Volkswagen‘s Porsche brand does not require a stock market listing to fund growth, Chief Executive Oliver Blume stated, adding he is sure the maker of the iconic 911 sportscar can repeat 2017’s record sales in 2018.
Porsche sold 196,562 vehicles in the first nine months of the year, with Europe presenting a 9 percent increase and China, the world’s largest auto market, increasing by 4 percent.
“In the light of these good numbers we expect that we can reach last year’s record again,” Blume stated in e-mailed comments on Thursday.
Porsche delivered 246,375 vehicles in last year.
Blume reiterated there are no strategies to list Porsche AG on the stock market. To free up resources for new investments in electric vehicles for a name, Porsche is going for partnerships and leaner production and development procedures.
“We develop many things digitally. The Panamera Sport Turismo was launched without building physical prototype vehicles,” Blume stated.
Porsche is also pooling resources with its sister brand Audi for making a premium electric car platform. The collaboration is still going strong, regardless of the stepping down of Audi’s technical development chief Peter Mertens for health reasons previous month.
“We are working with Audi more intensively than ever, the resignation of Mr. Mertens has not modified this,” Blume stated.
Porsche can slash its development costs by 30 percent by pooling resources with Audi on vehicle platforms, modules and components, he stated.
“A good example of such synergies is our cooperation in the area of battery cells for our electric cars. Both of us, Porsche and Audi, source them from LG Chem, that has built up a plant for this in Poland.”
