STG

“Our three main regions, Europe, North America, and Asia are absolutely perfectly balanced. United States and Canada represent about 25 percent of worldwide sales. Asia, including China, represents about 28 percent. And Europe is about 25-26 percent. If something slows down in China as we saw last year—it has come back pretty nicely this year—we balance with Europe and United States. Europe has come back very strongly this year. Helps us to counterbalance what is happening in the Middle East, with political tensions and oil price impacting strongly the regions. South America is not very healthy at the moment."

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markewin.../#6505ff962d85

ipse dixit

China by itself accounts for more than 1/4 of total worldwide sales. If we're talking about single country markets, China moves the needle. With the U.S. a close second, coming some six thousand plus vehicles in the rear.

http://press.porsche.com/news/release.php?id=972

STG

Yes China is significant. What point are you trying to get across??

Smaller displacements are helping ....

ipse dixit

That Porsche caters to the Chinese market more than the U.S., which is primarily why we now have smaller displacement 911s, with FI.

The EU started it with the Kyoto Protocol, and China basically follows what the EU does on things related to emissions.

STG

Correct. Lucky us.

Maybe we'll start making more things in this country and have a little bit more leverage in the future instead of being force fed whatever the EU feels like indirectly feeding us.

Gary JR

Um I think if you look hard enough you'll find a bit of a link there.

Archimedes

I think you missed my point. Porsche is not in the business of selling cool cars. They are in the business of making money and building wealth for their shareholders. If the best way to do that is by selling small boring 4cyl SUVs instead of exciting sports cars, they'll sell SUVs.

STG

One has nothing to do with the other. They're not even made in the same plant. They'll sell anything they can.

With the GT cars they limit supply to keep the demand up and dealers happy. A nice carrot they can wave in front of them to reward them for sales goals or taking slow selling models off their hands. They use them as leverage and like the buzz around them when buyers are scrambling.

They seem to also be more closely watching all sports car supply as well not to drive prices down and keep margins high.

Archimedes

They absolutely do for two reasons. First, dealer floor space is limited. My dealer is flooded with SUVs, there isn't any place to put more sports cars. Second, capital is limited at Porsche, particularly in light of the VW scandal. Porsche is not in a position right now to simply max out production on all it's lines. They're already publicly disclosed reductions in investment due to the scandal, so there are obviously capital issues at the moment.

All that said, I think the broader market issues are in play here, with Porsche being smart enough to see the downturn in the sports car market in general and is adjusting accordingly. The sports car market has been overheated in the last 5-7 years and it's coming back to earth. At the same time they have a super hot vehicle that offers a better return on dealer capital than the sports cars.

And I agree that they are controlling supply more tightly on the sports cars to support premium pricing as well.

Key Left

Caymans are not produced on the same assembly line with the 911's only Boxster share that facility.

sctanton52

I think they have moved, or are in the processing of moving all 2 door models to Zuffenhausen. See attached press release. I did a factory tour in late September and IIRC the tour guide said all 911/718 are now made there.

ace37

​​​​​​​I found it interesting that they said the US was the biggest market for two door sports cars. Seems the Macans do even better elsewhere!

Hurricane

Because of all of us crazy enthusiasts that frequent Rennlist!

Chris C.

With all due respect, while this could be a path, is highly unlikely, not needed, and would be a marketing disaster case study

Porsche has a brand which is hard earned and amounts to millions and millions of goodwill on their balance sheet. If they lose their way and become another volkswagen from a product perspective, customers will be confused, margins will come down, they'll lose the performance leadership helm to others and likely cant afford their racing budget...etc.

As part of a larger brand portfolio now, they will stay very specialized and further niche out the category IMO, but they cant go too far toward "boring" machines. Sports cars are the halo that makes it all work.

Gary JR

AKA selling cool cars.