Porsche sees India as a potential market for all-new Panamera sedan

German luxury sports car maker Porsche believes that India is a potential market for its recently-introduced new-generation Panamera sedan. The company, which is a part of the German automobile giant Volkswagen group, rolled out the 2021 edition of the Panamera in early February. Available in four variants – Panamera, GTS, Turbo S, and Turbo S E-hybrid, the luxury sedan is priced between ₹1.45 crore and ₹2.43 crore (ex-showroom).

Monolito Vujicic, brand head at Porsche India, said that India can become a Panamera market in the future. “It is also one important segment which we want to develop in future," he added further. Vujicic claimed that the automaker delivered the first Panamera to a customer just after one week of the opening of the new outlet in Delhi in January 2021, which means there are customers here. He also said that the Panamera Exclusive, a limited edition of the luxury sedan, is also an option for the Indian market.

Presently, Porsche imports models like 718 and 911 sports cars, Panamera, Macan, Cayenne, and Cayenne Coupe SUV as completely built units (CBU) in India. As Vujicic said that the company will continue to focus on all models and not only on particular segments like cars or SUVs.

Vujicic said that Porsche India has started 2021 on a good note, when the premium car segment reported a 40% drop in sales in 2020, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and economic slowdown. "Our customers in India, like all other markets and India, possibly, have not really lost volume in the previous year compared to 2019 even when it had a three-month lockdown," he said. Vujicic also added that this means the Covid-19 and also the economic crisis hasn’t impacted the brand.

Meanwhile, the auto company has launched its new-format showroom Porsche Studio in Delhi and Mumbai in a span of three months. The company claims that the strategy to launch new-format showrooms is to make the existing customers happy. However, Porsche India has ruled out any new dealership in the immediate future. However, Vujicic said that Porsche India wants to work with its dealers to go into Tier-1, Tier-II, and Tier-III cities.