Wunderwaffe Diesel: Porsche Plans All-Out Assault On U.S. Soil
Despite still not having been amalgamated into the sprawling Volkswagen empire (blame the lawyers,) Porsche wants to do its share for Volkswagen’s all-out assault to the top. According to Strategie 2018, sorry, make that according to “Mach 18,” the Volkswagen empire wants to be on top in all respects before the decade ends. A small sports car company with barely 100,000 units won’t bring much volume, but they will try as much as they can. “Porsche aims to double its annual U.S. sales within seven years by dramatically expanding its product lineup — while maintaining its U.S. dealer body at almost the same size,” Automotive News Europe [sub] reports.
Porsche won’t even shy away from the unthinkable – like bringing diesels to America.
“By 2018, we will sell around 50,000 cars in the U.S.,” Detlev von Platen, CEO of Porsche Cars North America, told ANE. That’s double of Porsche’s 25,320 units sold in the United States last year. This year, v. Platen thinks he will sell “more than 29,000 units” in the U.S.
To support the assault, Porsche will land three new models stateside in 2012: The redesigned 911 in February, a 430-hp Panamera GTS in spring, and, hold your nose, a Cayenne diesel, planned for the second half of the year.
Don’t laugh. Porsche plans that the oilburning Cayenne will amount to 15 percent of all Cayennes sold in the U.S., and it allots another 15 percent to the Cayenne gasoline-electric hybrid.
In 2013, Porsche will throw a fresh Cajun crossover into the battle.
All of that will be sold through fewer dealers. Platen thinks that his U.S. dealer network, currently counting 200 outlets, will be “slightly consolidating.”
Globally, Porsche wants to double annual sales from 95,000 last year to 200,000 in 2018. It will be a drop in the bucket compared to the more than 10 million of sales the Volkswagen empire will need for word domination, but every drop counts.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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- ToolGuy First picture: I realize that opinions vary on the height of modern trucks, but that entry door on the building is 80 inches tall and hits just below the headlights. Does anyone really believe this is reasonable?Second picture: I do not believe that is a good parking spot to be able to access the bed storage. More specifically, how do you plan to unload topsoil with the truck parked like that? Maybe you kids are taller than me.
- ToolGuy The other day I attempted to check the engine oil in one of my old embarrassing vehicles and I guess the red shop towel I used wasn't genuine Snap-on (lots of counterfeits floating around) plus my driveway isn't completely level and long story short, the engine seized 3 minutes later.No more used cars for me, and nothing but dealer service from here on in (the journalists were right).
- Doughboy Wow, Merc knocks it out of the park with their naming convention… again. /s
- Doughboy I’ve seen car bras before, but never car beards. ZZ Top would be proud.
- Bkojote Allright, actual person who knows trucks here, the article gets it a bit wrong.First off, the Maverick is not at all comparable to a Tacoma just because they're both Hybrids. Or lemme be blunt, the butch-est non-hybrid Maverick Tremor is suitable for 2/10 difficulty trails, a Trailhunter is for about 5/10 or maybe 6/10, just about the upper end of any stock vehicle you're buying from the factory. Aside from a Sasquatch Bronco or Rubicon Jeep Wrangler you're looking at something you're towing back if you want more capability (or perhaps something you /wish/ you were towing back.)Now, where the real world difference should play out is on the trail, where a lot of low speed crawling usually saps efficiency, especially when loaded to the gills. Real world MPG from a 4Runner is about 12-13mpg, So if this loaded-with-overlander-catalog Trailhunter is still pulling in the 20's - or even 18-19, that's a massive improvement.
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Does anyone else get a sense that VW is turning into GM with too many brands to manage and too much platform sharing? My wife was looking at a VW phaeton the other day sitting next to an audi and she honestly couldn't tell the difference in the cars. they are virtually identical with barely any differences in trim. Only car people would be able to tell the difference without reading the name. Here in China where Skoda, VW, Audi, and Porsche are all selling cars and because of how common they are, you realize that the badge engineering going on at VW is as bad as it ever was at GM. So many models are barely different you have to wonder why bother selling them. It's very bad, and from what I can see, it's only going to get worse. (Gotta love the 1 Audi body style, just change the scale to get a new model)
The "unthinkable" for Porsche would be to embrace decontenting, receive the obligatory firestorm from critics, and then watch US sales double.