Porsche’s communications department has release information indicating that the company will in fact sell a diesel-powered version of the Cayenne SUV.

The benefit to Porsche? The obvious benefit is that consumer demand has finally forced even the sportiest of automakers to consider satisfying consumer demand for large vehicles that get 30 miles per gallon or more. As fuel prices increase over time, demand for vehicles that hit the wallet less, will increase. It’s simple economics.

Another benefit to Porsche is that a 30mpg car reduces the company’s overall emissions output. For the Cayenne, Porsche will source VW/Audi’s 3.0 litre TDI engine. This engine apparently produces 240bhp while creating 244g/km of carbon dioxide. Still not super environmental, but it’s a fair start for a sports car maker.

What’s not clear yet is if the car is coming to the USA. Imagine that with the US as the largest buyer of Porsche’s the company is considering this as an option, but American acceptance of diesel-powered cars has never been too great. Rest assured petrol prices will increase again in the not-so-distant future, at which time the case will be re-made for the fuel efficiency that diesel offers.

If it does come to the USA, imagine a price around $50,000. That is a $6K+ premium over the petrol Cayenne. At present, the UK edition will start at £40,250 and will be out in February 2009, just in time to get your wife a nice Valentine’s Day gift!

Unless you have been living in a cave the last two years, you know that Porsche’s strong financial position has allowed them to make a gradual play for VW’s shares. In fact it is just the latest in what has been a long-time partnership between the two + Audi. You may recall that many years ago Audi+Porsche dealerships often shared the same building.

But what we really didn’t know until recently was how Porsche might use VW in their product portfolio. Remember that the VW Touareg , Audi Q7, and Porsche Cayenne share the same platform. The benefit being significantly cheaper development costs. Bear in mind that Porsche has had a benefit in this partnership of releasing their Cayenne before VW and Audi have released their products. Ironically, it is the smashing success of the Cayenne product line that has given Porsche the ability to launch a takeover of VW.

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Porsche has been increasing its stake in VW through a complex set of derivatives trades. This in turn has negatively affected hedge funds to the tune of $20billion (£12.6bn). Those hedge funds had been shorting the stock, and now it has bit them in the butt.

Jeremy Warner of the Independent explains.

Just about every automaker today is suffering from a poor economy. Most are wistful that they didn’t start producing small, fuel-efficient cars sooner, but the auto industry was caught off-guard before – anyone remember the late 1970s/early 1980s? Perhaps a read of Steve Miller’s The Turnaround Kid would be require reading for current auto industry execs. Granted most are not in as dire need to assistance as Chrysler was, but they could be if the downturn continues.

But this downturn could prove much more difficult than ever before because we see three issues at work. First, most consumers rely on financing and leasing to purchase vehicles. Even with a huge government investment, banks are using the money to cover themselves for past mistakes, rather than using the monies to start new auto loans. Second, the price of oil remains high and has effectively ended the “we love SUVs” craze. Spending $500 per month on petrol has certainly dried up that part of the auto industry. Third, and finally, government regulation is coupling with the second factor to require significant reduction in CO2 emission and greater gas efficiency. Some automakers have been successful in making changes to drive trains to comply to 130g/km regulations, but even Porsche, which makes among the most efficient sports cars is far from the target.
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Yup, there’s a new 911 in town. We publish a new clip about the 2009 997. Of note are the PDK gearbox and the Direct Fuel Injected engine. But rest easy, it doesn’t look radically different!

How pleased Lamborghini must be that it’s latest supercar, the Murciélago LP640 has just co-starred with Cristian Bale in the latest Batman flick, the Dark Knight. Who knows if Lambo paid dearly for the product placement, but a 155+ million dollar opening weekend is sure to get them a ton of free advertising.

Auto companies are masters at product placement.

A few examples:

• Ferrari - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Matthew Broderick steals his friend’s father’s 250 GT California.
• Porsche - Tom Cruise drives a 928 into Lake Michigan (oops!)
• Dodge Challenger - Vanishing Point’s star car gets driven into 2 bulldozers at high speed. Big crash!

Tons of other examples exist, I am sure someone will point out the cars from Bullitt and Miami Vice, too…

Look for the ultra-exclusive Lamborghini Reventón to appear in a yet-to-be-determined film sometime soon!

Last week, Porsche and Boris Johnson’s London government announced that the £25/per day congestion charge that the the previous London government, headed by Ken Livingstone, has sought to impose would be overturned. A judicial review concluded that critical evidence suggested that the enormous charges, more than three times what is currently in place, would actually do more environmental damage, rather than less.
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There are three reasons that Porsche is concerned about London’s impending congestion charge. First the people don’t want it, second it affects the sales of Porsches, and because it unfairly punishes the people by raising money for the city of London through a sort of taxation without direct representation, and is therefore unlawful.

Another observation: Porsche is by no means the carmaker in European Union with the lower overall emissions, but let’s look at the numbers…

The 911 has a 3.6 liter H-6 engine this base Carrera has a combined cycle of 25.7 mpg, with CO2 emissions of 266g/km. The car also costs $73,000 US, or £61,620.

The 2.7 liter H-6 Boxster engine costs $46,000 US or £33,375. It however with it’s smaller engine gets a very reasonable 29.7 mpg on the combined cycle with 227 g/km of CO2 emissions. The 3.4 liter version of that engine produces just 254 g/km. These three models are sports cars. Competitor Ferrari on the other hand produces a V8 engine in the F430, which has output of 420 g/km - quite a lot- and gets only 15.4 miles per gallon. The V12 599 GTB that Ferrari makes produces 490 g/km and drinks a gallon in 13.2 miles.
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This week’s Link of the Week is pretty cool. Because of their rarity, non-millionaire fans of supercars can often find it difficult to get behind the wheel of the world’s flashiest and fastest cars. Even millionaires find it difficult to choose with a record number of supercars available for public consumption.

If you’ve ever wanted to spend the day “testing” a variety of supercars at supercar speeds, there’s a new option for you. 

It’s called Supercar Life.

The LA Times has written about the program here: http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/la-fi-garage26apr26,0,4314202.story

It’s been absolutely a hectic time in Germany these days. Recent weeks have seen a remarkable number of events coming out of the Stuttgart, with Porsche announcing an increased stake in Volkswagen. Currently Porsche owns around 31 percent of VW, but will move to bring their control to over 50% by year’s end. Strategically, Porsche stands to benefit from increased sharing with VW/Audi’s research and development departments. Additionally, they will be able to secure long-term projects with suppliers. Recently, the Porsche Cayenne has shared a platform with the VW Toureg and Audi Q-series vehicles. VW in turn has managed to clear a path to integration between it’s stakes in Scania and MAN.

Porsche North America’s Peter Schwarzenbauer has announced that he is leaving to pursue an executive opportunity with Audi of America/Canada. Schwarzenbauer is known for having pushed Porsche NA into an enviable position as the worlds top sportscar maker. He noted some time ago that Porsche NA would never offer incentives (source: http://wardsauto.com/ar/stupid_incentives_porsche/). Key will be to see if Porsche is able to maintain that stance in a severe market downturn such as that currently unfolding in the North American market. 2008 may prove especially tough for the 911 first because of the recession and second because there is a new model due out for 2009.

Some dealers, however, have indicated incentives. Porsche of North Scottsdale in Scottsdale, AZ had offered the Cayman at a near $3,000 discount during April.  This come as something of a surprise as Porsche had announced in March that sales were strong:

“In the first six months of the current financial year 2007/08 (August 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008), a pretax Group profit of 1.658 billion Euros was achieved. The prior year result on a comparable basis was 1.341 billion Euros. This includes the proportional VW result for the fourth quarter of 2006 of about 272 million Euros and it is adjusted for the one-off effect of the revaluation of VW stake that resulted in an appreciation of 521 million Euros. Calculated on a comparable basis the Group result after taxes increased from 0.897 billion Euros in the previous period to 1.295 billion Euros in the reporting period.

Operating result before taxes grew in line with the increase in the turnover and sales figures. Turnover grew by 14 percent to 3.49 (prior year: 3.07) billion Euros and sales reached 46,736 vehicles versus 39,265 units in the comparable period for the prior year. The expansion of the dealer network, in particular into the new markets, and also the increased attractiveness of Porsche’s product range contributed to these successes. The new top models of the successful 911 sports car series introduced during the reporting period, the 911 Turbo Cabriolet and the 911 GT2 were received with great enthusiasm by customers. And the Cayenne series was successfully expanded with the especially sporty Cayenne GTS which Porsche showed at the 2007 International Automobile Exhibition in Frankfurt.

However, the reporting period was once again affected by special factors, first and foremost the contribution to the result provided by hedging transactions in connection with the acquisition of VW shares. This rose from 791 million Euros to 850 million Euros. In line with the 22.5 percent holding in VW’s equity, the VW result attributable to Porsche reached 484 million Euros versus the prior year figure of 275 million Euros. The prior year figure was revised and increased by the proportional VW result for the fourth quarter of 2006 so as to ensure comparability.”

Porsche found out at the beginning of April that demand was indeed, falling. Porsche stock stumbled, and the company released this information:

“Porsche’s stock fell by as much as 5 percent in German trading after the company reported its U.S. sales dropped 24 percent in March, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. The value of Porsche’s stock is down 17 percent for the year so far.

Porsche’s sales decline showed luxury buyers are now being affected by the economic slump and are bargain hunting, according to Edmunds.com’s analysis of March and first-quarter sales.

Sales of Porsche’s expensive 911 models plummeted by 76 percent in March and were sliced in half for the quarter compared with the same period a year ago. Similarly, sales of its less-expensive Boxster and Cayman sports cars were halved as well.

Sales of the reduced-price Cayenne GTS kept Porsche afloat. The German sports-car maker introduced an upgraded version of the standard Cayenne SUV but at a lesser price in February, which proved to be a smart move as Cayenne sales were the only Porsche models to see an increase. Also up were sales of certified pre-owned Porsches.

Worldwide, Porsche’s sports car sales are down as well.

Porsche had expected slower U.S. sales and announced in January plans to pare back inventories.”

Despite the dislike of the Cayenne by many enthusiasts, the SUV does seem to be keeping Porsche in the black. That car alone is probably most responsible for the takeover of VW Group, and bringing Porsche into the mainstream of the automotive industry.

Sources: IHT article
Porsche

The Link of the Week this week tells of an unfortunate mishap by a pensioner who ruined not one but two Porsches. Porsche have more of their cars still on the road than most other car makers.

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Well, no doubt it’s “high times” at Porsche these days. Long profitable in North America, successful in FOREX and Lean Manufacturing, developing product lines, high profit margins, and now a large share of VW (31%).

Just how rosy is the picture at Porsche?

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