Porsche's Business Up. Guess Why
In the first nine months of the current fiscal year Porsche sold slighty fewer cars than in the same period of the previous year. But they made more money: They are looking at operating profits of €0.6b on sales of €5.2b. That’s a double digit operating profit, ladies and gentlemen, and none of the put and call hanky-panky is included. Now what do you think is the catalyst for the wunderbar numbers? Are you sitting down?
Yes, it’s the Panamera. Porsche sold 53.605 units total in the first nine months. 13.906 of those go on account of the Panamera. It came just in time, because the 911 suffers from a buyer’s strike: From August to April, only 13.137 units of the slot car changed hands, a decrease of 35 percent. Who’s to blame?
Die verdammten Amerikaner. Porsche suffered from a weak U.S. market, their stellar quality notwithstanding.
Porsche wants to close out the year with more units sales than the 75.238 in the previous year. Porsche bases its optimism on “a new generation of the Cayenne and new engine options for the Panamera,” says Das Autohaus [sub].
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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Is it possible that the evergreen 911 has finally run its course? I see a similarity with the situation Jaguar faced with the previous XJ in that regardless of the high level of technology, the car still looks like its predecessors, a 40 year old shape and consumers have tired of it. Right now, the market for the 911 seems to be restricted to folks who like the Porsche 911. Considering all the high performance cars now available that have somewhere between 9/10ths and 11/10ths of the 911's performance that's understandable.