Ken Gratton•18 Feb 2014
NEWS
Porsche side-steps new model rumour
Zuffenhausen's next model line could be F12 rival, an Audi A6 in drag – or something different again!Porsche boss Matthias Müller has carefully skirted the issue of a seventh product line to join the range.
During a Q&A session following the formal launch of the new Macan last week, the Chairman of the Executive Board offered little of substance when asked directly about Porsche introducing an altogether new model slotting somewhere into the existing range.
In a circuitous response, Müller began with mention of the company's massive sales growth in the four years since 2009 (80,000 units sold globally), versus 162,000 sold last year. By implication, that sales growth has been driven in part by a new model, the Panamera, and updates of existing models. Reading between the lines, further sales growth into the future will result from at least one other new model – or possibly two.
"If you include the super sports car model series, the 918 Spyder – or the Carrera GT it was previously – it adds up to six model series," Müller noted.
"In our opinion, seven model series would be a good line-up. Why? The typical lifecycle of a vehicle is seven years. And if we had seven model series, then, by way of calculation, we could have one major event per year to offer to the market – and of course many minor events, because this strategy of derivatives, which you know from the 911, which made Porsche successful... is to be expanded to other model series."
While that may well be true, the very fact it doesn't address the original question directly is a strong indicator that Porsche does have plans for at least one new, additional model to join its line-up. What that new model (or models) may be remains unclear.
The two likeliest prospects are Pajun ('Panamera Junior') – a competitor to BMW 5 Series and Mercedes E-Class – or a rival to Ferrari's F12Berlinetta.
Director of Public Relations for Porsche Cars Australia, Paul Ellis, later told motoring.com.au that he was hopeful the cards would fall in favour of an F12-killer. But as a business decision, such a car would have to be justified on rational grounds.
"It's one of many, many models being considered..." He said. "Personally, I'd love to see a car like that. The company would excel at producing a car like that; it's also got to fit in with the other cars we sell – and the other business priorities the company's got.
"So it's not just necessarily a case of 'it would be nice, so let's do it'... it's got to make sense and it's got to fit in the context of what the company's doing."
According to Ellis, there are numerous projects in the works at Porsche, any one of which could be lucky number seven.
"It could be anything. I'm hearing so many different things. To make an analogy, it's like blips on a radar. Sometimes things blip fast and really loud, and you think 'Ah, this is what we're going to do'. Then, all of a sudden it dies down and another blip comes up on another part of the radar.
"In theory there's probably 17 product lines we could build if we gave the go-ahead to every concept that's [before] the boardroom at the moment. It's just a matter of finding the right one, and at the right time."
One project that looks like it's slipping out of contention is the sub-Boxster model that was to be based on Volkswagen's BlueSport concept and to be shared with Audi.
"There was discussion about it, and much of it was speculation in the press," explained Ellis. "I don't think the company said they had an official line on it, apart from: 'We're looking always at new opportunities', but I think that if we didn't do a car like that, it would be for good reasons. We've got to protect the DNA of Porsche.
"Any decision is based on that."
We speculate that Pajun, which may resemble the facelifted Panamera (pictured), will be the car that makes it to market first. As the project mentioned most often in the past – either built on the Macan platform or based on a heavily modified Audi A6 – it's also the product that could conceivably yield the strongest sales growth.
And seeing sales double in the space of four years is addictive for any car company, after all.
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Written byKen Gratton
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