Porsche has achieved record levels in sales for its 2019 financial year, delivering a total of 280,800 cars to customers globally. This represents a 10% increase over the same period in 2018, with sales revenue up by 11% to 28.5 billion euros (RM135.5 billion). The return on sales before special items was 15.4%, which is the highest in the automotive world.
The Macan SUV is once again the automaker’s most popular offering, with 99,944 units (a 16% increase over 2018) sold worldwide. The Cayenne trails closely with 92,055 units delivered, or about 29% more than in 2018. Porsche said 15% of those sales were from the new Cayenne Coupe. Europe and Germany showed the strongest growth by far – Porsche shifted 88,975 vehicles in the continent, with 31,618 of those coming from Germany alone. Both markets saw an increase of 15% in sales compared to 2018.
The sports car manufacturer also saw an increase in the two largest auto market. In China, it sold 86,752 vehicles, an 8% increase from 2018, and in the US it sold 61,568 vehicles – also an 8% increase. On the whole, sales of the 911 drifted down slightly to 34,800 units in 2019.
Besides that, Porsche’s year-on-year operating profit went up by 3% to 4.4 billion euros (RM20.9 billion), a figure which would have been higher if it wasn’t for a fine of 500 million euros (RM2.38 billion) over the Dieselgate scandal. In the same period, the automaker’s workforce grew by 10% to 35,429 employees.
Porsche boss Oliver Blume said: “Thanks to our attractive product range, consisting of efficient petrol-driven cars, high-performance plug-in hybrids and now also purely electric sports cars, our deliveries once again increased in the 2019 financial year. Our primary goal is value-creating growth. We have increased our result by more than 60% over the past five years. This allows us to create the prerequisites to fully meet our entrepreneurial responsibilities in economic, ecological and social areas.”
Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke added: “In 2019 we achieved new record values in terms of sales revenue and profits before special items. The increase in profits is due particularly to the strong increase in volumes as well as the positive development of our other business fields and divisions.”
“At the same time, higher fixed costs, caused by our growth, significant investments in electrification and digitalisation, and currency effects had a negative impact on the result. We nevertheless again exceeded our strategic targets with a return on sales of 15.4% before special items and a return on investment of 21.2%,” he added.
Moving forward, Porsche will invest around 10 billion euros (RM47.5 billion) in the hybridisation, electrification and digitalisation of its cars. It will soon introduce the Taycan Cross Turismo and the Macan EV, both of which are underpinned by the new Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture. By 2025, half of its sales is expected to be comprised of electrified vehicles.
For instance, Porsche delivered just 813 units of the Taycan in 2019 (one of which is purchased by Bill Gates), but it already received around 30,000 orders for the EV before it debuted in September. Blume said more than 15,000 customers have since signed their purchase contract.
For 2020, Meschke said Porsche is facing an economically and politically challenging environment due to the coronavirus. However, the company aims to continue to meet its high earnings target. “With measures that will boost efficiency and by developing new, profitable business fields, we aim to continue to achieve our strategic goal of a return on sales of 15%,” he said.
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