Porsche Will Introduce Model at Detroit Auto Show After Four-Year Absence
Porsche AG, the sports-car maker merging with Volkswagen AG, will premiere a “spectacular” model when it returns to the Detroit auto show in January after exiting four years ago.
“We’ll have something spectacular to show there,” Hans- Gerd Bode, a spokesman at the Stuttgart-based carmaker, said in an interview today. “You’ll have to wait and be surprised.”
Porsche will join VW group presentations beginning Jan. 10 in Detroit that will also include luxury unit Audi and ultra- luxury brand Bentley Motors Ltd., Bode said.
Porsche, maker of the 911 sports car, last year delivered a quarter of its 85,903 vehicles to the U.S., its biggest single market. The manufacturer pulled out of Detroit after 2007 to focus U.S. activities on Los Angeles. Detroit has been a mainstay of the North American auto industry for more than a century and is the largest annual U.S. auto show.
“Porsche’s return demonstrates the relevancy of the Detroit show for luxury manufacturers,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at IHS Automotive in Lexington, Massachusetts. “They target a very specific audience with their cars and the U.S. market is incredibly important for Porsche.”
The company’s U.S. deliveries surged 49 percent in November to 2,416 cars and sport-utility vehicles, the sixth consecutive month of at least double-digit sales increases. Year-to-date sales gained 29 percent to 22,753 units.
Shares Climb
Porsche’s preferred shares rose as much as 1.96 euros, or 3 percent, to 66.50 euros in Frankfurt trading and were up 2.2 percent as of 2:23 p.m., valuing the company at 11.6 billion euros (&15.4 billion).
Porsche’s Cayman R mid-engine sports car, which sells in Europe for 69,830 euros, premiered last month in Los Angeles. The model, which surges to 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour in 5 seconds and has a top speed of 282 kilometers per hour, will hit showrooms next spring, Bode said.
Porsche took another step this week toward its planned merger with Volkswagen after the company’s shareholders backed a 5 billion-euro stock sale to lower debt. The sports-car maker agreed to combine with VW in August 2009 after a failed attempt by Porsche to gain control of VW.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andreas Cremer in Berlin at acremer@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net.
Porsche Plans ‘Spectacular’ Detroit Show Return
Hannelore Foerster/Bloomberg
A Porsche logo.
A Porsche logo. Photographer: Hannelore Foerster/Bloomberg
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