China may become Porsche’s second largest market, displacing Germany, within three years, a report said.
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“All premier manufacturers are showing good results” in China, Porsche’s local head Helmut Broeker told Bloomberg News in Shanghai. The country was Porsche’s third largest market last year [after the US and Germany], up from about 15th in 2006.
Porsche plans to add more dealers in China and shift its local office to Shanghai, the country’s financial capital, to help boost sales, the report said, noting that China is home to 825,000 people worth RMB10m (US$1.5m) or more.
“China is the hope for luxury carmakers like Porsche,” CSC Securities HK analyst Han Weiqi told the news agency. “Even during the current financial crisis, China’s rich are obviously less affected than those in US and Europe.”
Broeker said Porsche had secured more than 100 orders for the Panamera in mainland China and another 100 in Hong Kong.
Porsche launched the car at the Shanghai auto show in April, the first time it unveiled a new model outside Europe or North America.
According to Bloomberg, Porsche boosted sales 3% in the first five months to 3,174, including 900 vehicles in May, a 44% year on year increase.
US sales to the end of May were down 29.6% to 8,757, according to WardsAuto.com data.
Full-year sales in China would likely be “similar” to 2008, after a tax increase damped demand late last year and earlier this year, Broeker told Bloomberg – Porsche sold 8,371 vehicles in China last year compared with about 14,000 in Germany and about 35,000 in the US.
