Porsche promises bigger electric lineup by 2025

The Porsche Mission E concept car, the company's first all-electric four-seat sports car, is presented at an auto show in Frankfurt, Germany. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Automaker says new energy models' performance will not fall behind, quality remains focus

Premium sports carmaker Porsche said it expects that at least one fifth of its cars will be electric by 2025, with 3 billion euros ($3.60 billion) to be invested in such cars in the coming years.

"We will have, in 2025, over 20 percent pure electric cars, and if the market is going very well, over one-third of Porsche cars will be fully electric," said its CEO Oliver Blume.

He said the company's first electric car, the Mission E, will start production in 2019 and more will follow soon, adding that Porsche already has hybrids and plug-in hybrids in the market.

The Mission E, which debuted as a concept car in 2015, will have a range of over 500 kilometers and will reach 80 percent of its full charge in only 15 minutes.

"The strategy of Porsche is clear: We will invest over 3 billion euros in the coming years for pure electric mobility," said Blume.

He said electric mobility will not affect Porsche cars, as the carmaker has a lot of experience with electric mobility in motor sports events.

"For example, Porsche won the most famous motor sport race in Le Mans for the last three years with a hybrid engine, and a lot of this technology we transferred to our Panamera for example, and now to the new Cayenne, and so Porsche has very big credibility in electro-mobility."

Blume said he believes that China will lead the new energy car market, and Porsche is in talks with partners in the country in terms of charging point infrastructure.

"I think in China, developments will go very fast, especially in the big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. The Chinese culture is very open to these new technologies, and I think there will be very high acceptance by the Chinese customers also for the plug-in hybrids and the fully electric cars in the future."

China has already been Porsche's largest market since 2015. In the first half of the year, Porsche sold 35,864 cars in China, up 18 percent year-on-year.

"It looks like we can keep the performance until the end of this year, and that is a good basis for next year," said Franz Jung, president and CEO of Porsche China.

He attributed the growth to the company's competitive products, such as the new 718 Boxter, and also to Chinese customers' enthusiasm with SUVs, especially its smaller Macan.

"But volume is not the most important thing for us. It is the brand, and also, the profitability of the dealers, of our investors."

Porsche now has 99 dealerships in China, with another to open by November, covering most tier-1 and 2 cities. "We will now focus a little bit more outside, a little bit more on tier-3 cities, but each and every new dealer we open will be sustainable and will be successful long-term."

Jung said the dealers are positive about the forthcoming Mission E electric model.

"Our dealers, they like new products. They're practically happy about every new product. It's the essence of their business.

"I'm very positive that with the Mission E coming in 2019, not much can go wrong. Every Porsche, the very first moment you see the car, you know it's a Porsche, and it will also be the case with that car."

Despite its success in China, Blume said Porsche does not have a plan so far to localize its cars.

"When we talk to our customers in China, they give us feedback that it is worth having a German product. They tell us that we should keep on doing that because that's special for us. Also, economically, it's not worth doing it (localization) because you need a higher volume to invest in a factory in China.

"Porsche is a brand where volume is not so important. We are a low-volume manufacturer. For us, it's more important to have very satisfied customers and a good financial result."