Thaindian News

Chennai, March 3 (IANS) German ultra luxury car maker Porsche is hoping to increase its sales nearly five times this year, expand distribution and reduce the lead time for its models, said a senior official.

“We hope to sell around 500 units this calendar year, up from 131 units sold last year. The order book position till mid February is 217 units,” Ashish Chordia, CEO of Precision Cars India Pvt Ltd, said Thursday after opening a new showroom here.

The New Delhi-based company is the sole authorised importer and distributor of Porsche cars in India.

He said the German company was working out plans to reduce the waiting time for its models.

“The waiting period for the sports utility vehicle (SUV) Cayenne is around 500 days and for other sports car models it is 100 days,” Chordia remarked.

A small volume premium car maker, Porsche - production capacity around 100,000 units per year - caters to the global market, shipping out cars from its plant in Germany.

“The global order book position for Cayenne is 74,000 units whereas the production is around 44,000 units,” Chordia said.

Porsche will also expand its distribution network this year, opening new showrooms in Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Bangalore and Kochi.

Speaking to IANS on the margins of the event, he said a dealer was expected to break even in three years.

According to him, the age profile of Porsche car buyers in India was between 35 and 45.

“What is interesting is that children play a good role in choosing the colour, fitments,” Chordia said.

Queried how the German company was looking at the Indian market, Mohamed Rahman of Porsche told IANS: “In the long term, India is an important market for us. Currently China accounts for a major share of our Asian sales with 20,000 units per annum. Other parts of Asia account for 4,000 units and the African (countries) account for 7,000 units.”