Production of the Porsche Taycan
Production of the all-electric car is ramped up again, and sales figures are increasing accordingly. The top seller is the Porsche Cayenne.
(Photo: dpa)
Stuttgart The sports car manufacturer Porsche partially made up for deficits suffered from the corona crisis in the summer. After the first three quarters of 2020, the VW Group’s most profitable brand handed over 191,547 vehicles to customers worldwide. That is still five percent fewer vehicles than in the same period last year. At the first half of the year, the backlog in deliveries was still twelve percent. “Porsche drives robustly through the corona crisis,” said Sales Director Detlev von Platen.
The increase is mainly due to China. “The Chinese market recovered quickly after the lockdown, and demand in other markets is also increasing again significantly,” explains the sales manager. Thanks to the high demand for sports off-road vehicles, China remains the Swabian largest single market with 62,823 vehicles sold. Here the decrease compared to the previous year is only two percent.
After containing the Covid-19 pandemic there, China is benefiting from a V-shaped economic trend with a rapid recovery. The ten-day “Beijing Motor Show” even took place as a face-to-face event in Beijing. Mass events like this are currently unthinkable in Europe.
On the other hand, there were substantial losses despite the recovery trend on the US market. The decrease there amounts to twelve percent, which corresponds to 39,734 vehicles. In Europe it is nine percent, corresponding to 55,483 sports cars. The German market remains particularly weak with a minus of 23 percent.
With 64,299 units (plus four percent), the Cayenne is the most popular Porsche, primarily because of its popularity in China. The iconic 911 sports car was able to increase deliveries by one percent to 25,400 units. The fully electric Porsche Taycan, whose production ramp-up had to be stopped abruptly during the pandemic, now has 10,944 customers worldwide. “The effects of the corona crisis did not leave Porsche unaffected. Nevertheless, we are looking ahead with optimism ”, said Detlev von Platen.
Porsche has not yet announced the nine-month profit. In the first half of the year, the comparatively small manufacturer Porsche was already the king of earnings among Europe’s car manufacturers with an operating profit of 1.23 billion euros. In the corona year, however, the return of ten percent was significantly different from its own target of 15 percent.
More: Car market shakes off corona crisis – Tesla and Audi stand out.