Name: How Porsche Went From Selling Sports Cars To SUVs
Uploaded: 2021-06-28T01:26:10.000Z
Duration: 16 min 54 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Porsche is one of the most revered names in cars. Asking

car enthusiasts to name the brands that best exemplify

excellence in engineering, racing and design. And Porsche

will be one of the names that comes up. It has a racing

heritage that can't be argued with. It has made at least one

of the most iconic sports cars of all time, the 911 and it has

a large following of deeply devoted fans born like many

German automakers, out of a deeply dark history, Porsche has

Porsche vehicles are one of those examples where the

precision, the craftsmanship that goes into these vehicles,

and then how it's reflected in their performance, and what

they're capable of doing both at at race levels, as well as on

the street perfectly embodies that kind of stereotypical

but it is also a changing company. The once independent

firm devoted entirely to sports cars has become a brand within

the massive Volkswagen Group, a company with which Porsche has a

long history, and it is viewed as a kind of jewel in that

portfolio. Volkswagen has other luxury brands that range from

the high end to the exotic, but Porsche is responsible for about

25% of VW passenger car profits. And while its fans may 1 think

of sports cars what really sell today are its sport utility

vehicles. This comes at Porsche is at another potentially

pivotal juncture, electric vehicles are coming and this

time they usually innovative and groundbreaking Porsche is

playing catch up. The automaker declined a request to be

interviewed for this story. Porsche has heritage loyalty and

a long track record of innovation competitive success

on its side, but it has built its heritage and its cars around

gasoline burning engines, how can it continue to succeed and

set sportscar standards in the electric age? The story of

Porsche begins with Ferdinand Porsche. He was an engineer Born

in 1875. in Bohemia, a region of what was then Austria Hungary,

and today is part of the Czech Republic, Ferdinand Porsche

secured his place in history when he became the designer of a

people's car or Volkswagen for Adolf Hitler. The car he

designed was called the type one but as widely known as the

beetle. The actual Porsche brand didn't form until 1948,

Ferdinand Porsche founded the company with his son also named

Ferdinand but nicknamed fairy, the first production car they

designed was called the 356. It had an engine borrowed from a

beetle and tuned for better performance, the vehicle had one

of the features that Porsche became famous for an engine

placed in the rear of the car. In the 1950s, Porsche began

making its own engines and improved the 356. It also made

the 550 Spyder a road racing car nicknamed the giant killer for

outperforming larger rivals, and the speedster, a stripped down

version of the 356. In 1958, the company built its 10,000 356

then, in 1964, the 911 the impression the 911, made on the

automotive world is tough to overstate. It is one of the most

iconic sports cars of all time. In keeping with Porsches

tradition, the 911 had an air cooled rear engine design, it

didn't have the biggest engine but was small, light and nimble.

Its starting price was $5,500. Today, a mere $46,363 a fraction

of the roughly $100,000 starting price of today's nine elevens.

Though Porsches were long known for their rear engine cars, the

company made front engine vehicles starting in the 1970s.

Porsche continued to make front engine cars until the 1990s when

it finally stopped producing them in order to focus on the

911 and the Boxster. In 1986 Porsches global sales topped out

at about 50,000 units, sales in the US and Canada, which

together were then Porsches largest market had reached

30,471, but they drastically fell to about 14,000 globally in

1993, and just 3713 in the US and Canada. By the early 1990s.

Porsche was in trouble. The company turns to a group of ex

Toyota workers who had formed a consultancy to carry Toyota's

legendary manufacturing principles and techniques to

other companies. Toyota's production system famously

relies on reducing waste. needed parts are kept near workers and

things are only sourced or made as they are needed. The Toyota

engineers helped the German company slimmed down its factory

operations. The result was a car that was all Porsche but

significantly more affordable because of a factory capable of

higher volume production. And sales at Porsche began to climb

again US and Canadian combined sales were 5820 in 1994 6078 and

1995 and 7524 in 1996. By 2000, Porsche was selling 22,412 cars

in the US alone, and a couple of years later, Porsche would

reveal a vehicle that would rock the automotive world. The

Porsche Cayenne. The Porsche Cayenne was a sport utility

vehicle and Porsche was a sports car company. Brand had only made

small roadgoing racecars As might be expected, purists

baulked, the common arguments were that Porsche was diluting

its identity and perhaps even selling out in the American auto

market. SUVs had gone from being purpose built vehicles for off

roading and the great outdoors to book your successors of the

Initially, the move to two SUVs was was hotly debated. You know,

Porsche has a legacy of motor sports. It's very much in its

heritage. And certainly in the early 2000s when you think SUV

don't necessarily think Motorsports and the fear was

that, you know, since they share a lot of components with VW and

Audi, specifically, that a Porsche SUV would just be an

Audi with a Porsche logo on it. But that's not what happened.

Porsche very smartly decided to build SUVs that were more

Porsche and less, perhaps outtie. Over time, the

skepticism waned, though the Cayenne was an SUV, it was a

I think it took the traditional Porsche enthusiast by shock.

What are you saying now we're going to build a four door SUV,

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How Porsche Went From Selling Sports Cars To SUVs

incredible

massive

strategy

iconic