In the 2018 financial year, Porsche AG achieved new records for operating profit, sales revenue, deliveries, and headcount.
The company’s operating profit grew by around 4 percent compared with the same period in the previous year, reaching €4.3 billion, and sales revenue increased by 10 percent to €25.8 billion. The operating return on sales was 16.6 percent.
In 2018, the company delivered 256,255 vehicles to customers, representing a 4 percent increase on the previous year. The workforce grew around 9 percent, to 32,325 employees.
“In the 2018 financial year, our attractive product range enabled us to once again significantly increase deliveries. Porsche is synonymous with emotional petrol engines and high-performance plug-in hybrids; in the future it will be just known as well for pure electric drive systems,” comments Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG.
Porsche will be investing around €15 billion in new products in the period up to 2023.
The sports car manufacturer is systematically expanding its offering in the field of electromobility: The Taycan, Porsche’s first purely electrically driven sports car, will debut in September, with its first derivative, the Cross Turismo, following at the start of the next decade.
The new generation of the Macan will also feature electric drive, making it the second purely battery-powered model series from Porsche.
In this area, the company’s efforts are based on the projection that by 2025, half of all sales from the Porsche product range will be of electrically driven models, or partially electrically driven plug-in hybrid models.
With a 38 percent increase, the Panamera achieved the strongest growth in terms of deliveries, reaching 38,443 vehicles. But even the 911 recorded double-digit growth, despite the change in model generation: the number of sports cars delivered increased by 10 percent to 35,573 vehicles.
Deliveries of the Cayenne grew by 12 percent, to 71,458 cars. The Macan continued to be the most successful model in terms of volume, at 86,031 vehicles. The Chinese market also retained its position as top performer in 2018, with growth of 12 percent there, amounting to 80,108 units. With an increase of 3 percent to 57,202 vehicles, the USA again took the second spot.
“The switch to the new WLTP test cycle and gasoline particulate filters, combined with our elimination of new diesel-driven models, mean that the months ahead will also be challenging,” comments CFO Meschke. Despite this, Porsche expects increased deliveries in 2019, as well as a slight rise in sales revenue.
