AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/24 Report--

In recent years, the position of the Chinese market has been strengthened day by day, and more and more brands are considering to put into production in China and realize localization. Lincoln, for example, announced last year that it was officially home-made in China, launching two models, the adventurer and the pilot, and achieving rapid sales growth.

However, even with a surge in consumer demand in China, Porsche, a luxury brand owned by Volkswagen, insists it will not produce cars in the Chinese market. Oliver Blume, Porsche chief executive, said he would consider building a factory in China to produce cars on the grounds that German manufacturing could maintain the premium power of the Porsche brand, according to the Financial Times. It also said it would not hesitate to pay higher labour costs for the prestige of German manufacturing.

Under the influence of the global epidemic in 2020, Porsche's cumulative global sales fell by 3% to 272200 vehicles, including the European market, the German market and the American market, while the Chinese market became the only growing market. Porsche's sales in China rose 2.9% to 89000 vehicles in 2020 compared with the same period last year, making it the largest single market for the brand in the world for six consecutive years. It is not difficult to see that the Chinese market has made a great contribution to Porsche's sales performance, but even so, Porsche does not seem to be active in its localization.

Porsche's insistence on "made in Germany" stands in sharp contrast to other German luxury brands. Germany's three luxury brands Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have built factories to produce cars in China as early as 20 years ago, and have made great progress. All BBA brands sold more than 700000 vehicles in China in 2020, including BMW Group sales up 7.4 per cent to 777379 vehicles, Mercedes-Benz up 11.7 per cent to 774382 vehicles and Audi 5.4 per cent year-on-year to 726288 vehicles.

Oliver Blume, CEO of Porsche, admitted that China's high-end car market had grown faster than he expected, but said, "although Porsche has not kept up with the development trend of manufacturing in China, European-made Porsche is still a guarantee of quality and value for the Chinese market, so there is no point in moving Porsche production to other countries."

It is worth mentioning that just earlier this month, foreign media reported that Porsche planned to set up a joint venture with Inokom Corp, a subsidiary of Malaysia's Sime Darby Group, to build the assembly plant in the northern Malaysian state of Keddah, which would serve as Porsche's Southeast Asian center in the future.

This seems to run counter to Oliver Blume's claim. However, it is still impossible to confirm the authenticity of the report that Porsche will build an assembly plant in Malaysia. If the report is true, Malaysia will become an overseas market for Porsche to build factories outside Germany, and the focus of development will shift. However, as the world's largest car market and new energy vehicle market, it is a bit puzzling for Porsche to start production in Malaysia instead of domestic production.

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