Thermal or electric, Porsche does not know the crisis
The top of the range seems to have resisted everything for a few years. Privileged for parts deliveries, Porsche is doing well and is experiencing its electrification without any problems.
In the midst of a pandemic, there was one constant when reading automotive figures: luxury cars like the Porsche were doing more than resist, while the rest of the ranges were in serious contraction.
Privileged in the delivery of parts within the Volkswagen group, Porsches continued to leave the factories at a much faster pace than other brands.
Along the same lines, the luxury car maker Lamborghini, another subsidiary of the Volkswagen group, has already pre-sold all of its production until the start of 2024.
Take Europe (European Union with Norway, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland). In the first 8 months of 2022, Porsche registered 53,990 cars there. Over the same period in 2019, i.e. before the pandemic, Porsche had registered 48,528 cars.
This while the registrations of the Volkswagen group in the same area over the same period are displayed at 1.14 million units less compared to the same period in 2019.
Considerable funding
In other words, over the first 8 months of the year, one out of 142 registered cars in Europe was a Porsche. In Belgium, it is even a little more than one car registered in 100 which is a Porsche.
In 20 words as in 100, Porsche is doing well. Using the iconic brand to raise funds seems judicious in this respect. In addition to the Porsche-Piëch family considerations with its IPO (see opposite), the Volkswagen group intends to capitalize on the success of the sports brand.
The automotive group needs considerable financing. 89 billion euros over the next five years will be invested by the VW group in electric vehicles and their software in an overall investment plan of 159 billion euros, i.e. more than the GDP of Wallonia or that of the Brussels Region (respectively 108 billion and 86 billion in 2019 before the pandemic).
In fact, electrification is a groundswell of the automotive industry imposed by legislation and the desire to pollute less. Not a manufacturer can save an ambitious plan in the electric. Gigafactorys are starting to spring up all over the continent and dozens of projects are announced.
Denounced by some as a job destroyer, the electric vehicle could finally also make it possible to produce locally. The question will be the speed at which European industry manages to shift towards electricity. The automobile being a long value chain with many suppliers and partners.
40% of sales in Belgium
Porsche has already proven that it can embark on the path of the electric vehicle without too much difficultys with its first 100% electric vehicle in the range, the Taycan.
« In Belgium, now that the Taycan exists in all its versions, whether sedan, GTS or cross turismo, it represents 40% of our sales. »
« In Belgium, now that the Taycan exists in all its versions, whether sedan, GTS or cross turismo, it represents 40% of our sales », explains Catherine Van Geel, PR Manager of Porsche Belgium at D’Ieteren Auto.
The iconic 911 still represents between 35 and 40% of sales, but Catherine Van Geel estimates that even the customers most inclined towards internal combustion engines are often seduced by an electric Porsche once they got it in their hands.
This is good, because Oliver Blume, new boss of the Volkswagen group in addition to remaining at the head of Porsche, claims to be a huge fan of electromobility and wants to go even faster with 80% of electric Porsches in the brand’s sales in 2030.
In Belgium, as elsewhere, the electric future of Porsche does not scare.
