Porsche green-lights the Panamera
Four-door Porker due out in 2009: official
  Porsche Panamera |
Porsche's top brass has officially given the green light to manufacture the Panamera, its first four-door four-seat car. The company's supervisory board and the board of management gave their go-ahead yesterday for the development and production of a fourth Porsche model, scheduled to enter the market in 2009.
Porsche described the car as "a premium class sports coupé". The front-engined, rear-wheel drive car will be powered by various engines. The name is derived from the legendary Carrera Panamericana long-distance race.
The car is sure to upset a bunch of manufacturers, prime among them being BMW, whose M5 will compete, and VW, whose Bentley range will also be seen as a rival by buyers.
Stuttgart will pour more than €1 billion of its own money into the development and manufacture of the car, and expects to sell "at least 20,000 units" annually. Over a three-year period, that works out to an investment of a tad over £10,000 per car -- though we suspect you might expect the price tag to be heftier than that.
Porsche boss Dr Wendelin Wiedeking said: "We have indeed taken a lot of time in making this decision. But now we know one thing for sure: the Panamera is the right car for Porsche, as it has all that typical DNA characteristic of a genuine sports car. In terms of performance, design, and driving dynamics it meets Porsche's high standards in every respect. Through this sports coupé we are making our customers an attractive offer in the top performance segment."
Wiedeking said that Porsche will be developing and building the Panamera using the company's own resources: "We will be developing a separate platform for our fourth model series in Weissach. There are no plans for a joint venture with another car maker. But to ensure the profitability of this new model series we will cooperate more closely than so far with selected system suppliers."
Production of the Panamera is to be in Leipzig, where Porsche already builds the Cayenne and the Carrera GT high-performance sportscar. The final decision will require further detailed talks at the plant between bosses and workers.
This would also require a major extension of the assembly hall, already in operation today, which would begin in 2006/2007. Should the site be chosen for production of the Panamera it would potentially create some 600 new jobs in Leipzig. In the course of the project approximately 400 more new jobs will be created at Porsche's original plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, where the engines for the fourth model series will be built, and at the Weissach Development Centre.
About 70 per cent of the Panamera will be built in Germany.
sjp63 said:
It won't be cheap! - £110k?? (guessing)
No way will it cost that much. I'm guessing nearer the £60K up to £90K (ish) if you get the one with the V10. Porsche's prices have been coming down markedly in real terms as they appear to want *volume*.
Given a 10K investment cost and, what?, a 10K to 20K build cost? That's between 30K and 50K margin per car. Can't be bad.
Anyone who works in the industry know what the build costs for a modern car is today?
( wintess BMW,s current Z4 woes)but is it just me or does it look very much like a Ferrari 456 without the pop-up headlamps?More than a touch of Maserati 3200gt in the rear haunches too me-hinks.No criticism,just curious
Its all very well having a common DNA thread throughout the current model range, but consider the following :
911, well looks like a 911.
Boxster, well looks like a 911.
Caymen, coupe Boxster, looks like an (uglier) 911.
Cayanne, looks like a 911 on stilts.
Panamera, well looks like a stretched 911.
Bearing in mind the basic 911 silhouette is now 40 years old, surely they can arrive at a differeing sytlistic theme without losing or diluting that essential Porsche look ?
Don said:
Given a 10K investment cost and, what?, a 10K to 20K build cost? That's between 30K and 50K margin per car. Can't be bad.
Anyone who works in the industry know what the build costs for a modern car is today?
Erm, yes, and the answer is lots more than you think.
Can't obviously give you figures as even approximations will be proprietary...plus I reckon Porsche will have higher margins. But you can expect them to make £10k or so profit per unit on that, maybe £20k for the top-spec models. That's before what they call "variable marketing", which is dealer discounts and freebies...which I'd expect to be near £nil for that.
Also, expect European margins to be greater than for US sales because of both the weak dollar and the US market's expectations...they'll be lucky to do $10k profit per car in the US.
(Note: These figures are educated guesswork, but do include a contribution to fixed overheads in arriving at the "real" profit...having said that, I may have underestimated their fixed o'head.)
Same for Cayenne, pig ugly but harldy a 997...
No-one complains Volvo should farm out their design....or Volkswagen...or Alfa....or Vauxhall... or Audi...or Bentley....or Aston Martin.... or Lamborghini...or Seat....
I'm hopeful that by 2009 something will have changed....??
huge said:
I appreciate its difficult/dangerous to be too original or controversial in certain market segments
( wintess BMW,s current Z4 woes)but is it just me or does it look very much like a Ferrari 456 without the pop-up headlamps?More than a touch of Maserati 3200gt in the rear haunches too me-hinks.No criticism,just curious
Im pretty sure that's just a photoshop mock up, which could explain some of its recognisable features. Could be wrong though. If it is going to be released in 2009, then we still have a long way to go before we see official pictures.
Peter
In other words Porsche have had it in the wings for a while but wanted to see the market reaction to the Mercedes CLS before it took the plunge with a similar type car.
I think Carerra CLS would be a more appropriate name ;-)
Still, a very nice looking car and a welcome alternative to an M5.....or a Conti GT. Which end of that price gap is it targeting or will it fall neatly in between?
>> Edited by dvs_dave on Thursday 28th July 14:01
PistonHeads said:
This would also require a major extension of the assembly hall, already in operation today, which would begin in 2006/2007.
...I know where there's a nice, ready-made car production plant going begging!...they'd have to be quick though, may get snapped-up by someone else (sometime never) 
I joined Pistonheads because I love cars, like the banter between correspondents, like to be kept abreast of developments in the motor industry etc etc. Is that OK with you ?
Whilst the point I was making may well bore you, with respect (or indeed without it, since clearly you have none yourself), there are other people on here other than yourself. In any event, by virtue of the fact that I am hardly in the minority when subjecting Porsche "styling" to critiscm, could it be perhaps that Porsche do indeed rely far too much on the DNA of the 911, a 40 year old design ? Hardly progressive is it ?
As for the similarity between the Boxster & the 997, you question the similarity of these two cars "apart from the front end". Erm, isnt that half the actual car then ? What about the shared interior (a theme with the Cayenne also ?). Are you seriously suggesting that the Boxster/Caymen & the 997 dont look alike ?
Whilst I admit the Cayenne is hardly a dead ringer for the 997, this is more to do with the elevated body/increased ride height of the Cayenne, rather than any great divergence of design . Have you never seen a photoshopped pic of an SUV 911, it looks suspicously like a Cayenne to me.
Turning now to the other marques you have provided by way of example, certainly nice to know you consider that the likes of Vauxhall & Seat are in anyway comparable to such a manufacturer as Porsche. As for the others, they are all either owners of other manufacturers (VW) or are owned bo other manufacturers (Alfa, Audi, Bentley, AM etc)& thus there will be to a degree a similarity in style as they share certain fundemental manufacturing hard points (though I hardly think anyone mistakes a Phaeton for a Continental GT).
Hope this hasnt bored you too much........
My main reasoning behind this is that sector for premium motors of £60K+ is pretty jam-packed. We now have a huge selection between £60k - £130k ranging from 4x4s, super cars, exec salloons and sports salloons, sports cars and GT's. You name it and you can have the "brand" at pretty much any price you want. Even Audi are playing in this ballpark now.
I am confident the car will be great - they always bloody are. But when you have to fight with the likes of Maserati, Bentley, Jaguar, Range Rover, Ferrari & Mercedes for super fast motors, the competition is fierce.... Will it sell in the numbers required to justify the investment....
I hope so as I certainly dont want to see Porsche suffer. But I have my doubts, styling is critical in this sector (gotta look good!) and many buyers may be put off the conservative styling that Porsche usually uses. Fingers crossed at least....
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