There’s a new twist to Porsche’s long history of outsourcing production of some models – now it has brought such a factory into its own fold.
According to US magazine Motor Trend, in a move rumoured over a year ago, Volkswagen’s new plant in Osnabrueck, Germany, may provide additional capacity for the just-redesigned 2013 Boxster roadster, supplementing the main Porsche plant in Zuffenhausen.
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The Osnabrueck facility formerly belonged to former contract auto assembler Wilhelm Karmann until it entered bankruptcy in April 2009. Volkswagen took over the plant and began producing the Golf cabriolet there in May 2011. At the time, VW confirmed that the factory could also provide overflow manufacturing for the new Porsche Boxster and Cayman, Motor Trend reported, noting the plant’s total annual capacity is about 100,000 vehicles.
A Porsche US unit spokesman confirmed to the magazine Osnabrueck would serve only as overflow capacity in case Zuffenhausen can’t keep up with demand, for instance, if the main Porsche factory suddenly receives a large number of orders for the [also recently redesigned] 911.
The report noted that Porsche has a history of outsourcing assembly of the Boxster and its hardtop variant, the Cayman. From September 1997 to May 2011, Finnish company Valmet Automotive built 227,890 Porsche models under contract — of which 168,477 were Boxsters and 59,413 were Caymans.
