Despite a difficult economic environment in Europe, Porsche says it is off to a good start in 2013.
Porsche says that sales were up by 21 percent to 37,009 vehicles in the first three months of the 2013 fiscal year. Turnover rose by 8.3 percent to 3.28 billion euro in the first quarter. At 573 million euro, the operating result stood at 8.5 percent above the value of the previous year (528 million euro).
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Lutz Meschke, Chief Financial Officer of Porsche AG, said: “The expansion of the Leipzig plant as well as the development of the sports SUV Macan and the super sports car 918 Spyder are incurring high expenditures that will not yet be compensated by corresponding vehicle revenue. These sales will only be realized in the coming year when our new models are sold.”
President and CEO Matthias Müller emphasized that Porsche can afford substantial investments in the development of new sports cars and new technologies like the plug-in hybrid “because the fascination of our sports cars guarantees our success. We want to boost the extraordinarily high level of attractiveness of our model range even further in the coming years,” said Müller.
The revised Boxster showed particularly strong sales in the first quarter versus last year.
Despite the strong figures, Porsche was not immune from market weakness in Europe, with deliveries in Europe outside of Germany down 7% in Q1. In contrast, German sales were up 23 percent.
In its most important market – North America – Porsche accelerated deliveries by 34 percent to 10,324 vehicles.
Porsche’s strong financial performance helped to support its parent’s – Volkswagen Group – earnings in the first quarter.
