German luxury sports car maker Porsche AG is doubling down on building its India presence, finding investor partners and becoming a relevant brand for the 'young country', as a new crop of Indians look for supercar brands with a sustainable story, according to Detlev von Platen, a member of the company’s executive board.

“India has a chance (to grow the luxury car market) when you look at its willingness to invest in sustainable technology and infrastructure. We’d like to learn more about it. At Porsche, we have a clear commitment to be net carbon neutral by 2030, which means our entire supply chain and even the usage of our products must be net carbon neutral. India can be a country where the transition to EVs can happen quickly. We don’t see India as an emerging market anymore,” Detlev von Platen said.

According to a report Platen noted that India has strong momentum as it embraces investment in research and development( R&D), sustainability and infrastructure. Although many opportunities have opened up with increasing educational levels in the country over the past ten years, the company will not set up assembly units here. Presently, the vehicle manufacturer’s priorities are valued-oriented growth, sustainable growth, and national brand building.

Porsche will have 10 dealer-investors in India by the end of the year

The company said that the German high-performance car maker will have 10 dealer- investors in India by the end of the year, which will give it a footprint in all of the major tier-1 markets.

Platen said “We are one of the fastest growing luxury car brands in India. As part of the luxury car market here, we will continue to be small in terms of volume. But I don’t see India anymore as an emerging market where everything has to be established. India is the leading country in terms of software technologies, in terms of IT developments.”

“We are heavily focused on developing our presence in India. We just doubled the number of partners we have in India. We aren’t expanding in a classic dealership way. It’s more important for us to establish a strong credibility for us a brand, as a unique luxury brand. We don’t want to compete in the premium market. We want to establish strong relationships with our customers, we have 4,000-5,000 active customers in India who have expectations in terms of quality and after-sales services. And for that I think it’s more important to grow qualitatively,” Platen added.

Porsche

Porsche's Taycan, its first battery-electric vehicle, accounted for 10% of its sales in India last year. Nearly 800 cars were sold by the Stuttgart-based carmaker in India in 2022. The company is now deciding to launch its second battery electric vehicle the Macan EV, next year.

According to a report, Manolito Vujicic, brand director, of Porsche India said, “We have to now prepare our dealership before are BEV-ready. This means the infrastructure, our service technicians, and high-voltage technicians all have to be ready for even a single (untoward) case to happen. We have good acceptance in the market for the Taycan, now our network has to be prepared for our BEV roadmap.”

Europe is Porsche’s largest market, followed by the US and China which are almost equal in volume for the brand. Germany is the third-largest single market for the brand and its largest market in Europe. Southeast Asia is one of the fastest-growing regions for Porsche.

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