Kjell Gruner, the new head of Porsche Cars North America, says the area in which his company has the most catching up to do is not on track, but in infotainment.
Apple has trained consumers too well, the CEO told Bloomberg in a recent interview, and Porsche now has a big job to do to keep its user-facing digital systems as seamless and easy as a smartphone. Take, for example, the central screen in a Taycan.
When you get into the car in the morning, the infotainment system takes a couple of minutes to wake up. Your phone, meanwhile, will open immediately. And that’s what people expect from their cars now, too.
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“Customers are turning on the car, and they expect [he claps] it is all there—navigation, whatever,” Gruner told Bloomberg. “But we have to live with it. That customer expectation is coming from those [Apple] devices, like it or not.”
The problem for automakers, though, is slightly different than for phone makers.
The reason phones appear to turn on so fast “is because the phone is always on. If you lock a car, that is like turning off your iPhone. And when was the last time you really turned off your iPhone?”
So it has to make its digital ecosystem better. The good news is that will have wide-ranging benefits for Porsche. Beyond simply making its UX better, the company also wants to introduce new apps and online products to keep buyers interested in the company.
Digital products like Porsche Finder and Porsche ID, which help consumers find new and used Porsches around the country and let users create a virtual dream garage, respectively, are welcoming new owners, young and old, into the Porsche fold.
The Porsche Drive rental service, meanwhile, appeals to people who want a new ownership model and all are helping the company create other new digital products aimed at getting more drivers into their cars.
Although the actual revenue from these projects is “minimal”, at this point, Gruner predicts they will end up influencing “100 percent” of Porsche’s business. And that is in no small part thanks to the data they generate.
By seeing what Porsche Finder users are looking for, what Porsche ID users put in their dream garage, and what cars Porsche Drive users actually end up staying in the longest, Porsche thinks it can design better cars, not just digitally but physically, too.
