Porsche paves way for the future
Porsche AG set new records for deliveries, revenue and operating results in the 2017 financial year, delivering a total of 246,375 vehicles (+4 percent) and increasing its revenue by five percent – to 23.5 billion euro.
Its operating profit rose by seven percent to 4.1 billion euro (2016: 3.9 billion euro). As a result, its operating return on sales increased from 17.4 percent in the previous year to 17.6 percent. At the end of 2017, Porsche employed 29,777 people, representing an increase of eight percent compared to the previous year.
“This successful financial statement confirms our strategy. We are using our high earnings level to support an unprecedented future development plan,” explained Oliver Blume, chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, at the annual press conference.
In addition to making sizeable investments in its core sports car business, Porsche is also doubling its expenditure on trends for the future, with a commitment to invest over six billion euro in electromobility by 2022. The money will be spent on derivatives of the Mission E, hybridization and electrification of the current model range, as well as on developing a charging infrastructure and smart mobility.
“We have succeeded in boosting our operating result by over 50 percent within the last three years,” emphasized Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of the executive board and member of the executive board for finance and IT. “With a profit margin of 17.6 percent, Porsche continues to be among the most profitable automobile manufacturers in the world. This is down to continuous improvements in productivity, our stringent cost management strategy, as well as our outstanding product range,” continued Meschke. Digitization, electrification, and connectivity are major challenges that require substantial investment. “Nevertheless, we are sticking to our strategic return target of at least 15 percent. We must and we will generate growth potential alongside the actual vehicle business. In the medium term, we want to generate a double-digit percentage of sales through digital services.”
Meschke is optimistic in his outlook: “Our aim for 2018 is to stabilize revenue and deliveries at this high level.” Porsche expects the next boost in sales to come when the Mission E, the first purely electric vehicle, hits the market.
Plans for derivatives of the Mission E are also under way: Recently, Porsche presented a production-ready concept study of the Mission E Cross Turismo at the Geneva Motor Show. The purely electrically driven Cross-Utility Vehicle (CUV) has a system power of over 600 hp (440 kW), a range of more than 500 kilometers and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in under 3.5 seconds. The charging time is four minutes for a range of approximately 100 kilometers.
For the next 10 years, Porsche intends to continue with a threepronged approach, incorporating optimized combustion engines, plug-in hybrid models and purely electric sports cars – all in typical Porsche style of course.
“The regions of the world are developing at different rates. We are therefore gearing ourselves up as flexibly as possible for the transitional period,” said Blume.
In the Philippines, the Porsche Training and Recruitment Center Asia is a program that provides world-class training and financial sponsorship to underprivileged young Filipinos to become highly skilled Porsche service specialists.