German sports car maker Porsche AG is doubling down on building its India presence, finding investor partners and becoming a relevant brand for the “young country”, as a new crop of Indians look for supercar brands with a sustainable story, according to Detlev von Platen, a member of the company’s executive board.
“India has a chance (to grow the luxury car market) when you look at its willingness to invest in sustainable technology and infrastructure. We’d like to learn more about it. At Porsche we have a clear commitment to be net-carbon neutral by 2030, which means our entire supply chain and even the usage of our products must be net carbon-neutral. India can be a country where the transition to EVs can happen quickly. We don’t see India as an emerging market anymore,” Platen said.
“There’s a very strong momentum in India as it welcomes investments, in infrastructure, sustainability and in R&D. Education levels here have changed in the last ten years. We see a lot of opportunities here, but we will not do an assembly operation here. We are focused solely on value-oriented growth, sustainable growth and building our brand in the country,” Platen said.
The board member is in India with Matthias Becker, vice president of Porsche’s overseas markets.
The German high-performance carmaker will have 10 dealer-investors in India by the end of the year, which will give it a footprint in all of the major tier-1 markets, the company said.
“We are one of the fastest growing luxury car brands in India. As part of the luxury car market here, we will continue to be small in terms of volume. But I don’t see India anymore as an emerging market where everything has to be established. India is a leading country in terms of software technologies, in terms of IT developments,” Platen said.
“We are heavily focused on developing our presence in India. We just doubled the number of partners we have in India. We aren’t expanding in a classic dealership way. It’s more important for us to establish a strong credibility for us a brand, as a unique luxury brand. We don’t want to compete in the premium market. We want to establish strong relationships with our customers—we have 4,000-5,000 active customers in India who have expectations in terms of quality and after-sales services. And for that I think it’s more important to grow qualitatively,” Platen said.
Europe is Porsche’s largest market, followed by the US and China which are almost equal in volume for the brand.
Germany is the third-largest single market for the brand and its largest market in Europe. South-east Asia is one of the fastest growing regions for Porsche.
The Porsche Taycan, its first battery electric vehicle, accounted for 10% of its sales in India last year. The Stuttgart-based carmaker sold nearly 800 cars in India in 2022. The company is now gearing up to launch its second battery electric vehicle, the Macan EV, next year.
“We have to now prepare our dealerships before we look at volume targets because we can’t sell any EVs till our dealers are BEV-ready. This means the infrastructure, our service technicians, high-voltage technicians all have to be ready for even a single (untoward) case happens. We have good acceptance in the market for the Taycan, now our network has to be prepared for our BEV roadmap”, Manolito Vujicic, brand director, Porsche India said.
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Updated: 22 Aug 2023, 11:55 PM IST