Months after its IPO, Porsche needs its wizards more than ever

PORSCHE built its 100,000th electric car on Monday (Nov 7), a little over three years after launching its first battery-powered model, the Taycan. In doing so, it blew past its early hopes for the car, which had an initial target of 20,000 units in 2020.

Last year the Taycan, which comes in three body styles, outsold the 911, the legendary sportscar that built Porsche’s reputation for high performance.

“We are very pleased to have reached this milestone in production history so quickly – despite the recent challenges posed by the semiconductor shortage and the volatile Covid situation,” Kevin Giek, vice-president, Model Line Taycan, said in a statement

The 100,000th car – a blue Taycan Turbo S – is headed to a buyer in the United Kingdom, but Porsche said many existing customers have hit an important milestone of their own by putting six figures on their Taycans’ odometers.

Jean-Hubert Revolon, a Lyon-based entrepreneur, has covered more than 188,119 km in his Taycan 4S since August 2020. He has driven the Porsche in nearly all of France’s neighbouring countries, covering up to 1,200 km per day along the way. The car’s agility is something only the “wizards at Porsche” could manage, he says.

He claims it has needed only a new suspension sensor in all that distance, making it the most reliable car he has ever owned.

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Stories like these bode well for Porsche investors, who have been rewarded so far for holding the company’s stock. Since their market debut on the Frankfurt exchange in September, Porsche shares have surged roughly 20 per cent in price. The climb vaulted the company past Volkswagen Group, its former parent, to become Europe’s most valuable carmaker last month.

Analysts say optimism about electric cars is one reason to be bullish on Porsche. The next 100,000th Taycan had better come sooner rather than later.