Porsche on Tuesday said its main sports car factory would extend a few holidays in May, June and July, cutting output to cope with deflated demand, according to the Dow Jones news agency.
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The company will halt production for three days just before or after public holidays in May and June and the plant, in Zuffenhausen near Stuttgart, will also extend its summer vacation by a week, to run from July 24 to August 28.
“We have weaker demand for sports cars… especially in the US but also in Germany,” Porsche spokesman Christian Dau told Dow Jones.
Not only is the economic climate sour, but worries about war are leading people to buy only necessary, more utilitarian vehicles, he added, according to Dow Jones.
“Porsche is very heavily dependent on sentiment. This sentiment isn’t there,” Dau told the news agency, adding that, after the 1991 Gulf War, Porsche found that its consumer climate recovered quickly and hopes this will again be the case.
Dau told Dow Jones that Porsche still aims to sell at least 65,000 cars in its fiscal year ending July 31 – including the 911 and Boxster sports cars and the new Cayenne sport utility vehicle – and that there are no production cuts at other Porsche facilities.
The car maker has said a long and messy war could hamper its efforts to increase revenue and earnings this year, but “so far, we don’t see that,” Dau added, according to Dow Jones.
The news agency noted that Porsche said last month that it might slash sports car output, but hadn’t given details.
Dau told Dow Jones that it was too soon to say exactly how many fewer cars Porsche would produce. He added that the plant runs on a system of flexible working time.
