Porsche banks on new models for recovery

PORSCHE Cars Australia (PCA) has been one of the hardest-hit luxury-car brands in the market downturn, but the company expects to recover at least half of its lost sales in the next five months through the introduction of important new models.

Porsche’s sales have dropped 45 per cent over the first seven months of its financial year (starting August 1), but PCA managing director Michael Winkler hopes the final result by July 31 will be a drop of about 20-30 per cent.

Vital to the recovery – apart from the unpredictable general economic situation – will be the revised 987-series Boxster and Cayman models launched to local media this week, and the diesel version of the Cayenne SUV, deliveries of which start in about a month.

Later this year, Porsche will launch the four-door, four-seat Panamera globally, with sales starting in Australia within weeks of Europe as a result of an agreement with Germany for us to get the first right-hand-drive cars produced ahead of the UK.

Hybrid versions of both the Cayenne and Panamera will be launched little more than a year later.

Mr Winkler also said that, before the next-generation 911 was launched (which we expect in 2011), Porsche will produce a new flagship model that will surpass even the wild twin-turbo two-wheel-drive GT2.

“Before the generation changes again for the next-generation sportscars, there will be a top model 911 that will be very much the top of the range,” he said. “Call it a GT2-plus, if you like.

“It’s the sort of product that appeals particularly to our core sportscar customers. I experienced the recession in the early 1990s and it was really our core customers that sustained us as a company, and I think that those really edgy sportscar products will be the ones that sustain us going forward.”

Left: Porsche Panamera, and below, Boxster.

Mr Winkler is reluctant to make predictions for the Australian market in the current volatile environment, but says he is optimistic about achieving 1000 sales in this calendar year – down from 1157 last year and a record 1380 units in 2007.

He bases his confidence on full availability of the new 997-series 911 range (launched six months ago) as well as the new Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne diesel, although conceding that the latter will substitute some 80 per cent of current V6 Cayenne sales.

“The diesel’s going to allow us to defend our share in that segment,” Mr Winkler told GoAuto. “In the past 12-18 months here, customers have come (into dealerships) with a high interest in Cayenne and then left and purchased something else solely for the reason of diesel availability.

“As far as the Cayenne is concerned, I think the entry level, particularly with the diesel, will get us across the line, particularly for the dealers. It is going to be able to save their bacon in this financial year.

“To all those that viewed us very critically when we introduced the 4WD model, the Cayenne is the car that is carrying the franchise at the moment. As we always said, that is the car that would recession-proof our company and indeed that is what’s happening. You cannot argue with the success of the car.

“Aside from the anecdotes of people leaving showrooms (because there was no diesel), the fact of the matter is that, at the $100,000 end of the prestige SUV market, even in Australia it is now 80 per cent diesel, and we’d be silly not to participate in that.

“We don’t have particular diesel expertise in Porsche, but now we’ve invested in the company (Volkswagen) that makes the best diesels, so we might as well be able to offer it.

“We’ve had a high degree of interest (in the diesel) since we announced it and there was a phenomenal level of interest at the motor show in Melbourne, but I think that before people sign on the dotted line they wish to drive it.

“(Cayman and Boxster) are very important. With these products and with the extra Cayenne variation, I believe we’ll be able to recover some of (the lost sales).

“We won’t go back to the same record we had the previous year, but I would say we will be able to recover at least half, so we’ll end up finishing the year reasonably well.

“That’s the intent of these cars (Boxster and Cayman) – that 45 per cent sales slide to some degree is due to the fact that we were ‘selling-down’ the old versions of these cars.”

Porsche’s first hybrid variants will be launched globally towards the end of 2010, starting with the Cayenne Hybrid, which will be part of the new-generation SUV range also due next year. It will arrive in Australia soon after Europe as the factory now builds the first right-hand cars for Australia to allow for the six weeks it takes for them to arrive here.

“We might be six weeks later (with Cayenne Hybrid), but our goal is to have it here before the end of 2010,” said Mr Winkler. “It’s very tight. The plan at this point is November, but the slightest hiccup or the ship coming late will make it January 2011.

“We have the commitment from the factory – and have had for the last four new introductions – that we get the first right-hand drive versions, before England does, so we can have a worldwide launch about the same time.

“In the past, it was pretty much (a case of) take care of Europe and then we get the cars later, which is why we had those long lead times.”

Mr Winkler said the Panamera Hybrid will arrive here in early 2011 “at the latest”.

What’s coming from Porsche:
Cayman upgrade	On sale now
Boxster upgrade	On sale now
Cayenne diesel	April
Panamera	October
GT3	December
911 Turbo update	January 2010
Cayenne range	2010
'GT2-plus'	2010
Cayenne Hybrid	November 2010
Panamera Hybrid	Early 2011
998-series 911	2011
988-series Boxster	2012
988-series Cayman	2012

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