Porsche is delaying the launch of its new four-door sports coupe the Panamera until the Shanghai Auto Show next April. The model was due to premier at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
The luxury sports car maker said the delay is a reflection of the growing importance of China and other Asian markets for its future sales. Or maybe, as European and US car sales are tumbling fast, it's a good idea to go looking for a market to help maintain some stability in your global sales and a continuously growing economy like China's is just that.
Porsche sales in China doubled for fiscal year 2007-2008 compared to the previous year to 8,190 units. In the same period, North American and European sales were down sharply and fell 5.4 percent in Germany, Porsche's domestic market.
Still, this is Porsche, and you can bet the Panamera, like all Porsche models, will be both a sales success and lead to bulky profits for the Stuttgart automaker.
Porsche is in incredibly good shape financially. For the fiscal year that ended September 30th, Porsche made a profit of 8.6 billion euros on revenues of 7.5 billion.
Wait...that doesn't make sense. How can you make more money in profits than you take in in revenue from car sales?
Well, apparently Porsche made several billions of dollars on its buying and trading of VW stock. Do not ask us how this works exactly. Something to do with sending VW shares soaring in moves that killed short-sellers, if that makes any sense to you. But Porsche made heaps and heaps of cash on it while some people lost an equivalent amount in the form of metaphorical shirts and they are desperately, insanely angry about it. Capitalism says too bad to them.
Porsche will maintain its sales target for the Panamera at 20,000 units per year.
