FOR THE first time, Porsche will produce one of its vehicles completely outside Germany, the Financial Times daily informed on March 18.
The entire production of the next generation of the Cayenne SUV, a vehicle that currently accounts for about half of the company’s sales, will move to Bratislava after 2016, Porsche’s chief executive Matthias Müller said, as quoted by the Financial Times, adding that the decision was made as part of the reorganisation of production in Porsche and the wider Volkswagen Group.
Currently, the vast majority of the Cayenne’s parts are made in Bratislava, but the final assembly is done at the company’s workshop in Leipzig.
“Porsche – maker of the 911 sports car and Panamera saloon – had partly resisted that trend [of moving production outside the country] because the ‘Made in Germany’ label was considered a core part of its corporate identity and marketing,” the Financial Times wrote.
Porsche’s management maintains that for customers, the decisive factor is that all Porsche vehicles will continue to be designed and engineered in Germany, Müller said, as reported by the Financial Times.
