• New car sales rose with the new market responsibilities to 874,830 vehicles worldwide (+58.9%)
• Used car sales increased slightly to 222,964 vehicles (+0.5%)
• Global dealerships down to 487 due to consolidations (-11)
• Number of employees in 29 countries worldwide remained steady at 37,200
• Over 280,000 new car registrations realistic in the Austrian domestic market
• Outlook for the 2026 automotive year: the overall economic situation is still challenging; robust business model and consistent cost management ensure resilience; good order intake and innovative new products lead us to expect a stable sales year; transformation is being driven forward with a focus on affordable and sustainable e-mobility.

Porsche Holding Salzburg (PHS) has once again achieved excellent results thanks to its strategic consolidation and course for growth. Despite a difficult political and economic market environment, 2025 brought sustained growth for the Salzburg-based automotive retail dealership. Never before has Porsche Holding Salzburg delivered so many new and used cars to its customers worldwide.

“The market environment in which we operated as PHS in 2025 was a challenging one. This is especially true for the Asia region, above all China, as well as South America. In Europe, on the other hand, we maintained a steady performance and continued to grow, particularly in the CEE countries. Although the markets developed very differently, we had momentum from a global perspective”, said a satisfied Dr Hans Peter Schützinger, CEO of the PHS Management Board, at the annual press conference at the Audi House of Progress in Vienna.

Porsche Holding currently operates in 29 countries on three continents. In addition to the unique strength and diversity of its brands and models, its market position and market growth are primarily based on the networking of all business divisions – from wholesale and retail to financial services and IT solutions. With over 37,000 employees worldwide, Porsche Holding Salzburg serves the entire value chain in automotive retail.

“Our robust and broad-based business model allows us to serve our customers’ needs in both good and difficult times and to continue to drive transformation forward”, says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger.“At the same time, we are increasingly focussing on cost discipline in times that are challenging economically; however, we are sticking to our investment strategy wherever possible, which is proving to be a key success factor in the long term, particularly in Europe.”

• Wholesale and retail trade: New car sales rose by 58.9% to 874,830 vehicles worldwide thanks to the new market responsibilities in Italy and Sweden.
• Used car trade: Global used car sales increased slightly to 222,964 vehicles (+0.5%).
• Dealerships: The number of global dealerships fell to 487 (–11) compared to the previous year due to consolidations.
• Employees: The number of employees in the 29 PHS countries remained steady at 37,200 due to consolidations worldwide.

“Thanks to excellent team efforts and a strong performance, we as a sales organisation manage to set the benchmarks in the Volkswagen Group time and again. This enables us to gain new market responsibilities, such as in Italy and Sweden, and to grow sustainably,” says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger, summing up the company’s success: “We have been working continuously on our fitness, efficiency and resilience for years. This has helped us to offset not only market fluctuations but also rising location costs in Europe, although this is becoming increasingly difficult due to ever-intensifying competition and new competitors, particularly from the Far East.”

“However, countermeasures taken by companies alone are no longer sufficient at a certain point,” adds Dr Hans Peter Schützinger. In this context, he calls on European policymakers and national governments to ensure competition on an equal footing: “The automotive industry is the last leading industry that we still have in Europe. It is the basis for innovation, jobs and prosperity. We need a clear commitment to Europe as a place to do business with competitive production, energy and labour costs. Excessive bureaucracy and an overly complex set of regulations are an additional burden on cash flows for any required investments.”

The assumption of wholesale responsibility for the Volkswagen Group brands in Italy and Sweden will enable Porsche Holding Salzburg to break new ground over the next few years in terms of both volume and earnings. “The organisational and corporate-culture integration of the two new additions with Porsche Holding, which began in mid-2024, is progressing according to plan. We have reached some important milestones in recent months”, says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger.

He went to say: “We are making good and substantial progress, particularly in the area of digitalization – one of the biggest levers for increasing efficiency and profitability in both wholesale and retail. We have also launched several pilot projects in Italy, which we will then transfer to the entire Porsche Holding world in the near future – a good example of how mutual exchange of technology and expertise can work.”

The focus market of China presented an ambivalent picture in 2025: the world's largest car market recorded steady growth in terms of volume, while it was forced to struggle with a prolonged crisis in the luxury segment. At the same time, China is also struggling with overcapacity in production, which is prompting Chinese manufacturers to increase exports to Europe, Eastern Europe and South America among other locations.

Due to the change in circumstances, Porsche Holding Salzburg is already in the third year of reverse gear in China. “The Chinese luxury market, where we operate in the retail sector, has slumped sharply within a very short period of time. This is hard to offset as the losses in unit numbers are simply too great. The situation is further complicated by the local government’s increased luxury tax on European exports,” says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger, summarising the ongoing challenges in what had been a growth market up to now.

“We were forced to review our strategy focused heavily on growth in the large cities in the Chinese retail sector therefore and recalibrate our investment activities and operations with a focus on a stable and profitable business model”, says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger. “We are therefore adapting our dealership network in line with market and volume developments. Nevertheless, we believe in the potential that the Chinese market offers us in the long term.”

The Porsche Bank Group was able to further expand its leading position as the country’s mobility services provider this year. Over 56% of all Volkswagen Group vehicles delivered in Austria are financed by Porsche Bank. By the end of 2025, the subsidiary of Porsche Holding Salzburg will have more than 1.7 million contracts in its portfolio (+17% compared to 2024). The consolidated balance sheet total is 9.4 billion euros. The company, which operates in 15 countries, employs a total of 1,642 people.

With over 1,000 employees, Porsche Informatik is now one of the largest software development companies in Austria, operating internationally with eight locations in five countries. Solutions such as CROSS, VU3 and CARLOS Web, which are customised for the automotive wholesale, retail and financial services sectors, are now in daily use in over 34 countries. Around 30% of the services provided are already for Volkswagen AG, as well as for private importers outside the Group, such as the D’Ieteren Group, the Belgian importer of Volkswagen Group vehicles.

The MOON POWER brand was able to tap into two strategic growth markets for intelligent energy and charging systems with the launch of business activities in Italy and Poland. The Salzburg-based company now has over 80 employees and operates in more than 25 markets on three continents. Other milestones in 2025 included the introduction of optiMOON, an energy management system with the option of bidirectional charging, and the commissioning of the first megawatt power charger in Romania, which is designed for charging e-trucks with a potential output of up to 1,000 kW.

The domestic car market continued its moderate growth trend this year with an increase of 13.1%. With a total of 262,602 new registrations from January to November, it even exceeded the total number of new registrations in 2024.

“We are heading for a total market of over 280,000 new registrations in 2025. Overall, this result is an important sign for the Austrian automotive industry that it is moving towards a healthy market level after years of decline, with moderate annual growth steps”, says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger.

At the same time, the switch from pure combustion engines to electrified vehicles (BEV and PHEV) has continued to gather pace. Never before have so many all-electric vehicles been newly registered in Austria as in the first eleven months of this year. With 56,030 vehicles (21.3% share of the total market), the domestic BEV market is up 38.8% on the same period last year – meaning that at least one in five new registrations was all-electric.

The share of plug-in hybrids rose by 66.5% to 26,044 vehicles this year compared to 2024, meaning that one in ten new registrations in Austria was a PHEV (9.9% share of the total market).

With 106,607 new registrations and an increase of 16.3% after the first eleven months, the Volkswagen Group brands not only further consolidated their outstanding position in the market, but also grew faster than the market as a whole.

This means that the Volkswagen Group brands are among the market drivers in the automotive industry once again this year. Volkswagen Passenger Cars is not only at the top of the brand rankings, but also occupies the top position for BEVs. Škoda achieved a new market share high in the first eleven months of 2025 and secured the double lead among the brands. Audi is in fourth place, followed by SEAT in sixth place and CUPRA in eighth place, with CUPRA being one of the fastest growing brands in Austria. The top spots for model rankings are also firmly in the hands of the Volkswagen Group brands, with the Škoda Octavia in a commanding first place ahead of the VW Golf and the SEAT Ibiza. Seven Volkswagen Group models feature in the top ten.

The picture is similar for BEVs: in the brand rankings for electric cars, Volkswagen Passenger Cars takes the top spot, followed by Škoda (3rd), Audi (6th) and CUPRA (8th). Six Volkswagen Group models are also among the top ten: Škoda Elroq (2nd), Škoda Enyaq (3rd), VW ID.7 (6th), VW ID.3 (8th), Audi Q6 (9th) and VW ID.4 (10th).

“With our strong brands and our innovative model range with numerous attractive new models, we were able to continue to grow at a high level despite the ever-increasing competition and price pressure”, said Dr Hans Peter Schützinger. “We will probably end the year with a market share of 39.9%. But the much more important factor once the counters are reset to zero at the end of the year is that we have already been able to build up a solid order backlog for a good start to the new automotive year.”

The Porsche sports car brand can also look back on its second-best year in Austria with 1,549 new registrations (Jan. to Nov. 2025) and a market share of 0.6%. The encouraging thing here is that the degree of electrification (BEV and PHEV combined) is over 60%; the pure BEV share is over 30%.

Porsche Holding Salzburg assumes that the overall economic market conditions worldwide will remain challenging and that the automotive markets will remain in crisis or consolidation mode. Competition will also intensify further as competitors from China in particular attempt to increase their footprint in Europe and neighbouring non-EU countries, as well as in South America.

“Despite the ongoing challenging environment, we expect a stable automotive year in 2026. The signs are good, as we are starting the new automotive year with a solid order backlog and numerous new products up our sleeve,” says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger, looking ahead with optimism. “Our robust business model, which has allowed us to weather many storms, also plays a part in this. At the same time, we are continuing to focus on cost discipline and efficiency. We are also systematically continuing our consolidation phase in China.”

The focus remains on e-mobility, and the new CO₂ targets set by the EU for 2035 do not change this. “The future is electric. We must ensure that e-mobility continues to gain momentum among companies and private customers, including when it comes to achieving the upcoming interim CO₂ targets”, says Dr Hans Peter Schützinger, clearly setting the direction.

E-mobility (BEV) will become the dominant drive type in the fleet market together with plug-in hybrids. This is also due to the increased demand for replacement vehicles from those fleet customers and bulk purchasers that opted for BEVs in the first wave of electrification around four or five years ago.

He went to say: “With the launch of the Electric Urban Car Family, the Volkswagen Group brands VW, Škoda and CUPRA are setting an important milestone on the road towards sustainable and more affordable e-mobility – especially for private customers. With our compact electric models, we are democratising this environmentally friendly drive type and bringing it to a wider audience.”

Porsche Holding Salzburg expects stable annual results for new cars for Austria in 2026, which would have a lasting positive effect on the entire automotive industry, including after-sales and service.