Porsche sold 8,482 units of its iconic 911 sports car in the first three months of the year, a 16 percent increase from the same period in 2019, even as the brand’s total deliveries dipped due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Counting in the 911’s tally, Porsche in the first quarter of the year sold 53,125 cars worldwide, representing a 5 percent decline from the company’s 55,700-unit result during the comparable three-month stretch in 2019. Porsche’s performance in Europe registered a solid 20 percent spike—from 14,004 cars in 2019 to 16,787 this year—cushioning the decrease in most markets.
“We are not alone in clearly feeling the effects of the coronavirus crisis on our deliveries. But our focus now is on standing together with our business partners worldwide. Working together, we are in a position to react quickly and appropriately to further developments,” said Detlev von Platen, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing at Porsche AG.
China emerged as Porsche’s biggest consumer as the brand sold 14,098 cars in the country during the first quarter of the year. But the result is 17 percent less than the 16,890 cars customers there bought during the comparable period last year.
Porsche deliveries in the US, which stood at 11,994 units in the first quarter, were 20 percent lower than the 15,024-vehicle result in 2019’s first quarter. The brand’s collective performance in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East also contracted 8 percent, or from 23,989 cars in the first three months of 2019 to 22,031 cars during the same period this year.
Despite the downturn, Porsche expressed optimism over its prospects in the coming months.
“After this challenging first quarter, we are now actively preparing to restart production. Our top priority will always be the health of our employees, the employees of our retail partners and, of course, the health of our customers. We are confident that the outlook is positive, not least because we see a clear recovery in the Chinese market—almost all of our Porsche Centers there have already reopened,” von Platen noted.
Porsche SUVs remained the company’s bestsellers in the first quarter of 2020, with the Cayenne recording deliveries of 18,417 units and the Macan emerging with a 15,547-unit tally. The Taycan, Porsche’s first fully electric four-door sports car that started reaching showrooms only at the end of 2019, already saw 1,391 units sold.
