Porsche China accelerates through market challenges

Ti Gong

Volkswagen’s luxury subsidiary Porsche is taking multiple measures to ensure its position in the luxury car market and help dealers amid COVID-19.

China's auto market has been affected by COVID-19 outbreak and car sales in China dropped 79 percent to 310,000 units in February from a year earlier.

Amid the outbreak, however, the company took measures to fully assist dealer partners, such as financial and service support.

Jens Puttfarcken, president and chief executive officer of Porsche China, said that "Porsche China's sales fell by 60 percent year on year in February, but it will improve in March and April. We hope the market will return to normal after May."

Puttfarcken added that "COVID-19 is now spreading in Europe and US. Especially for the production base of its German headquarters, we are also facing the same challenges as the Chinese market. It's hard to predict car sales in 2020 but Porsche and its China team have done a great job to fight against the COVID-19."

Porsche China set up a team after the outbreak and maintains close contact with dealers via e-mail and online meetings. Porsche has taken a series of measures to help dealers tide over difficulties, including canceling a first-quarter sales assessment and adjusting performance indicators.

In terms of the supply of auto parts, Porsche China said that 95 percent of dealers have restored auto parts supply as well as after-sales and logistics service capabilities.

This year Porsche's focus will be electric vehicles. The first purely electric Porsche sports car, the Taycan, will be launched in China in April 2020. 

David Xiao, chief operating officer of Porsche China, said that "more than 90 percent of our dealer network across the country has been ready for the charging pole. We will further conduct training of electric vehicles for sales and after-sales employees this year."

In 2019, Porsche China delivered 86,752 new vehicles to customers, increasing 8 percent compared with 2018, and accounting for a total of 31 percent of Porsche AG worldwide sales. China also remained the largest single market of Porsche AG for a fifth consecutive year.