Porsche invests in technology to offset potential sales drop

Porsche will invest hundreds of million dollars in digital services to produce the earnings needed to offset an expected decrease in vehicle sales in the coming years, its finance chief stated on Friday.

Growing need for ride-hailing and car-sharing will make the part-time use of automobiles, consisting of Porsches, as convenient as ownership in 7 to 10 Years which could damage new automobile sales, Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke stated.

“To compensate for this decrease, we have no choice however to develop new business models in the digital world to be able to keep growing,” Meschke stated at a news conference to provide Porsche results.

Porsche stated on Friday it prepared to spend 200 million to 300 million euros annually developing its digital companies, services such as software developed to route motorists to free parking spaces.

In 2016, Porsche set up an associated department near Stuttgart with dozens of staff that will ultimately use about 500 workers worldwide by adding outlets in abroad markets.

Meschke stated new mobility services would contribute a considerable double-digit portion share of earnings in the coming years. The German sports-car maker’s general earnings rose 4 percent to 22.3 billion euros ($24 billion) during last year.