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.
According to the prestigious annual J.D. Power & Associates Initial Quality Study 2009, the quality of the latest vehicles produced by Detroit automakers rose “by an average of 10%” and the difference of quality between imported vehicles and domestic production is the smallest ever. The survey was conducted over various auto brands from November to February. The survey results were released on June 22, 2009. Here are some of the important points of the survey:
In the first 90 days of ownership consumers brought less complains against cars produced by Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.
The Lexus brand of Toyota Motor Corp. took the top spot and BMW AG’s mini was the in the last spot.
During a speech at the Automotive Press Association in Detroit, David Sargent, Vice President, Automotive Research, J.D. Power Automotive Research, said that the quality gap between domestic and imported vehicle has been the smallest; only six points.
In case of cars both domestic and foreign car makers scored same while domestic truck segment had a slight advantage over foreign automakers. On the contrary, in the crossover vehicle segment, foreign automakers scored better than domestic producers.
Chrysler LLC was the champion among domestic automakers. The Jeep brand of the company which came in the last position in the 2008 survey rose four spots in the ranking. There were 137 problems per 100 vehicle produced by the company compared 166 problems per 100 vehicle in 2008.
Toyota’s Lexus had 84 problems against Porsche’s 90 problems. In the past two years, Porsche occupied the top spot.
The Cadillac brand of General Motors was ranked third with 91 problems.
Hyundai Motor ranked fourth with 95 problems.
Honda took over the fifth spot with 99 problems.
Ford’s Lincoln brand was ranked 27with 129 problems. The Lincoln brand came 15th last year.
Volvo was ranked 24th.
GM’s Chevrolet brand finished in ninth place with 103 defects per 100 vehicle. Its Buick and GMC brands were ranked 19th and 18th.
Saab scored the lowest with 138 problems. Saturn and Hummer were also among the lowest ranking vehicle brands.
P.S. If you want to know the results in detail visit the following webpage:
