April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Porsche SE predicted the Panamera sedan, its first new model line in seven years, will help the German maker of 911 sports cars reverse a trend of declining luxury sales.

“Despite the difficult conditions we are all experiencing right now, we maintain our firm objective to sell at least 20,000 units” annually, Klaus Berning, Porsche’s sales chief, said at a briefing before the Shanghai International Auto Show.

Porsche is relying on the Panamera, its fourth model line and the first addition since the Cayenne sport-utility vehicle in 2002, to help stave off a further sales decline. Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche’s first-quarter U.S. sales dropped 27 percent and plunged 36 percent in the U.K.

The Panamera, which cost 1 billion euros ($1.29 billion) to develop and is the carmaker’s first four-person sedan, will compete with Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz CLS and Fiat SpA’s Maserati Quattroporte.

“We would obviously have been happy to introduce the Panamera in times of better conditions,” Berning said.

Porsche expects 90 percent of Panamera customers to be new to the brand. The U.S., Europe and rest of the world will each generate about one-third of the model’s sales, he said.

The company will introduce the car in China in January and plans to sell 2,000 units by July. The country is home to 825,000 people each with an estimated net worth of at least 10 million yuan ($1.5 million), according to the Hurun Report.

Emerging Markets

Porsche is unveiling the family-size Panamera at the show as it pushes into emerging markets to offset tumbling demand among traditional customers.

It will offer the 94,000-euro, four-door Panamera starting in September. A diesel-powered Cayenne SUV is also set to go on sale this year.

The company will bring out a hybrid Cayenne in 2010 and a hybrid Panamera after that. The importance of the hybrid, or models powered by electricity and diesel or gasoline, is “social acceptance” for Porsche buyers, Berning said.

Porsche has been accumulating shares of Volkswagen AG since 2005 and owned 50.8 percent of Europe’s biggest auto manufacturer as of Jan. 5. The sports-car company has been hit by the global recession and tighter credit. Fiscal first-half revenue declined 13 percent to 3.04 billion euros and deliveries tumbled 27 percent to 34,266.

The sports-car manufacturer had pledged to lift the Volkswagen holding to 75 percent this year, which would add the larger company’s cash flow to its books, though any investment will depend on economic conditions.

Porsche fell 3.12 euros, or 6.2 percent, to 47.57 euros in Frankfurt trading in the biggest drop since March 30. Volkswagen slid 11.01 euros, or 4.4 percent, to 237.33 euros, also the biggest drop in three weeks.

To contact the reporters on this story: Bret Okeson in Shanghai via bokeson@bloomberg.net; Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 20, 2009 12:10 EDT