Fifth Porsche car line looms

PORSCHE has revealed that it will turn its attention to an all-new car line from October this year.

Speaking to GoAuto at the international launch of the Panamera in Germany last week, Porsche board member and vice-president of sales and marketing Klaus Berning admitted Porsche was at a crossroads on where it moved next product-wise.

“We are going to start to tackle that problem starting October 2009,” Mr Berning said. “Because then the (Panamera) is launched, and if the car is good – and I think it is good, as I don’t think we will have big quality issues – we will then start to think about the next model line.

“The first question we have to ask is: Do we need another model line? And that already is a discussion that will take four to six months (to resolve).

“Once that decision has been taken ... we have to be really sure that our business plan could work.” Among the model variants believed to be under consideration is a sub-$100,000, sub-Cayman coupe.

Left: Porsche board member and vice president of sales and marketing, Klaus Berning. Below: GoAuto's impression of a Panamera-based 928.

Mr Berning said the time was probably not right for a model expansion right now, and that the vehicles already in Porsche’s short-term pipeline should be more than enough to keep the company, buyers, dealers and shareholders happy over the next few years.

He said the technology collaboration with the Volkswagen Group was working “fantastically”.

“Our people are in harmony developing things like the hybrid and Cayenne and others,” he said. “Seen in this context, you can question whether we need to grow much.

“We have the potential with this product line to go to 120,000, to 140,000, sales per year, so we will be happy, and our dealers will be happy. With this level we can be making good money and this could work. In the big picture, it might be sufficient that we (stick with this).” Mr Berning also hosed down speculation of a modern-day 928 replacement, based on the Panamera, saying history had taught Porsche to extend only when each existing model had been firmly entrenched.

Even though Porsche had been toying with the idea of a four-door 911 since the late 1960s, even going as far as developing the 989 prototype 20 years later, Mr Berning said Panamera development started only after it became abundantly clear in about 2004 that the Cayenne would achieve enduring sales.

“The process goes like this: the Cayenne is safe on the market, so then you start to think about other things. That car is okay, that car is stable, so let’s look for other opportunities,” he said. “And then we started looking, and we couldn’t find an existing segment, where we would say: ‘Okay, we will have that, and we could make the money that we want to make’, to be brutal and clear.

“And then, over time, we discovered that there is a (sports sedan) niche.

“That is what we have done with the Panamera – a full four-seater with the possibility of bridging a coupe with a four-wheel drive. Then we said: ‘Yes, we will go for it.’” The likelihood of an indefinite delay in a fifth model line-up is underlined by the company’s well-publicised financial woes after its takeover of the Volkswagen Group.

Coupled with a 15 per cent slip in sales in the nine months from May, Porsche is set to concentrate on evolving its four-model line-up – the Boxster/Cayman, 911, Cayenne SUV and Panamera. The latter will be extended by adding an entry-level V6 petrol model this time next year, and a petrol/electric hybrid-drive line-up soon after that.

An all-new 911 – dubbed the 991 series – is due in 2011 to take over from today’s ageing 997 models, while the closely related 981 series is set to replace the current 987 Boxster and Cayman soon after that.

The 981 is also likely to usher in a modern four-cylinder engine era using engines supplied by Volkswagen. The last four-pot Porsche died with the demise of the 1976 924-derived 968 in 1995.

Just two months ago, GoAuto reported that Porsche executive vice-president for research and development, Wolfgang Durheimer, held high hopes for the expensive Panamera platform to be used in more vehicles.

“I think if we look into our common future together with Volkswagen, this platform could be checked out and used for other products as well,” Mr Durheimer told GoAuto in April, adding that the Panamera’s architecture was an all-new Porsche-designed “clean-sheet” platform unsuitable for use under the next-generation Cayenne due in 2010.

Asked if further bodystyle derivatives of the Panamera would be developed, such as an estate/wagon or 911-style Targa version, Mr Durheimer suggested the Panamera model family might be extended beyond the sedan.

What's coming from Porsche:
911 GT3 facelift	Late 2009
911 Turbo and GT2 facelift	2010
Panamera V6 variant	2010
Cayenne MkII	2010
Cayenne Hybrid	2010
Panamera Hybrid	2011
991 911	2011
981 Boxster/Cayman	2012

Read more:

Panamera to spawn 928 successor

First drive: Panamera worth the wait

Panamera specs revealed