 Porsche - End 2022
If you're going to write about Porsche's future, you'd be well advised to find another topic. At first glance, it seems clear that the company will face tougher times ahead, doesn't it? At the
moment, it is probably one of the highest-earning company, well-liked everywhere, and looking back on a brilliant past, though not without a few minor blemishes.
When looking for the core elements of this brand, motorsports always come to mind. Porsche has already racked up tens of thousands of race victories, and that likely doesn't even include the successes achieved by
privately owned vehicles. There's no question that the car was already a huge success before the 917 was introduced, but after that, its popularity skyrocketed.s
Before Toyota became the sole remaining repeat winner at Le Mans, one had won there in 2015, 2016, and 2017. It’s worth noting that this time it was a hybrid that ended up beating the company just mentioned,
which was actually considered the pioneer of hybrid technology worldwide. Always viewing itself as having evolved from motorsport, the best prerequisite for the future.
Is that enough, and will there even be racing in the future? Wouldn't it actually be nice not to have to keep trying to squeeze more power out of an internal combustion engine? No, on the contrary, one
even tries by every means possible to preserve at least their technology for the future. But that probably won't sell any cars in the long run.
So let’s set aside the enormous number of classic cars for a moment and try to look at them from the perspective of Porsche’s mamagers. The self-praise for the 800V charging technology seems a bit over the top,
especially since it is now widely used in much more affordable vehicles.
But there's a whole vision behind it: to be able to be fast overall. Even though a Tesla can currently reach a speed of 120 km/h on long-distance drives, a Porsche, with a top speed of up to 250
km/h and 300 kW of charging power at special terminals, is expected to achieve significantly more. Let's see what the average speeds turn out to be.
However, even at this point, an aspect that may be even more important than the company’s frequently highlighted proximity to motorsports comes to the foreground: namely, potential partnerships. This is the first time we
see a difference between VW's new CEO and the previous one. Oliver Blume is clearly from the smaller company, and they have no intention of doing everything on their own.
Perhaps one reason he became VW’s CEO is that his predecessor, Diess, is blamed for too many of VW’s unilateral moves, which were obviously not handled well. At Porsche, they talk to everyone,
for example, with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, who recently sealed a partnership with Springer-Verlag, a company that is moving toward digitalization at an incredible pace.
They even invite startups to come and present themselves to Porsche, so to speak. Even in interviews with Oliver Blume, far fewer concrete details emerge than in those with Herbert Diess earlier.
Time and again, the emphasis is on heritage and roots in motorsports. His head of digital is actually more helpful.
The typical Porsche driver obviously wants a car that can drive itself but also, and just as importantly, can be driven by him or her. Blume then adds the search for a parking spot to the first part, in addition to the traffic jam.
Then, he combines this with racing by setting a certain route driven in a professional manner, which one then tries to copy.
One can already guess how few Americans will be willing to try something like that. But, as I said, these smaller ideas leave room for something bigger to come from outside. However, Porsche's initial public offering was
a success; the change in leadership at Volkswagen will have to wait until its shares follow the same path.
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