Porsche CEO Matthias Muller showing off the new Macan during a presentation at the maker's manufacturing center in Leipzig, Germany.
Even as they prepare to launch their latest all-new product, the compact Macan sport-utility vehicle, Porsche’s top executives are already mulling over plans for what could soon become their seventh unique model line, TheDetroitBureau.com has learned.
A variety of options are under consideration, CEO Matthias Muller revealed during a series of conversations at the Leipzig complex that recently began producing the new Macan. Among the possibilities is a smaller version of the German maker’s current four-door sedan which some are referring to as a “Baby Panamera.”
“We have six models but should have seven,” Muller said during a casual dinner at the sprawling Porsche center which recently went through a 500 million Euro expansion to take on production of the Macan. The maker, he added, will soon move forward on the new product program.
The Porsche Macan - shown during off-road testing - is the maker's sixth unique product line.
One of the maker’s goals is to stagger its product cadence so that one product line would be completely redesigned each year. Porsche has long rolled out new products and variants on a regular pace aiming to maintain its momentum and avoid the sales peaks and troughs that can hammer other specialty manufacturers.
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Based in Stuttgart, Porsche has gone through some major changes over the last two decades, expanding its line-up from the classic 911 to include a variety of true sports cars, a 4-door sports sedan, the Cayenne SUV and now the Macan. The Panamera and Cayenne were, in their day, extremely controversial, especially with Porsche purists. But the results have been significant. Accounting for 80,000 sales last year, the Cayenne is today Porsche’s best-seller.
And the maker’s expectations for the Macan come close. The Leipzig factory currently has the ability to produce 50,000 of the smaller SUVs annually – but, “if the market requires it, we will be able to push the capacity,” Muller said. In fact, some company executives believe the new model could eventually match the Cayenne in terms of demand.
There are some concerns being raised by outside analysts, however, who fear that Macan could simply cannibalize demand for the larger and more expensive Cayenne. For his part, however, Muller said he expected at least 80% or more of the new model’s customers to be drawn from the competition, with no more than 5% to 10% downsizing from the Cayenne.
Macan, if it comes close to expectations, will help Porsche achieve some ambitious goals four years ahead of schedule. Among other things, it expects to sell at least 200,000 vehicles worldwide in 2014, up from 166,000 last year. And that would yield yet another record bottom line.
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Muller and other senior Porsche executives were quick to stress that volume alone is not the corporation’s key target. “We plan to remain an exclusive brand,” he stressed, more than happy to hover around a 0.25% global market share. But Porsche has, in recent years, delivered some of the industry’s highest profit margins.
Significantly, the Porsche CEO said he is under no pressure to drive up volume or revenues from Volkswagen AG, the German giant that took control of the smaller maker two years ago – an acquisition that formally ended a quirky feud between VW and Porsche that had begun with a failed, David-v-Goliath bid by the smaller company to acquire the bigger maker.
While VW may not be breathing down his neck, Muller said “We don’t need that pressure,” adding with a laugh that he puts the pressure on himself.
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With a history of confounding both skeptics and purists alike, there will undoubtedly be plenty of curiosity about what Porsche might now have in store as it starts the complicated process of developing its seventh product line. Traditionally tight-lipped about future programs, Muller suggested that styling chief Michael Mauer has laid out “a cornucopia of ideas,” adding that “We’ll look at one of them.”
Asked about rumors suggesting a Baby Panamera might be at the top of the list, Muller offered a rare insight into the process, hinting that a “sports Turismo model” is one possibility he is particularly interested in.
A decision on which direction to move is likely to come before the end of 2014.