[Introduction: As a world-renowned ultra-luxury brand, Porsche has experienced many twists and turns this year. Whether it is the inability to meet the global electric vehicle sales plan, or the various challenges faced by Porsche China, it means that the brand, which has achieved a brilliant performance in China, needs to make more in-depth adjustments to its strategy to better adapt to the global competition. 】
Written by Zhang Dachuan and edited by He Zi
Recently, Porsche issued a statement that although electric vehicle sales may account for more than 80% of Porsche's new car sales by 2030, this is no longer the company's specific goal.
According to Porsche's assessment, the transition to electric vehicles will take longer than the company assumed five years ago. The exact amount of EV sales will depend on market demand and the development of EVs around the world. In the first half of this year, the Taycan, a benchmark product for Porsche's electrification, sold less than 10,000 units, down 51% year-on-year. Under the double impact of customer demand and market competition, Porsche no longer adheres to the previous sales target of electric vehicles, and launching products according to market demand will become Porsche's new strategy.
The global goal of electric vehicles may not be met
Globally, both United States and Europe showed signs of slowing growth in electric vehicles in the first half of this year. Even in the Chinese market, the growth rate of plug-in hybrid models is much greater than that of pure electric models. In this context, it is not surprising that Porsche no longer insists on the proportion of electric vehicle sales in the past.
However, as a multinational car company with a relatively complete vehicle development process, Porsche's previous electric vehicle development and launch plan has already begun to be implemented, and the next step can only go step by step. According to the plan, Porsche will launch four new models this year: the new Taycan, the Panamera, the hybrid 911 and the all-electric Macan. Among them, the Macan EV, which rolled off the assembly line at Porsche's Leipzig plant in May, is a strategic model for the company's electric vehicle layout. According to Porsche's announcement, orders for the Macan EV are very impressive, which is expected to boost the company's electric vehicle sales. By the end of 2024, Porsche will also launch the all-electric 718 and the all-electric Cayenne in 2026. In addition, Porsche's flagship all-electric seven-seater SUV will be launched against the Ferrari Purosangue.
Porsche's statement can be interpreted from two aspects: on the one hand, the electric vehicles that have entered the company's cycle plan will continue to be launched, and this investor does not need to worry, unless there is a very clear market signal that electric vehicles are not suitable for launch, Porsche will not put the electric vehicles that have completed research and development on the shelf; On the other hand, the weak demand for pure electric vehicles worldwide will mean that the company's next development focus will be on gasoline/hybrid vehicles. In fact, the fundamental thing for fuel vehicles and hybrid vehicles is whether they have an efficient internal combustion engine system, and the hybrid system needs to be superimposed with a set of efficient power distribution units. Therefore, Porsche will also start refurbishing and upgrading the internal combustion engine in the future.
Porsche suffered a setback in China
Judging from the sales data, Porsche has not performed well in the Chinese market in the past two years.
In 2023, Porsche's global sales will be 320,200 units, a year-on-year increase of 3%. However, sales in the Chinese market were only 79,300 units, down 15% year-on-year. China has become the only single market in the world where Porsche will decline in 2023, and it has been declining for two consecutive years. And in 2024, this downward trend is likely to intensify. In the first half of this year, Porsche's global sales were 155,900 units, down 7% year-on-year. China delivered only 29,600 vehicles, down 33% year-on-year. It is clear that Porsche China's sales performance is significantly weaker than in several other major markets. In order to achieve the sales target, Porsche began to press the warehouse to domestic dealers, and tied in some cold dream models, and eventually caused some domestic Porsche dealers to threaten to refuse to pick up the car. In order to quell the dissatisfaction of dealers, Porsche has adjusted its commercial policy and replaced the management in China directly: from September 1 this year, Alexander Pollich will succeed Michael Kirsch as President and CEO of Porsche China.
However, a change of manager will not solve all the problems, and the days ahead may become more and more difficult.
As an ultra-luxury brand, Porsche does not have a production base in China, and the vast majority of its models are produced in Europe and then exported to the Chinese market. Previously, the EU made a policy of imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese exports of electric vehicles. If this punitive tariff policy turns into a final five-year policy, China will certainly retaliate against the models imported from the EU. At that time, Porsche, which relies entirely on imports, may not be able to stand alone.
From the perspective of product strength, Porsche's electric vehicles do not have obvious product power advantages compared with domestic related models. Taking Taycan as an example, its power performance, fast charging, aerodynamic design and intelligent driving have long been commonplace in front of new domestic car companies. Take the Xiaomi SU7 as an example, regardless of the SU7 models currently on sale, it is designed according to the Taycan benchmark. Not long ago, Lei Jun test-drove the Ultra version, aiming to win the championship of the world's fastest four-door electric car at the Nürburgring.
Porsche, on the other hand, will rely more on the input of the Volkswagen Group in the future. However, before the launch of Volkswagen's SSP architecture, neither MEB nor PPE has a way to compete with domestic electric vehicles. This is also the main purpose of Volkswagen's investment in Xpeng to build a CEA (China Electrical Architecture) architecture. In this case, in order for Porsche to continue to develop in China, it still needs to rely more on fuel vehicles and hybrid models to develop its strengths and avoid its weaknesses.
Porsche China may adjust its strategy
In fact, compared with other ultra-luxury brands, Porsche can play a lot of cards:
Although Porsche has a high brand positioning, its comparative sales are limited. Therefore, if it sets up a factory in China, it often faces the problem of low factory capacity utilization. However, compared with other brands, Porsche can use Volkswagen's factories in China to localize related models. Not only is it that Porsche and Volkswagen are models on the same platform, but even if the models produced in Europe are expected to use a lot of domestic auto parts, there is no great resistance to production at Porsche's domestic plants. Today, Volkswagen not only has two joint venture factories in China, but also has its own factory in Anhui. Once completed, it will be able to help Porsche significantly reduce the impact of tariffs and shorten the lead time for customers. At that time, the cost of Porsche's models sold in China is expected to drop significantly, and the overall competitiveness will be improved.
Porsche needs to adjust its strategy in China. In the case of the domestic auto market, especially the luxury brand market, which has bid farewell to rapid growth, Porsche's assessment goal for the Chinese market cannot be limited to maintaining a high growth rate. On the basis of taking into account the appropriate sales growth, it should be more important for Porsche China to focus more attention on the enhancement of profitability and realize the common growth of upstream and downstream enterprises in the entire industry chain, including automakers.
Comments
As a brand that once dominated the domestic auto market, Porsche has made a lot of money by being the first to launch SUV models such as the Cayenne. In the face of today's electric vehicle transformation and the critical moment of domestic market adjustment, Porsche is once again standing at the crossroads of strategic choices. How to make a better decision by balancing trade-offs is not an easy task.
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