A high-ranking Porsche official has reiterated that the company has no plans whatsoever to expand its automobile range with a car costing less than the firm’s current base model, the Boxster roadster, which starts from €48,291 in Germany, £37,589 in the UK and U$49,500 in the U.S.
“To build a Porsche for 30,000 euros [$38,000] currently doesn’t fit our brand,” Porsche’s head of sales and marketing Bernhard Maier told Automotive News.
“The extraordinary purchase experience is not for free and the entry price is currently covered with the Boxster and in the future by the Macan,” he added.
Last year, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller had hinted at the development of a smaller and less pricey roadster model than the Boxster, but in May, he told a German business publication that the idea has been abandoned.
Maier says Porsche still wants to double its worldwide sales in the next few years from 117,000 vehicles in 2011 to around 200,000 units by the end of 2018, but it won’t do in the expense of exclusivity.
“We will retain the brand’s exclusiveness – despite increasing volumes. We have to accelerate to stay successful in the long run,” he said.
“If the experts are right and the world markets grow to 100 million units in 2018 and Porsche would sell 200,000 units, we would have a world market share of 0.2 percent. I don’t believe this would be a drastic change in exclusiveness,” added Maier.
The Porsche official claimed that Porsche offers one car fewer than what the premium market can handle.
PHOTO GALLERY
