Porsche took the wraps off its much-awaited Panamera grand tourer in Shanghai on Sunday, saying it wanted new customers in the luxury performance-car segment to expand its sales globally.
Porsche unveiled the Panamera in Shanghai on the eve of the auto show, demonstrating the significance of the Chinese market for the exclusive German sports car brand.
"China is a significant growth market for Porsche with a great potential," Klaus Berning, executive vice president of sales and marketing, said at the unveiling, held in the world's tallest hotel more than 400 metres above ground.
Porsche is counting on the four-door sports car, its most important new product in years, to fuel growth in a depressed global car market this year with a rollout first scheduled in Europe in September.
The car will go on sale in China, now Porsche's third-largest market, in January 2010, with a price tag of 1.85 million yuan ($270,800) and 2.5 million yuan ($365,900) for the turbo version, it said. It aims to sell 2,000 units in the first year.
In Germany, the Panamera will retail for 94,000 euros ($122,600), while in the United States it will carry a suggested price of $89,800, Berning said.
Costing over 1 billion euros to develop, the Panamera is expected to compete with models like the Maserati Quattroporte (FIA.MI) and Mercedes-Benz CLS (DAIGn.DE).
Porsche repeated its aim of selling at least 20,000 units of the Panamera annually, which would be equivalent to about one-fifth of its total sales in recent years.
Berning said he expected nine out of 10 of those customers to be new to the Porsche brand, which gets about half of its sales from the Cayenne sport utility vehicle and the other half from its two-seater sports cars.
"Porsche is aiming both at the segment of classic sports coupes, Gran Turismos and the luxury performance range," Berning said. "In economically good times, this means a global market volume to the tune of one million new cars sold each year. And we will now take our piece of this cake."
The automaker said it would start with a V8 engine model, followed by a V6 engine a year later and a hybrid drive version further out.
Mindful of the growing interest in cleaner and fuel-efficient cars, Porsche also highlighted the Panamera's double-clutch gearbox and start-stop system with an automatic transmission, which it said was a world first for a luxury car.
It said the Panamera would get mileage of 10.8 litres per 100 km, or 26.2 miles per gallon, under European standards.
source: reuters
