Porsche Expects Record Year

Porsche expects its new-car sales to grow by more than 6.5 per cent in 2012, giving the sports car maker another record year, the brand’s sales and marketing chief Bernhard Maier said. According to him, 2011 was the best sales year in the brand’s history to date. Interim figures show Porsche’s 2011 global sales at more than 115,000 units, compared with 97,000 in 2010. The company’s previous all-time sales high was in 2007 when the brand sold 103,000 units.

Maier said forecasts show that the total global car market may grow by 6.5 per cent to 66 million units in 2012, unless there is an economic disaster. “Whatever happens, we want to grow faster than the market,” Maier said.

In 2011, Asia and Russia were big growth markets for Porsche with sales up 67 per cent in China, 76 percent in southeast Asia and over 40 per cent in Russia. By 2018, Porsche plans to expand its global dealer network to about 1,000 dealers from 700 now, mainly by adding dealers in growth markets such as China and Latin America. In 2011, the Cayenne SUV accounted for half of Porsche’s global sales. The company’s four-seat flagship, the Panamera, contributed more than 27,000 units to overall sales, a 21 per cent increase over last year.