B1 – Intermediate
Porsche is a German luxury car maker that specialize in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans. Its parent company is Volkswagen.
Porsche reports a sharp decrease in their profits by almost 96% in the first three quarters of 2025.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript about Porsche’s low profits.
https://www.newsinlevels.com/products/porsche-makes-little-money-level-3
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “restructuring” mean? “This restructuring cost billions of euros, and parent company Volkswagen took a 5-billion-euro hit to support the changes.” Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym.
- What does “to take a hit” mean in this context: “This restructuring cost billions of euros, and parent company Volkswagen took a 5-billion-euro hit to support the changes.”? Use this idiom in a sentence in this context. Give a synonym.
- What does “top-end” mean? “A new CEO, Michael Leiters, will take over in January to help rebuild sales, focus on top-end products, and regain investor confidence.” Use the word in a sentence. Give a synonym.
Discussion Questions:
- What are the causes of very low profits of Porsche in 2025?
- What do you think Porsche/Volkswagen can do to improve its situation?
- Share your opinion about this: The fall in profits is due to their new strategy to focus on producing more petrol and hybrid vehicles instead of electric cars.
- Do you think car makers should produce electric cars more now? Explain your thoughts.
- Talk about a moment where a/your company took a hit? What caused those losses? What did the company do to recover?