Porsche Panamera Turbo Spor Turismo is on display during the 87th Geneva International Motor Show at Palexpo Exhibition Centre in Geneva, Switzerland on March 07, 2017. The show opens to the public on March 9 to 19. (Fatih Erel - Anadolu Agency)
GENEVA: Porsche may offer an all-electric version of its Macan compact SUV and could turn models such as the iconic 911 into hybrids, its sales chief said on Tuesday, amid a push by parent company Volkswagen to move on from dieselgate.
Porsche, the second biggest contributor to VW’s overall profit, is spending about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to produce the all-electric Mission E, the brand’s first battery-only model that is expected to launch by 2020.
“We have other ideas beyond the Mission E,” sales chief Detlev von Platen told Reuters at the Geneva auto show. The top-selling Macan “is of course a model line that we can imagine” for electrification.
VW, which is Europe’s biggest carmaker, aims to launch more than 30 new all-electric vehicles by 2025 in a strategic shift following its diesel emissions test rigging scandal and has backed Porsche to produce another all-electric car.
Von Platen said he could well imagine Porsche that will introduce hybrid versions of its 911 and Boxster/Cayman sports cars, with a combination of petrol engines and electric motors.
Porsche already offers hybrid versions of the Panamera saloon and its Cayenne sports-utility vehicle.
Demand for premium models in China, the United States and Europe, as well as for new models, could boost Porsche’s sales to about 300,000 cars by 2020 from a record 238,000 last year, von Platen said.
“This will be a consequence of our (expanding) product portfolio,” he said, cautioning, however, that excessive growth could undermine the Porsche brand’s value.
“We are happy to grow and we want to grow but only on a very strong basis,” he said. “The brand must remain exclusive.”
($1 = 0.9462 euros)
(Editing by David Clarke)
