Porsche hopeful to replicate its success in 2021 again despite chip shortage

Luxury car brand Porsche AG is hopeful about replicating its sales success in 2021 again this year, despite the global semiconductor crisis that is impacting the auto industry around the world. Porsche sales chief Detlev von Platen said in an interview with Automobilwoche that the auto company's sales could reach a similarly high level this year as in 2021.

The luxury carmaker owned by Volkswagen registered an 11 per cent year-on-year sales growth to 301,915 units in 2021. The automaker hopes to sell around 335,000 cars this year maintaining the same pace.

"When I look at the current orders, I'm confident for 2022. Growth in sales could reach a similarly high level this year as in 2021," said Detlev von Platen.

He also said that in order to ramp up its production focusing on growth projection, Porsche plans to hire 400 more workers. Currently, the car brand has a workforce of nearly 40,000. Porsche sales chief also said that high demand for the company's cars was resulting in longer delivery times.

This is why the automaker plans to ramp up production by hiring new employees. Platen said that the current waiting period for Porsche cars can last several months, in some cases even up to a year.

The chip crisis that emerged due to the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the entire auto industry around the world. Shortage of semiconductors has resulted in several automakers such as Ford, Toyota, Nissan, General Motors halting their productions momentarily or realigning manufacturing.

The bottleneck in production resulted in a massive loss for the auto industry. The global auto industry is estimated to have lost more than a million units of production. The crisis has resulted in rising prices of cars and an elongated waiting period.