Porsche Sales In China Expected To Exceed 16,000 Annually By 2012#
Along with its German counterparts Mercedes-Benz and BMW, Porsche has benefitted greatly from China's growing love affair with the automobile, going from sales of around 50 vehicles per year after entering the mainland market in 2001 to over 8,500 in 2009. In the last year and a half, Porsche has debuted its Panamera Turbo at the Shanghai Auto Show, made inroads in second- and third-tier cities, launched a China-only version of its popular Cayenne SUV at the Shanghai World Expo, and announced that the company plans to build its 10th plant in China to double production capacity within four years.
Recently, the company announced that its huge push in the SUV-mad China market has paid off, with China becoming the Cayenne's largest market and Porsche's third-largest market after the United States and Germany.
As Gasgoo reports today, in 2009 Porsche sold 8,629 units in China, of which the Cayenne accounted for 83% of sales, or 7,556 vehicles. Porsche has said that the company expects China to become its second-largest single market soon, surpassing Germany, with projections that sales in China will exceed 16,000 units per year by 2012. Perhaps helping the automaker reach that goal even sooner, two new Cayenne models -- launched last month at the Shanghai World Expo -- are set to go on sale in China: the Cayenne S and the Cayenne Turbo, both of which will be equipped with V8 engines and be priced at 1.48 million yuan ($217,000) for the S and 2.03 million yuan ($300,000) for the Turbo.
While the sale of thousands more gas-guzzling V8 SUVs on the road won't make environmentalists in China very happy, Porsche claims that design changes in its new Cayenne models will reduce both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.