Company spokesman Michael Baumann says the company will cease production at its Stuttgart plant for eight days between now and January next year, to ensure stocks are trimmed back to acceptable levels. The move amounts to a cut in production of 1280 cars.
“We are not in the business of building cars that won’t sell. Our approach has always been to have one car less than people want to buy and we will stick with that policy,” he says.
Porsche and other luxury car makers have been hit hard by the downturn. The German sports car maker has seen sales dip by 18 per cent since the beginning of August.
“People are more reluctant in general to buy a luxury car at the moment. It’s not a good time to be seen buying a new Porsche,” he says.
“We are of course very concerned about the economic situation and it is very difficult to give any specific sales forecast for the future,” he says.
Porsche’s product manager for the Cayman, Hans-Jurgen Wohler, says delaying the launch of the new cars is not an option, despite the unfortunate timing.
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