Portalos News

China drives Porsche record as Cayenne wait means buying a Carrera

Liu Yirong walked into a Porsche dealership in Shanghai planning to buy the carmaker's $137,000 Cayenne SUV. Chinese customers ordering a Cayenne with a 3.0-liter engine wait an average of 15 months for delivery, the longest for the vehicle globally.

Porsche forecasts record 2011 global deliveries as China sales grow 35 percent, putting the Asian nation on track to overtake the U.S. as its largest market in 2014, said Helmut Broeker, the automaker's head of China.

Porsche, BMW AG and Daimler AG unit Mercedes-Benz all posted four-month sales increases in China exceeding 30 percent as rising numbers of wealthy Chinese seek out German luxury cars as status symbols.

The most basic Cayenne model costs 893,000 yuan ($137,000) in China, while its closest competitor, BMW's X6 SUV, starts at 1.05 million yuan. Porsche has been tailoring cars and marketing activities to Chinese tastes to lock in more buyers. The carmaker created a new color called "China Pink" after a customer in Chongqing wanted her Cayman painted the same shade as her make-up, said Jan Kuppen, Porsche's China product manager.

Mongolian lake

The added attention will help lift China to about a quarter of Porsche's deliveries in 2014, up from 15 percent now, Broeker said in an interview in Shanghai.

More dealerships

Luxury-car sales in China will rise 20 percent this year after surging 48 percent to 459,000 vehicles last year, according to industry researcher JD Power & Associates.

Porsche, maker of the 911 sports car and four-door Panamera, may consider producing a planned small SUV called the Cajun in China in the future. The Cayenne's popularity may also have a negative impact if the carmaker doesn't shorten waiting times. Tony Tian and his three business partners dropped by the company's dealership along Shanghai's busy Nanjing Street in search of a company car.