Sales of the all-electric sports car continue to decline.
(Photo: IMAGO/VCG)
Stuttgart The sports car manufacturer Porsche started this year with a significant increase in sales. In the first three months, the Stuttgart company delivered 80,767 cars worldwide, 18 percent more than a year earlier, as the company announced on Monday. That was more than ever before.
“The good start makes us confident for the rest of the year,” said sales manager Detlev von Platen. The carmaker grew in all regions, despite continued delivery problems with important components, according to von Platen. North America was particularly strong, where the Zuffenhausen-based company sold a third more vehicles.
The important Chinese market also grew by 21 percent. Porsche cites the recovery of the country from the pandemic-related effects of the previous year as the main reason for the recovery of business in China. In Europe (excluding Germany), the company delivered around 14 percent more vehicles to customers. In Germany, the increase was 19 percent.
Porsche shares rose only slightly on Monday
This could hardly boost the share price of the company, which has been listed since September. The papers were only slightly up in the morning at around 119 euros. But that is well above the issue price of EUR 82.50. The company has now been promoted to the leading index Dax, the market capitalization is almost 54 billion euros. Despite the IPO, the sports car manufacturer is still majority owned by the Volkswagen Group.
The Taycan continues to cause problems. For the first purely electric Porsche model, 9,152 vehicles sold mean a decline of three percent. The downward trend thus continued in the first quarter, but at least weakened significantly.
Last year, sales of the electric car shrank by 16 percent. As the reason for the decline, Porsche cites ongoing supply bottlenecks in the supplier industry, which are increasingly affecting the electric sports car.
>> Read also: Falling new car prices – car manufacturers face the end of “picture book profits”
The SUV models continue to be particularly popular with Porsche customers: Porsche sold 30 percent more of the compact SUV Macan, and the Cayenne went up 23 percent. The company will not announce sales and earnings figures until May 3rd.
The sports car and SUV manufacturer increased sales by 2.6 percent to 310,000 vehicles last year. Thanks to higher prices, the Zuffenhausen-based company was able to increase sales by 13.6 percent to 37.6 billion euros in 2022. Operating profit soared last year by 27.4 percent to 6.8 billion euros.
The yield rose from 16 percent in the previous year to 18 percent. For 2023, Porsche is aiming for group sales of between around 40 and 42 billion euros. The Group’s operating return on sales should be between 17 and 19 percent. “Our focus is on value-oriented growth. In doing so, we are pursuing the goal of always producing one less vehicle than the market demands,” says Detlev von Platen.
More: VW, BMW and Mercedes plug-in businesses collapse