Porsche On The Up

By Gavin Kalsi Friday, 14 July 2017

Share Tweet Share Share Email

Porsche was a company on its knees a few years ago. Relying on sports cars only, that was too narrow a product range to sustain it through good times and bad. Along came the ugly  (to me) Cayenne, which has been a very profitable and successful addition to the brand. Then the better looking (maybe) Panamera four door car that has also sold quite well but not as big a hit. SUVs are the place to be, not limousines.

Below are sales and production figures for Porsche. The 2011 data is for a calender year while 2012 is a fiscal one, meaning there may be overlap in figures but the upward trend is still noticeable. I also observed how production numbers exceed sales. This could be due to that overlap and also increased stock holding. 

	2012	2011	+/-
Sales (units)	143,096	116,978	22.3%
Cayenne	77,822	59,873	30.0%
Panamera	27,331	28,218	-3.1%
911	26,203	17,607	48.8%
Boxster/Cayman	11,740	11,280	4.1%
Production (units)	151,999	127,793	18.9%
Cayenne	83,208	62,004	34.2%
911	28,419	21,748	30.7%
Panamera	27,056	31,834	-15.0%
Boxster/Cayman	13,316	12,207	9.1%

Whatever one things of Porsche's move into areas beyond sports cars, it was a financial necessity. Now under the VW umbrella, it will lose some of its small car company decision making freedoms as it has to work within a larger, more conservative structure.