Currently reading: Porsche sales dip by just 3% in 2020, despite pandemic

Pandemic closed factories for six weeks, but core model sales held strong and new Taycan went well

Porsche delivered 272,162 cars worldwide in 2020 - a drop of only 3% from 2019's record figures, despite six-week factory shutdowns due to the pandemic.

"Our response to these challenges was rapid, flexible and pragmatic," Porsche said. "We introduced targeted measures to protect our workforce, and we engaged in systematic crisis management, successfully shoring up our liquidity and stabilising our results. In this way we steered Porsche strategically and robustly through the crisis."

Sales of core models including the Porsche 911, 718 and Porsche Cayenne remained largely stable, although Porsche Macan sales fell from 99,944 to 78,124.

Overall, sales revenue held steady at €28.7 billion, compared with €28.5bn in 2019. 

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It was partly the success of the Porsche Taycan electric saloon in its first full year on sale, shifting 20,015 units, that helped the firm achieve an operating profit of €4.2bn (£3.59bn), slightly down from €4.4bn (£3.76bn) the year before, with a 14.6% return on sales.

"This was a top result that was unequalled by the competition in 2020," said chief financial officer Lutz Meschke, highlighting that Porsche was "once again the top earner in the Volkswagen Group". 

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume celebrated the company's financial stability. "We're still in our strategic target corridor," he said, promising a bonus for all Porsche employees of up to €7850 (£6715) in recognition of their work during the pandemic. 

The German brand's strong performance in 2020 paves the way for continued investment in its transformation over the next decade. Between now and 2025, Porsche will invest €15bn in "electromobility, sustainable production and digitalisation," with the aim of strengthening profitability in the long-term. 

"We need to create the basis today for the success of tomorrow. This is why we continue to invest in future topics like electromobility and digital transformation," explained Blume.

In 2020, a third of Porsche's global sales were electrified, with an equal share claimed by the Taycan and its hybrid models. By 2025, half of all Porsches sold will be electrified, and by 2030 that figure will climb to 80%. 

In conjunction with an increased focus on electrification, Porsche will completely overhaul its production and supply chains to improve sustainability and become a carbon-neutral manufacturer by 2030.

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Felix Page

Felix Page
Title: Deputy editor

Felix is Autocar's deputy editor, responsible for leading the brand's agenda-shaping coverage across all facets of the global automotive industry - both in print and online.

He has interviewed the most powerful and widely respected people in motoring, covered the reveals and launches of today's most important cars, and broken some of the biggest automotive stories of the last few years. 

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scrap 19 March 2021

Read it and weep, everyone else.

Astonishing performance from Porsche. Received wisdom says no one buys saloons anymore and the only game is SUVs. Porsche launches an EV saloon at eye watering prices and it outsells the I Pace and others straight out of the box.

Incredible.

 

xxxx 19 March 2021
scrap wrote:

Read it and weep, everyone else.

Astonishing performance from Porsche. Received wisdom says no one buys saloons anymore and the only game is SUVs. Porsche launches an EV saloon at eye watering prices and it outsells the I Pace and others straight out of the box.

Incredible.

Like the way you get a dig at i pace in there. Firstly porsche do tend to out sell jlr in most markets, second how many i paces have been sold in the last year compared to the 20k taycans. Or are you just guessing.

scrap 19 March 2021

Don't be so precious.

And I understand Jaguar sells less than 20k I Paces a year, otherwise I wouldn't have said it. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

 

xxxx 19 March 2021
scrap wrote:

Don't be so precious.

And I understand Jaguar sells less than 20k I Paces a year, otherwise I wouldn't have said it. Do correct me if I'm wrong.

Precious, how does that come into it.  Understanding and knowing are to different things. You understand that less than 20k i paces were sold in the last calendar year, but, you dont know how many, emmmm.