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Porsche names new chief for North America

Porsche has named a new president and CEO for its North American division. The role will now fall to Klaus Zellmer, named by the executive board back in Stuttgart, and slated to take effect at the beginning of November. Zellmer's appointment is just the latest round in an ongoing game of musical chairs (or Reise nach Jerusalem as the Germans call it for some reason) underway in the Volkswagen Group at large and in the Porsche division specifically. In the wake of the diesel emissions scandal, Porsche CEO Matthias Muller was promoted to replace Martin Winterkorn as head of the entire group. Porsche's own production chief Oliver Blume was named as Muller's replacement. Sales and marketing chief Bernhard Maier moved to the Czech Republic to run Skoda, and Detlev von Platen – who served until now as the president and CEO of Porsche Cars North America – was recalled to Stuttgart to take Maier's place. Now Zellmer has been named as von Platen's successor in Atlanta. Schooled in Germany, the UK, and the US, Zellmer has until now been responsible for overseas and emerging markets for the company. In that capacity he's overseen regional operations in Asia-Pacific, South America, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as Australia, Japan, and Korea. He previously ran operations in Porsche's home market, where he nearly double the company's sales in less than five years. Of course his appointment means that Porsche will in turn need to name a new executive to oversee those oversees markets, but this is about as far as we'll be chasing the ripple effect. Related Video: Klaus Zellmer to lead Porsche Cars North America Detlev von Platen to join Porsche AG Executive Board as new member responsible for global Sales and Marketing ATLANTA, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Porsche AG's Executive Board appointed Klaus Zellmer as new President and Chief Executive Officer of Porsche Cars North America, Inc. (PCNA), effective November 1, 2015. PCNA's current President and Chief Executive Officer, Detlev von Platen, will relocate from Atlanta to Porsche headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany to assume his new role as Executive Board member responsible for global Sales and Marketing, also effective November 1, 2015. He succeeds Bernhard Maier, who was appointed Chairman of the Board of Management for SKODA in the Czech Republic. Mr. von Platen has led PCNA since 2008. Under his leadership North America remained the most important market for Porsche worldwide.

Porsche Macan sales may push brand past 200K unit goal early

In late 2010, Volkswagen announced that it would spend the equivalent of $71 billion through 2015 to beef up its product lineup, determined to overtake Toyota in overall sales and profitability by 2018. Each of VW's many brands, in turn, would play its part contributing to a goal of 10 million sales per year. VW-owned Porsche was expected to sell 200,000 vehicles per year by 2018, but with the imminent arrival of the Macan small sport utility vehicle in 2014, the automaker is poised to meet that goal years ahead of schedule, Automotive News reports.
Porsche sold 143,096 cars in 2012, and IHS Automotive predicts Porsche will sell 63,000 Macans in 2014, according to Automotive News, which would make it the brand's best-selling vehicle. Do the math and you can see how Porsche could easily beat original expectations ahead of schedule. But Porsche's sales and marketing boss Bernhard Maier says not so fast: "We will not offer [63,000 Macans] in 2014 as we will still be ramping up production and introducing models top down," he told Automotive News Europe. Whether Porsche surpasses the 200,000 mark early or not, he said, the company will not set a new sales target and will remain committed to its business model.
The Macan shares its architecture with the Audi Q5, but Porsche will be able to charge more for its SUV. Tim Urquhart, a senior analyst at IHS Autmotive, told Automotive News that Porsche can charge 10 to 20 percent more, for what is basically the same SUV, than other VW Group brands. How's that for brand value?

CEO says Volkswagen's buying spree is over

After adding Italian motorcycle icon Ducati to its stable and spending $5.6 billion on the rest of Porsche, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn says he's done shopping for a while.
"We have enough to do at the moment in taking our twelve brands to where we want to be," Winterkorn tells German newspaper Handelsblatt.