BRAND REVOLT™
From revolting to revolutionary

December 2007

Porsche + VW = -CO2

Porsche has established itself as a strategic business player beyond sports cars. Some already consider it to be a ‘hedge fund’ rather than simply niche carmaker.

Porsche has slowly, but surely, built a near-controlling stake in VW group. Restrictive German law, enabling other investors with large stakes to block a Porsche takeover, is being challenged by EU courts. This potentially puts Porsche soon in charge of brands such as Audi, Bentley, Škoda, Lamborghini, Bugatti, SEAT and, of course, the Volkswagen brand itself.

Obviously there are many historical and recent VW and Porsche connections (e.g. platform sharing on the Touareg/Cayenne) but are Porsche’s intentions transparent? It could be speculated that Porsche seeks - ostensibly - to ‘own’ a wider automotive group to enable sharing of innovation, manufacturing and distribution.

However, is this move really more about offsetting Porsche’s CO2 emissions in the short term? And to ensure its future is not limited to high-performance cars that are being subjected to more and more stringent environmental regulations?

The European Commission has outlined plans to reduce the average CO2 emitted per car per kilometer to 130g by 2012, down from 160g today. Porsche will need an average cut of about 138g per car to meet this. The Commission proposed financial penalties for manufacturers who cannot meet the regulations. The fines could be as high as €95 per gram per car by 2016. Which could add thousands of Euro to the average cost of a Porsche 911.

Is Porsche more interested in CO2 emissions and derivative trading (see earlier article) than staying true to its promise of building high quality powerful sports cars? Time is ticking...

© Copyright Hira Verick, Sweden 2007