- This article is about the auto company. For its design consultancy subsidiary, see Porsche Design Group
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, often shortened to Porsche AG, or just Porsche, is a German manufacturer of automobiles. It was founded in 1931 by
Ferdinand Porsche, the Austrian engineer who also
created the first Volkswagen. The company is located in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. They currently produce sports cars and
sport utility vehicles.
Reputation
1953 Porsche 356 Roadster
1970 Porsche 917 Race Car
1976 Porsche 911 Turbo Type 930
In a May 2006 survey, Porsche was awarded first place as the most prestigious automobile
brand by Luxury Institute, New York; it questioned more than 500 households with a gross annual income of at least US $200,000
and a net worth of at least US $720,000. [1] The current
Porsche lineup includes sports cars from the Boxster roadster to their most famous product, the 911. The Cayman is a hard top car similar to the Boxster in a slightly higher price range. The Cayenne is Porsche's mid-size luxury SUV. The Carrera GT
supercar was phased out in May 2006. Future plans include a high performance luxury
saloon/sedan, the Panamera.
Porsche was awarded the 2006 J.D. Power and Associates award for highest
Nameplate Initial Quality Study (IQS) of automobile brands. [2]
As a company, Porsche is known for weathering changing market conditions with great financial stability, while retaining most
production in Germany during an age when most other German car manufacturers have moved at least partly to Eastern Europe or
overseas. [citation needed] The headquarters and main factory are still in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, but
the Cayenne (and formerly the Carrera GT) is manufactured in Leipzig, Germany, the SUV also in
Bratislava, Slovakia. Most Boxster and Cayman production is
outsourced to Valmet Automotive in Finland. The company has been
highly successful in recent times, and indeed claims to have the highest profit per unit sold of any car company in the world,
although its total profits are significantly lower than Toyota's.[3]
Porsche has for many years offered consultancy services to various other car manufacturers. Studebaker, SEAT, Daewoo, Subaru and Yugo have consulted Porsche on engineering for their cars or
engines. The Lada Samara [4]was partly developed by Porsche in 1984. Porsche also helped Harley-Davidson design their new engine in their newer V-Rod motorcycle.
Competitors
- See also Auto racing, further down in this article.
In racing, Porsche's main rival has traditionally been Ferrari, though their
production vehicles appeal to quite different personalities, if similar demographics. The rivalry is therefore primarily because
of both companies' storied racing heritage and the fact that some of their vehicles are of comparable performance. Porsche has a
reputation for offering equal or higher performing cars than the more expensive Ferrari models, while overall Ferrari sells far
fewer cars at much higher prices (for example, there are no Ferraris under US $100,000, while several Porsches are priced below
that figure).
In the daily-driver marketplace, Porsche's traditional rivals are its fellow German automakers Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and BMW (the Boxster
competes directly with the BMW Z4 and the Mercedes-Benz
SLK, for instance), as well as Lotus, Jaguar, and
Maserati. Ferrari, on the other hand, competes more directly with firms such as
Lamborghini, Bugatti and Aston Martin.
History
Professor Ferdinand Porsche initially started the company called "Dr. ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH" in 1931, with main offices
in Königstrasse in the middle of Stuttgart. The company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting, and did not
initially build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government
to design a car for the people, a "Volkswagen" in German.
The first Porsche, the Porsche 64, was developed in 1939 using many components from the
Volkswagen Beetle.
Ferdinand Porsche's son, Ferry Porsche, decided to build his own car
because he could not find an existing one that he would buy. The first models of what was to become the 356 were built in a small workshop in Gmünd, Austria and had aluminum bodywork. The prototype car was shown to German auto dealers, and when pre-orders
reached a set threshold, production was begun. Many regard the 356 as the first Porsche simply because it was the first model
sold by the fledgling company. Porsche commissioned Zuffenhausen-based company Reutter Carosseri, which had previously
collaborated with Porsche on Volkswagen Beetle prototypes, to produce the 356's steel body. Porsche constructed an assembly plant
across the street from Reutter Carosseri; that assembly plant is now known as Porschestrasse. The 356 was road certified in
1948.
Not long afterwards, on January 30, 1951, Ferdinand Porsche died from complications following a stroke.
In post-war Germany parts were generally in short supply, so the 356 automobile used components from the Volkswagen Beetle
including its engine, gearbox, and suspension. The 356, however, had
several evolutionary stages, A, B, and C, while in production and many VW parts were replaced by Porsche-made parts. The last
356s were powered by entirely Porsche-designed engines. The sleek bodywork was designed by
Erwin Komenda who also had designed the body of the Beetle. Porsche's signature designs
have, from the beginning, featured air-cooled rear-engine configurations (like the Beetle), rare for other car manufacturers, but
producing automobiles that are very well balanced.
Zuffenhausen Headquarters - left: Porsche Center; rear left: body shell assembly; right: vehicle assembly
In 1963, after some success in motor-racing, namely with the Porsche 550 Spyder, the company launched the Porsche 911 another
air-cooled, rear-engined sports car, this time with a 6-cylinder "boxer" engine. The team to
lay out the body shell design was led by Ferry Porsche's eldest son, Ferdinand
Alexander Porsche (F. A.). The design phase for the 911 caused internal problems with Erwin Komenda who led the body
design department until then. F. A. Porsche complained Komenda made changes to the design not being approved by him. Company
leader Ferry Porsche took his son's drawings to neighbouring body shell manufacturer Reuter bringing the design to the 1963
state. Reuter's workshop was later acquired by Porsche (so-called Werk II). Afterward Reuter became a seat manufacturer, today
known as Keiper-Recaro.
The design group gave sequential numbers to every project (356, 550, etc) but the designated 901 nomenclature contravened
Peugeot's copyrights on all 'x0x' names, so it was adjusted to 911. Racing models adhered to the
"correct" numbering sequence: 904, 906, 908. The 911 has become Porsche's most well-known model, successful on the race-track, in
rallies, and in terms of sales. Far more than any other model, the Porsche brand is defined by
the 911. It remains in production; however, after several generations of revision, current-model 911s share only the basic
mechanical concept of a rear-engined, six-cylinder coupe, and basic styling cues with the original car. A cost-reduced model with
the same body, but 356-derived running gear (including its four-cylinder engine), was sold as the 912.
The Porsche 912, a Porsche of the 1960s
In 1972 the company's legal form was changed from limited partnership to public limited company (AG in German), because Ferry
Porsche and his sister, Louise Piëch, felt their generation members did not team up well.
This led to the foundation of an executive board whose members came from outside the Porsche family, and a supervisory board
consisting mostly of family members. With this change, no family members were in operational charge of the company. F. A. Porsche
founded his own design company, Porsche Design, which is renowned for exclusive
sunglasses, watches, furniture, and many other luxury articles. Ferdinand Piëch, who was
responsible for mechanical development of Porsche's serial and racing cars, formed his own engineering bureau and developed a
5-cylinder-inline diesel engine for Mercedes-Benz.
A short time later he moved to Audi and pursued his career through the entire company, up to and including, the Volkswagen Group boards.
The first CEO of Porsche AG was Dr. Ernst Fuhrmann who had been working in Porsche's engine development. Fuhrmann was
responsible for the so-called Fuhrmann-engine used in the 356 Carrera models, as well as the 550 Spyder, having four over-head
camshafts instead of a central camshaft as in the Volkswagen-derived serial engines. He planned to cease the 911 during the 70s
and replace it with the V8-front engined grand sportswagon 928. As we know today the 911
outlived the 928 by far. Fuhrmann was replaced in the early 80s by Peter W. Schutz, an American
manager and self-proclaimed 911 aficionado. He was replaced in 1988 by the former manager of German computer company Nixdorf
Computer AG, Arno Bohn, who made some costly miscalculations that led to his dismissal soon after, along with that of the
development director, Dr. Ulrich Bez, who was formerly responsible for BMW's Z1 model and today is CEO of Aston Martin.
In 1990, Porsche drew up a memorandum of understanding with Toyota to learn and benefit
from Japanese production methods. Currently Toyota is assisting Porsche with hybrid
technology, rumored to be making its way into a Hybrid Cayenne SUV, as well as the upcoming four-door coupe, the
Panamera.
Following the dismissal of Bohn, an interim CEO was appointed, longtime Porsche employee, Heinz Branitzki, who served in that
position until Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking became CEO in 1993. Wiedeking took over the
chairmanship of the board at a time when Porsche appeared vulnerable to a takeover by a larger company. During his long tenure,
Wiedeking has transformed Porsche into a very efficient and profitable company.
Ferdinand Porsche's grandson, Ferdinand Piëch, was chairman and CEO of the Volkswagen
Group from 1993 to 2002. Today he is chairman of the supervisory board. With 12.8 per cent of the Porsche voting shares, he also
remains the second largest individual shareholder of Porsche AG after his cousin, F. A. Porsche, (13.6 per cent).
Porsche's 2002 introduction of the Cayenne also marked the unveiling of a new production facility in Leipzig, Saxony, which once accounted for nearly half of Porsche's annual
output. The Cayenne Turbo S has the second most powerful production engine in Porsche's history, with the most powerful belonging
to the Carrera GT.
In 2004, production of the 605 horsepower Carrera GT commenced in Leipzig, and at EUR 450,000 ($440,000 in the United States)
it was the most expensive production model Porsche ever built.
As of 2005, the extended Porsche and Piech families controlled all of Porsche AG's voting shares. In early October 2005 the
company announced acquisition of an 18.53% stake in Volkswagen AG and disclosed
intentions to acquire additional VW shares in the future. As of June 2006, the Porsche AG stake in Volkswagen had risen to 25.1%,
giving Porsche a blocking minority, whereby Porsche can veto large corporate decisions undertaken by VW.
In mid-2006, after years of the Boxster (and later the Cayenne) as the dominant Porsche in North America, the 911 regained its
position as Porsche's backbone in the region. The Cayenne and 911 have cycled as the top-selling model since. In Germany the 911
clearly outsells the Boxster/Cayman and Cayenne. [5]
Relationship with Volkswagen
Schematic of Porsche's extended financial relationships.
The company has always had a close relationship with Volkswagen, and as noted above, the first Porsche cars used many
Volkswagen components. The two companies collaborated in 1969 to make the VW-Porsche 914 and
914-6 whereby the 914-6 had a Porsche engine and the 914 had a Volkswagen engine, in 1976 with the Porsche 912E (USA only) and the Porsche 924, which used many Audi
components and was built at an Audi Neckarsulm factory. Most 944s also were built there
although they used far fewer VW components. The Cayenne, introduced in 2002, shares its entire chassis with VW Touareg, which is built at the factory in Bratislava. Both
Audi and Škoda are wholly owned subsidiaries of Volkswagen. In late 2005, Porsche took an
18.65% stake in VW, further cementing their relationship and preventing a takeover of Volkswagen, which was rumored at the time.
Speculated suitors included DaimlerChrysler, BMW, and
Renault.
On 26 March, 2007 Porsche took its holding of Volkswagen shares to 30.9%, triggering a takeover bid under German law. Porsche
formally announced in a press statement that it did not intend to take over Volkswagen (it would set its offer price at the
lowest possible legal value), but intended the move to avoid a competitor taking a large stake or to stop hedge funds dismantling
VW, which is Porsche's most important partner[6]. Porsche's
move comes after the European Union moved against a German law that protected VW from
takeovers. Under the so-called "Volkswagen Law", any shareholder in VW cannot exercise more than 20% of the firm's voting rights,
regardless of their level of stock holding. The European Court of Justice has already indicated that the law probably breaks EU
rules, and a full judgment to that effect is expected later in 2007[7].
Corporate Restructure
With the VW stake acquisition, Porsche intends on reforming the company's format, with Dr Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG becoming a
subsidiary of a newly formed holding company called Porsche Automobil Holding SE, so as to separate the operating activities from
holding activities of the company. There was an Extraordinary General Meeting for Porsche AG shareholders which took place on
June 26, 2007 at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, Germany to discuss the change to the company structure. [8]
Auto racing
-
Porsche has been successful in many branches of auto racing, scoring a total of more than
28,000 victories. Porsche is currently the world's largest race car manufacturer. In 2006, Porsche built 195 race cars for
various international motor sports events. In 2007, Porsche is expected to construct no fewer than 275 dedicated race cars (7 RS
Spyder LMP2 prototypes, 37 GT2 spec 911 GT3-RSRs, and 231 911 GT3 Cup vehicles).[9]
Pronunciation of "Porsche"
"Porsche", a German proper name, is pronounced correctly as, PORSH-uh (IPA /ˈpɔʁʃə/) (
correct
pronunciation?).
Some tend to over-vocalize the e, which results in Por-SCHA (/pɔɹˈʃʌ/). Others mistakenly treat the e as silent, a pronunciation rule that applies to some words in
English and French, but not in German, producing the monosyllabic, porsh (/pɔɹʃ/).
Models
See: Category:Porsche vehicles
Tractors
- Porsche Type 110
- Porsche AP Series
- Porsche Junior (14 hp)
- Porsche Standard (25 hp)
- Porsche Super (38 hp)
- Porsche Master (50 hp)
- Porsche 312
- Porsche 108F
- Porsche R22
- Porsche AP16
Consumer models
The 911; the top selling model as of June, 2006
The 987, the 2006 Boxster model
NOTE: models in bold are current models
North American Sales Charts
Monthly (August 2007)
Note: this information is from an official Porsche document and is a record of Porsches sold in the United
States and Canada during August 2007.
Annual (2006)
Note: this information is from an official Porsche document and is a record of Porsches sold in the United
States and Canada during 2006.
Racing models
Note: models in bold are current models
Prototypes and concept cars
Also see
References
- ^ Porsche press release 5 May 2005
- ^ J.D. Power News Release
- ^ Forbes Autos review
of Cayman S
- ^ Porsche
Engineering info
- ^ Porsche USA press release 11 September 2006
- ^ Porsche triggers VW takeover bid
- ^ Top EU court finds against VW law
- ^ Porsche getting
new name
- ^ AutoWeek
Porsche Story, Warehouse Shopping, March 7, 2007
External links
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Coordinates:
48°50′08″N, 9°09′07″E
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