The decline in sales worsened in the fourth quarter.
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Stuttgart The Taycan electric sports car is causing increasing concern for the newcomer Porsche. Sales boss Detlev von Platen speaks of an “unchanged high order level.” But last year Porsche was only able to deliver 34,801 vehicles of the series worldwide, as the sports car manufacturer, which was promoted to the leading index Dax, announced on Thursday in mid-December. That is 16 percent less than in the previous year.
The decline in the fourth quarter thus intensified again. At the end of September, the minus was still twelve percent.
Porsche justifies the decline with problems in the supply chain and limited availability of parts. Both affect the electric sports car to a large extent, since the model contains a particularly large number of semiconductors for which there are still bottlenecks on the world market. The Taycan is the first purely electric sports car from Porsche and was launched in 2019.
Overall, the situation at the VW subsidiary has continued to ease despite numerous global crises. At the end of the year, sales increased by three percent to 309,884 vehicles. “The many challenges triggered by the war in Ukraine, interrupted supply chains and the ongoing semiconductor crisis have shaped the past year and made great demands on us,” emphasizes Head of Sales von Platen.
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After the third quarter, the sports car manufacturer had already been able to compensate for the declines in the first half of the year with a bottom line two percent increase in sales. Now it looks even better.
Porsche sales in China are declining
Porsche sold more vehicles than in the previous year in all markets except China. Sales there fell by two percent to 93,386 vehicles.
The head of sales attributed the decline in China in particular to the effects of the corona pandemic. Waves of infection, lockdowns and logistical challenges would have affected deliveries. However, competitors such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW lost significantly more sales.
In 2022, the models with the greatest demand from the people of Zuffenhausen were again the brand’s sports all-terrain vehicles (SUVs):
- 95,604 customers took delivery of a Porsche Cayenne.
- The Macan followed in second place with 86,724 units delivered.
- The 911 icon, which is important for the sports car image, increased deliveries by five percent to 40,410 units and was thus ahead of the Taycan again.
Porsche has not yet provided any information on sales and profits. If the trend of the first nine months continues, then sales and profits should have increased significantly more than sales. At the end of September, sales increased by almost 16 percent to 26.7 billion euros. The operating profit even jumped by around 40 percent to 5.05 billion euros.
More sales per vehicle
For the year as a whole, Porsche had expected a return on sales of between 17 and 18 percent. Sales per vehicle had risen significantly, and exchange rate effects and cost discipline also contributed to the increase in revenue, Porsche explained at the time when it presented the nine-month figures.
The sports car manufacturer went public on September 28, 2022 with a minority share at an issue price of 82.50 euros. It is still majority owned by the Volkswagen Group. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has shed the interim price weakness in December. On Wednesday, the share certificate was quoted at EUR 102.80.
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