Once a sports car manufacturer with little expression in terms of sales, Porsche is nowadays a serious case of popularity and, above all, profitability — even when analyzed within a group with several generalist brands, such as the Volkswagen Group case. To demonstrate this, there are figures for 2017, which announce a total of 236 376 units sold.
Nowadays, with a range based on five models — 718, 911, Panamera, Macan and Cayenne — the truth is that the Stuttgart manufacturer has become a reference, also in commercial terms. Thanks, from the outset, to proposals like the Macan, a mid-range SUV introduced in 2014 and that, in 2017 alone, it sold more than 97 thousand units , or the Panamera sports saloon. Which, taking advantage of the fact that a new generation was launched at the beginning of last year, reached December 31 with a total of 28 thousand units — an 83% increase over the previous year.
Impressive in themselves, these figures demonstrate, in addition to a 4% rise in Porsche's total sales, the manufacturer's ability to, in no more than six years, double its sales. Going from 116 978 units in 2011 (year in which sales were still calculated according to the fiscal year, and not according to the calendar), to more than 246,000 units marked in 2017.
Porsche, the brand… generalist?
On the other hand, although the explanation for this growth also resides in the numbers that the German sports car brand has been achieving in markets such as China — the latter, in fact, the manufacturer's market par excellence today —, none of this hides what is an undeniable and even more surprising truth — that Porsche currently sells more cars than all its potential and would-be rivals put together!
If in the 1990s, before the launch of the Porsche Boxster — the car responsible for saving the brand — the German sports car manufacturer's global sales were less than 20,000 units a year, today it surpasses all the major manufacturers of sports cars. together.
As an example, and even with the proper distances in terms of positioning, we can add Aston Martin, Ferrari, McLaren and Lamborghini, and the combined sales of all of them, in 2017, correspond to less than 10% of the total cars sold by Porsche.
The introduction of the Cayenne and later of the Panamera and the Macan transformed the brand into a much more comprehensive constructor — could we say… generalist? — although the emphasis on the sporty character of its models remains, even when referring to more than two tonnes of SUVs.
Other manufacturers will have to serve as a reference, such as Jaguar, which even has models better positioned to “make numbers”. But even so, the feline brand did not go beyond 178 601 units.
The power of the Porsche brand. Without a doubt, quite impressive…