Porsche Can't Keep Up With Cayenne Demand, Plans to Increase Production

Better engines and the recently introduced cosmetic changes have resulted in a 37 percent increase in the only Porsche SUV available at the moment. The baby-Cayenne couldn’t come a moment too soon, but until that happens Porsche will have to increase production starting as early as next year.

Cayenne's output will increase by 10 percent to 20 percent starting in 2012, Bernhard Maier, Porsche’s sales chief, said in an interview with Bloomberg. Limited production and increase in global demand has resulted in 12 month delays being seen in markets such as China, and the carmaker wants this to be reduced to a maximum of six months.

“We’re now looking into ways we can expand production capacity to be able to serve our customers more quickly,” Maier said at the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker’s headquarters. “First-half data show that we’re growing almost consistently in all world markets and across all model lines.”

The same could eventually happen with the Panamera, as sales may rise to more than 28,000 units this year ends, compared to more than 20,000 in the first full year after the model came to market in September 2009.

Prospects in the U.S., the company’s biggest market, are very positive. “The U.S. market is still characterized by a degree of volatility that shouldn’t be underestimated. In the coming years, growth is conceivable in the U.S. to help return to levels seen before the crisis,” Maier said. Figures for the first half of the year in the US rose 42 percent to 15,542 Porsches, after a 19 percent in June.