
I test drove a new Boxster in the summer of 1999, shortly before the S came out. I found it to be soul-less, numb, lacking both road feel and character as compared with many other roadsters with both more and less power. It's a very competent car, new SUVs can be competent cars too. Start with the insultingly high window sill - nanny-coddling the occupants lest they might rest an elbow on it and put their precious joint in (greater) harm's way in the event of a collision. The euro-spec compliant - virtually inaudible exhaust lack-of-note. The pretentious key-on-the-left yearning for LeMans heritage which the mass produced transit vehicle clearly lacked everywhere except possibly in the shield crests emblazoned all around.
So, yeah, you can buy somebody's cast-off toy for $20K and keep it on the road for $100 per month in maintenance, if you don't drive it much. Pure fun? There's better to be had for similar prices, particularly if you're willing to put Porsche levels of money and effort into keeping them running.
This message brought to you from a 35 year Mazda Miata owner - whose turbocharged 1.6 would leave that 1999 Boxster flat six whining for mercy as it failed to keep up - on the straights, in the turns, and in the smiles per dollar metrics as well.
Not a regret, but a learning experience - at year 32 I replaced the turbocharged 1.6 with a blueprinted Jaguar 3.0 V6, the result is the same weight, more power, far more bottom end torque, and less fun. I always wanted to do that, even before I turbocharged, but it wasn't practically accessible to me until much later. It didn't ruin the car, it's still more fun than a Boxster, but it did take it down a notch in most aspects other than pure measurements of speed. Put the 12psi turbo 1.6 and the 3 liter V6 cars side by side, all else equal, I would choose the turbo as a more fun car to drive and own - I'd only choose the V6 if elapsed time numbers mattered to me.
Oh, and I don't hate Germans. We bought (more like adopted) somebody's cast off $80K 2002 Mercedes S430 for $12K. 80,000 miles later we have less than $8K in maintenance and can't imagine a superior replacement for our sedan motoring needs by any metric, including cost to own and operate. It's old, and getting a bit dysfunctional in the luxury accessories, but still a superior ride for the money, a superior ride to anything we might buy for twice the money today.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2026, @01:27AM (1 child)
Just make sure that the used Boxster has had the IMS (intermediate shaft) bearing problem dealt with. Up to 10% warranty failures in some years before 2008(?) Failure slips the cam timing and bends valves...this often totals the car, need I say more?
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 19 2026, @03:19AM
1990 and very early 1991 1.6 liter Mazda Miata engines had a lightweight "sport" crank, which was prone to reassembly errors during service leading to the woodruff key wearing in its slot in the nose of the crank, an unpleasant repair when that happened.
However, that engine is non-interference, so when I drove mine until the timing belt snapped (I had the repair kit all aseembled and ready to go, but decided not to do the replacement over Thanksgiving holiday - too rushed - and that was true, but the belt didn't make it to Christmas - less than 30 miles from replacement after 108,000 miles of service and it snapped - but that was just a total loss of power and coast to a stop, get a tow home and know: I did not replace the belt too early.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday March 18 2026, @08:06PM
Yeah. The talk of the town here now is about fuel prices and EVs.
Maybe Porsche should ask themselves if the Taycan and Maycan were crap cars. Because they are, not because they have electric motors. Keep the 911 as a petrol engine, yeah, but expect that EVs (even boring Teslas) will beat you at the quarter mile.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:57AM (14 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 5, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:42AM (10 children)
Given that Porche is for those who want to display their wealth, it actually may work better than a rational mind expects.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Wednesday March 18 2026, @04:21AM (9 children)
Up to a point, but if it hits the point of actual rationing, then it's going to be tough to really get them out and about to show off.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @04:27AM (8 children)
I'm sure there'll be some loopholes that will slip in.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Interesting) by aafcac on Wednesday March 18 2026, @03:27PM (7 children)
Probably, but this is another reason why we should probably follow SE Asia's lead and start prosecuting billionaires and sentencing them to actual death and then following through. Some of those billionaires have a body count that's so high that it would put them amongst the elites of serial killers.
(Score: 2, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday March 18 2026, @04:14PM (6 children)
For driving a Porsche? Sure, that's a reason, but a remarkably shoddy one. The billionaire in question, Truong My Lan [bbc.com] was sentenced to death for a $44 billion fraud, not the choice of car she drove. Even then, the execution and other trials in this scandal are probably to cover the tracks of involved government officials rather than to do justice.
And some of those normal people are the elites of serial killers against which you are attempting to compare. What should we do to normal people because there are elites of serial killers around? "Some" is a very pointless word.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday March 19 2026, @03:48AM (5 children)
Nice strawman you've got there. Interesting how you skipped over the bit about the fact that there's pretty much always a loophole or some other way of them avoiding the things that the rest of us suffer.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 19 2026, @04:14AM (4 children)
The "strawman" is you. Make better arguments and you'll get less "strawmen" in return. Nobody gets executed for driving Porsches so there's no loophole that needs be exploited.
Same goes for the abstract tales of elite of serial killer billionaires. It's not a serious argument.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday March 19 2026, @04:22AM (3 children)
I didn't make the argument that we should be executing people for driving Porsches. I made the argument that billionaires avoiding the rules should be punished with execution, that's a completely different thing entirely.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 19 2026, @04:55AM (2 children)
Deny in the first sentence. Affirm in the second. This thread isn't working for you. Think about what you are writing.
My take is that this is profoundly dumb. The obvious and quite legal way for rich people to dodge the rules is to pay someone to wait in the rationing line for gas. Or even fill up a local storage tank with fuel so that they don't even have to wait in line. All legal.
Let's save execution for really bad crimes like murder.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday March 19 2026, @05:27AM (1 child)
Literacy isn't your strong suit is it? You are deliberately mischaracterizing what I wrote. Or, you're just stupid.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 19 2026, @12:11PM
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:02PM
Didn't we have $100+/bbl during Gulf War II already? Why was gas only $2.50 per gallon then, but $4 now?
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:24PM (1 child)
We'll see how well your comment ages. He who laughs last, laughs best.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:59PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:56AM (1 child)
Subject line, "the iconic roar of a Porsche flat-six" comes from tfa.
That is the sound of an air cooled Porsche. Production ended in 1998, my guess is due to tightening emission regulations that require more constant engine temp. I call them "wind suckers" due to the constant wooosh of the large cooling fan.
At least some of the more recent water cooled engines include an aspirator (or something) in the exhaust to try and simulate the original fan noise.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:26PM
Air cooling is inefficient, and somewhat incompatible with urban stop-and-go driving. It's simpler, lower cost, until you try to do Porsche-like things with it and then it becomes more expensive than water cooling. Ultimately, in a given package, there's a limit to the power you can get from an air-cooled engine, and that limit is considerably lower than what you can get from a water cooled engine on the same platform - and the market finally moved to a point where air cooling just couldn't keep up anymore.
I turbocharged my 1.6 Miata in 1997 and I used to compare it to what year of Porsche 911 it could out-accelerate. The Miata was a 1991, and it was clearly faster than a 1991 911, it was on-par, maybe a little faster on a good day than a 1997 911. As the years went on, the new 911s continued to push up the horsepower numbers and by 1998 there just wasn't any more to power to get from air-cooled engines in a warrantied regulations compliant road car. I believe my turbocharged Miata was not as fast as the 2001 911 Carrera (996) - even when the intercooler was working just right, it was nowhere near the 2009+ models.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by PhilSalkie on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:07AM (27 children)
Years ago, I think it was on the Electrek blog, someone wise wrote that the only path forward for conventional auto manufacturers was to:
1) Spin off a separately branded EV division
2) Cease all R&D on internal combustion engines, put in only enough money to make minor model year updates
3) Milk the existing business for all the cash they could get, and pour that cash into the EV division so that they could start closing the gap with Tesla (the Chinese manufacturers weren't even on the radar yet.)
4) Once they'd gotten the EV division up and running, write off the stranded assets of the combustion engine production.
Of course, none of them did that. Some ignored EVs, some made a series of half-baked EVs of various quality levels. None were prepared to do what was required to win the EV race.
Meanwhile, Tesla grew like a weed, but now has pretty much squandered its lead. BYD and other Chinese manufacturers are putting out simply amazing and inexpensive vehicles, Rivian and Lucid are also making amazing products (if they can keep the funding going until they're solidly profitable.)
There are now inexpensive EVs for sale with real ranges over 500 miles, DC fast chargers at 1.5 MEGAWATTS which can charge an EV in five minutes, and for many drivers, EVs fill themselves up at home overnight. Stick some solar panels on the roof (cheaper every day) and the car fills itself up for free. By the way, BYD is installing more 1.5 Megawatt charge stations _every week_ than the number of 350 KW chargers the USA's 5-year NEVI plan will install _in total_.
(I'm honestly amazed that EVs haven't taken off with the survivalist crowd - so long as there's a solar panel on my roof, I can use my EV. Gasoline and Diesel are at the ends of _very_ long supply chains. I guess they figure they'll be growing canola on the roofs of their bunkers so they can press out oil, ferment sawdust to distill methanol so they can methylate the canola oil into biodiesel.)
And, of course, there's the actual experience of driving a near-silent car with lots of horsepower and amazing low-end torque - after five minutes of driving, going back to even a high-end gas or diesel car is like sitting in a 1914 Hupmobile.
Actual experience - first major service on my 2017 Tesla Model S at 194,000 miles. Had to have the electric cabin heater replaced and swap out a battery coolant valve that had a minor leak. (Newer models use a heat pump, so they don't have the electric heater.) In comparison, my friend's Kia Soul at 100,000 miles needed a rebuilt engine AND a rebuilt transmission (He still had $10,000 left on the loan, so he didn't just scrap it. After spending $5K on the tranny, the engine failed the next week for another $5K, would have been better off to walk away.) And of course, that vehicle had already needed a dozen oil changes and air filters, plus brake jobs, wheel bearings, tune ups...
I drove about 24,000 miles over the last year, power cost for charging was $970 - that's like a 35 MPG car buying gas at $1.40 a gallon.
Batteries are only getting cheaper and more powerful (lots of news about fully solid state cells recently, increased power, decreased manufacturing cost, increased charge speed.) Fuel is only getting more expensive and harder to obtain. Houses have electricity brought to them, they don't have gasoline taps. There's really only one trajectory here, and the rest of the world is showing the USA what that path looks like. Who knows - in 10 years, the rest of the planet may look at the USA like it's some sort of retro steampunk themepark.
(Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:41AM
>the Chinese manufacturers weren't even on the radar yet
Might as well stop reading right there. Chinese EV manufacturers were as inevitable as the sun rising in the East. India... would probably never make anything worth exporting, but China has had that global leader wannabe pride for decades now, it's virtually inevitable that they, in their typical slow moving fashion, will be grinding forward toward being the best at as many things as they can. Electric cars were an obvious target after mastering iPhones and sneakers.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by khallow on Wednesday March 18 2026, @03:17AM (25 children)
Because? This is a great idea if you want to abandon ICE. If you don't, then well, look for advice elsewhere?
Top way that survivalists get their fantasies fulfilled? Nuclear war with a side of heavy EMP. Fossil fuel infrastructure will survive that better than the grid. And old cars will survive EMP better than new cars of any sort.
Price before incentives? I get that Porsche buyers aren't in for the price tag or the gas mileage.
Let's suppose that you paid about a third the price for your energy than a ICE car. You've paid about $16k less for your vehicle's energy use over the years. So how much more was your vehicle than a cheap ICE? $75k right for the Tesla?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2026, @03:39AM (6 children)
They need less solar which can be helpful for nuclear winter scenarios.
They're less reliant on critical consumables like motor oil. The brakes will still kinda work if the brake fluid is old right?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by atwork on Wednesday March 18 2026, @04:15AM (5 children)
Modern vehicles have ridiculous "phone-home" SIM connections for over-the-air updates. How many of these (not just electric vehicles btw) will stop working after a period if they cannot phone home, like software is getting more prone to do?
You want to import your motorbike from India or Pakistan where these connections are mostly not required.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2026, @06:52AM (1 child)
AFAIK most EV bikes should still keep working (minus non essential features like tracking) without internet connectivity. Do you have any citations to show otherwise?
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday March 19 2026, @04:25AM
Yes and it's also often times a lot easier to remove those components than it would be on a car. Sure, it could require removing all the electronics, but it's likely a lot easier to do with an eBike than with a car.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:30PM
It's getting where you want to "roll your own" wherever possible, whether that's automobiles or computers or even home appliances.
The consumer treadmill is spinning ever faster, they're trying to boil us like frogs into replacing everything we own as often as possible.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2) by FunkyLich on Wednesday March 18 2026, @10:51PM
Having a "phone home" SIM or whatever that effectuates the OTA and mothership connections, has nothing to do with how the vehicle is powered, the research towards improving efficiency, and ease or cost of maintenance. The "phone home" in most EVs is merely a good justification to data collect driver/driving info, as the very idea of the word "electric vehicle" gives a mental representation of something space-y futuristic, sci-fi-ish and hi-tech. But all that is also present in *all* the modern ICE vehicles for quite a while now, as everything is electronically managed and made to work, such as breaking, auto-transmission system (even the manual shift cars, the acceleration pedal is *NOT* analog, rather a potentiometer which in turn has its values read from an electronic package which then regulates the fuel and air mixure before commanding how and when it will go into the combustion cylinders), infotainment, climatizing, driving assist systems, safety systems, ABS, and so on and so on and so on.
So don't confuse something that is a result of wilful human greed, by mistakenly attributing it to some side effect of a certain technology.
(Score: 2) by cereal_burpist on Saturday March 21 2026, @05:12AM
Porsche Panic in Russia as Pricey Status Symbols Forget How to Car [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by PhilSalkie on Wednesday March 18 2026, @04:01AM (17 children)
There's no question about "Want to abandon ICE" - it's like "Want to abandon horse buggies". It's not "If", it's "When". Simple economics will dictate that ICE goes away.
And, yes, $75K for a Tesla (second hand) - but the price was higher than it would otherwise have been because this model had lifetime transferrable free supercharging. And at 190,000 miles, it honestly looks and drives like it was made last year - every expectation of getting another 200K miles out of it. Battery range at 85% of original.
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @08:38AM (12 children)
I'm having troubles imagining a combine harvester working on the energy/power densities of the today's batteries.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Wednesday March 18 2026, @10:00AM (6 children)
Yeah, Batteries are still an inferior technology to liquid fuels as a method of dense energy storage and transfer, so much so that it denigrates the better energy conversion efficiency of an electric drive train. I don't see the laws of physics changing anytime soon despite some peoples strong desires, so I expect ICE to remain mainstream for a long time to come, at least outside of dense urban environments.
(Score: 4, Funny) by pe1rxq on Wednesday March 18 2026, @11:13AM (5 children)
The good news is that it apparently becomes harder to ignore EV.
It used to be 'EVs are not usable by anyone', now it is 'EV Combine harvesters are not possible'.
If you need to drag in farm equipment in a debate about luxury cars it is pretty obvious you are loosing the argument. You know what else you can find on farms? straw-men.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @11:45AM (4 children)
Disagree - I'm keeping the argument as tight as possible.
And it's a tight enough argument to hold water, ICE aren't going to disappear completely in the next 10 years at least.
Coming back to:
Just for the fun of it, there are army units that recently used or still use burden animals (horses, donkeys or mules), a selection of what Google's AI says:
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:11PM (1 child)
Plenty of Amish & Mennonite communities still use horses. They seem to survive fairly well without internet connectivity, and most of the other "modern conveniences."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:22PM
Yeah, but "you can still do it with horses, even if you have alternatives" wasn't my point.
What I wanted to bring into view is there will always be conditions in which horses or ICE are necessary and you either have/use them or give up.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:43PM
>ICE aren't going to disappear completely
ever. Neither are horse drawn carriages. The question is: what does the transition look like?
Some people make lots of money during transitions, others lose a lot... it gets contentious.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Thursday March 19 2026, @12:53PM
...and the Danish Army uses dogs to pull the sleds patrolling Greenland.
That shows that there are niche applications of animal power. Draught horses and mules are used in some very specialised forestry.
in the same way, there will be 'niche' application of ICE powered vehicles, and the debate is over which application is in that 'niche' or not.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @02:40PM (3 children)
I'm wondering about the practicality of grain (and other) farms running their own on-site fuel (ethanol/seed oil) production facilities - that would make the farm equipment solar powered for a fraction of the harvested crop.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 18 2026, @09:24PM (1 child)
Not ethanol. Maybe biodiesel [pnas.org]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @09:42PM
Agreed, which is why I put seed oil immediately after it - but it's a lot easier to get the farmers and their neighbors to vote for ethanol production...
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2026, @01:53AM
> farms running their own on-site fuel (ethanol/seed oil) production facilities
Don't wonder, just look deeper. A family dairy farm I know has been using soy bean oil cut 50-50 with diesel in their tractors for at least the last 10 years. They bought an oil press that runs off a medium-sized tractor PTO (perhaps 50 hp / 37 Kw?) and I think it was bought by a group of farmers who share it around. The soy oil is separated from the rest of the bean in the press, and the solids that remain make a better cow feed. Something in soy oil that isn't great for cows. Thus a win-win for the farm - healthy cows and savings on fuel. Oh, and almost forgot, part of their crop land is used to grow the soy beans, the rest for more normal cow grazing.
They also make wonderful maple syrup from their own trees, boiled down using a mountain of downed tree branches they collect. I buy a gallon every spring, last year it was USD $42/gal (3.8 liter). Just about enough to last us a full year.
(Score: 3, Touché) by PhilSalkie on Wednesday March 18 2026, @06:24PM
A quick internet search shows several companies who are working on exactly that. Just a matter of time - remember, Bill Gates said the math made class-8 electric semi tractor trailers absolutely impossible, now you have your choice of suppliers.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 18 2026, @12:08PM
Simple economics got in our faces about the inevitability of oil running out back in 1973, before over half the people living today were born.
"Maybe someday, maybe Sunday maybe neeeeever" - 'til Tuesday, 1980-something.
🌻🌻🌻🌻✌️ [google.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Wednesday March 18 2026, @01:48PM
Simple biology dictates that you will die of old age. What should we do about that today? Perhaps die now and get the fuss and bother over with?
Here, Porsche went all in on EVs and got burned badly. If they abandoned ICE altogether, they might not exist in a few years.
My point is that even with the expenses of higher repair and fuel costs, the ICE probably had lower total cost of ownership than your Tesla.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by JustNiz on Wednesday March 18 2026, @06:05PM
Apparently for you, cars are just a way to get from A to B, which is fine. In that case yes you're right for many people like you an EV may make the most sense.
Even for tha group though, EVs are still not a given. For many, especially those that live remotely or don't have their own house with a private charger, there's
still not enough affordable fast charging infrastructure near them to make owning an EV a practical consideration.
Also You're clearly not understanding the large market segment that brands such as Porsche are actually targetted at. There is a whole world of car nuts that enjoy
many aspects of cars far beyond their ability to just get you to the mall, work and back. For many of us, the emotional sterileness of an EV doesn't do anything at all to
scratch the same itch that a supercharged V8 does. For many of us it also remains irrelevant that a Tesla plaid might do 0-60 faster, as the buzz we feel from a
car that feels alive is a long way from being just all about speed.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday March 19 2026, @03:57AM
It's not inherently when, you can convert diesel cars to run on vegetable oil. So, it is probably a lot easier to convert over to electric where you don't have to worry as much about the specific method or fuel used to generate the electricity, but it's definitely possible to continue using ICE vehicles indefinitely.