Porsche could phase out diesel
Brand plans to focus on hybrids and battery power
Porsche would decide at the end of the decade whether its latest generation of diesel engines would be its last, its CE said.
Porsche will decide at the end of the decade whether its latest generation of diesel engines will be its last, says CE Oliver Blume, marking the first time a German car maker has publicly said it could discontinue diesel.
Volkswagen’s cheating on diesel emissions tests has cast a shadow over its Porsche division and the brand is considering its options.
Porsche introduced diesel in its Cayenne sports utility vehicle (SUV) in 2009.
“Of course we are looking into this issue,” Blume said in an interview. “We have not made a decision on it.”
Blume said Porsche would offer a mix of combustion engines, plug-in hybrid vehicles and purely battery-powered cars over the next 10 to 15 years and would decide at the end of the decade whether diesel had a future at Porsche.
German prosecutors started investigating Porsche staff in June to see whether they were involved in designing illicit engine-control software, and regulators are examining whether the Cayenne was fitted with such a device.
A redesign of the Cayenne would be launched in September and it would still offer a diesel version, Blume said.
“For the generations that will follow there are different scenarios,” Blume said.
One scenario had Porsche backing out of diesel altogether, sources at the car maker said.
Porsche still relies on diesels, which account for about 15% of its global sales, to help it bring down carbon dioxide emissions as they are more fuel-efficient than petrol engines.
At luxury rival BMW, diesel cars make up 35% of new registrations, while Audi’s European diesel sales alone account for two-thirds of deliveries. But diesel’s image has been tarnished by the emissions scandal and revelations that some engines pump high levels of poisonous nitrogen oxides into the air, prompting many car makers to review their strategies.
To tap into growing demand for electric cars, Porsche is spending €1bn to overhaul its main Stuttgart plant and build its first battery-only model, the Mission E saloon, due in 2019.
Battery-only vehicles could account for a quarter of Porsche’s sales by 2025, give or take five to 10 percentage points, Blume said, contradicting a media report that said up to half of its output by 2023-24 could be electric.
PHASING OUT
Earlier in July, Geely’s Volvo said all its cars launched after 2019 would be electric or hybrids, making it the first large car maker to set a date for phasing out vehicles powered solely by combustion engines.
Porsche and Audi, which together contribute 60% of Volkswagen’s profits, were targeting “significant savings” in development and material costs for their electric car programmes by sharing a new production platform code-named PPE, Blume said.
The new architecture would allow the brands to save money by sharing components and modules, helping Porsche with a goal of keeping its annual return on sales at about 15%, he said. “Further platforms are conceivable, for instance with SUVs.”
VOLKSWAGEN’S CHEATING ON DIESEL EMISSIONS TESTS HAS CAST A SHADOW OVER ITS PORSCHE DIVISION
Porsche sales rose 6% to a record 238,000 cars in 2016, and Blume said the car maker had a guideline for increasing its sales about 5% per year to 2025. Counting on growing demand for high-end electric cars, Porsche might spawn another zero-emission model off the Mission E platform, for which it planned an initial capacity of about 20,000 cars at its Zuffenhausen factory, Blume said.
An electrified version of the top-selling Macan SUV was also possible, he said.
“We expect the metropolises in China and Asia will switch to pure electric mobility very fast,” the CEO said.
“I believe there will be few pure combustion engines to be seen in the large cities there in five years’ time.”
Blume added: “The development in rural areas will, however, proceed much more slowly.”