Panamera: The new luxury sedan from Porsche is coming to India
German sports car manufacturer, Porsche, is planning to launch a brand new luxury sedan named Panamera in India this year. As sales is declining in America and Europe, the car maker is looking for new markets in Asia. The car is sold under the name Gran Turismo in China. Porsche is planning to sell at least fifty units of Panamera in India in 2009.
Panamera will be launched in India on October 3, 2009. Rod Wallace, Managing Director of the company, said that they had already finished bookings of 13 Panamera sedans in the country. The car will be imported as a CBU from the company’s manufacturing plant in Germany.
The Porsche Panamera is a four-door, four-seat luxury sedan launched in 2009. It is a front-engine car with rear wheel drive but a four-wheel drive option is also available. The production model of the car was first unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show 2009. The Panamera is 195.7 inch long. It comes with a V8 engines and other luxurious features. There are three versions of the car- the S, the 4S and turbo version. The base version, an aspirate 4.8-liter model and rear-drive, weighs 3,903 pounds. The turbo version is the heaviest of all; 4,344 pounds. Engineers of the car tried keep the weight of the car within a reasonable limit. So, they used a mixture of aluminum, magnesium, plastic and several grades of steel to build the body.
Currently, Porsche has a small share in the Indian market but there is hope as the demand of cars especially luxury cars, is growing day by day in India. Porsche is planning to sell another 225 units in the next twelve months including the Panamera.
Precision Cars India is the official importer of Porsche cars in India. Currently, the company sells 911, Boxter, Cayman and Cayenne SUV models in India. So far, the popular SUV Cayenne makes up 65% of Precision Cars’ sales in India. The company entered into business three years ago and sold 650 units since then. In 2007, it sold 168 units followed by 150 in 2008.
Currently Porsche has two offices in India in Delhi and Mumbai. Mumbai is the biggest market for the company generating 60% of its sales followed by 30% in Delhi and the remaining 10% from the rest of the country. It has further plans to increase to eleven offices in the next 2-3 years including one in Chennai (11,000 sq ft), Hyderabad (14,000 sq feet) and Cochin (14,000 sq feet). The company has no future to start any assembling plants in India.
Price:
Panamera will cost between Rs 140 million to Rs 200 million.
