New Porsche Boxster
THE Porsche Boxster and the Porsche Panamera, the company's first sedan due later this year, are very different vehicles but have one thing in common: timing.
Not how fast they get to 100km/h or an anorak fact to do with valves: I'm referring to their arrival timing.
Thirteen years ago, when the Boxster convertible first appeared in showrooms, Porsche was in peril and many observers did not expect it to survive.
Sales in the mid-1990s had slumped 75 per cent compared with a decade earlier as a recession took hold, the stock market crashed and the greenback slumped. Solid profits rapidly turned into losses.
The situation has parallels with the global financial crisis but, if anything, it's worse now.
Sports cars are always reward purchases and Porsche sales are again being savaged.
Demand for its cars slumped 27 per cent in the six months to the end of January and are on the slide. February sales fell 41 per cent in the US and 51 per cent here.
Porsche finished its last reporting period with record profits, but these are about to dissolve, too, according to local managing director Michael Winkler. The next financial period will bear the weight of the downturn in sales. It will have to absorb development costs for the Panamera, the second-generation Cayenne SUV as well as Porsche's upcoming hybrid drivetrain. Unlike in 2008-09, the bottom line will not be shielded by enormous gains from trading in Volkswagen shares.
In 1996 the Boxster was the model that helped turn around the company.
This time, the Panamera will be crucial to a Porsche rebound, with about 20,000 sales expected annually. If the world has sunk further with the global financial crisis, Winkler believes the company is better placed to ride out the turmoil.
The Panamera is ready to go -- unlike the Boxster in the '90s, which was the company's response to the crisis. Porsche is spending more money, not less, on research and development to bring forward the launch dates of other crucial models, such as the next 911 sports car. It will soon complete its strategic acquisition of Volkswagen.
Profits are still possible on lower volumes, Winkler says, and the company will wait until a meeting in June to decide whether any emergency measures are required.
source:theaustralian.news
