Porsche Australia believes demand for its electric cars is not only out there but growing, as it continues to push the rollout of its Taycan range.
With 531 Porsche Taycans sold in Australia during 2021 – exceeding the 428 sales of 911s in the same period – there’s no doubt Australia has embraced the brand’s first-ever electric car.
In the first two months of 2022, the 911 lags 30 sales behind the Taycan (56 vs 86 sales).
As the company pushes to make more of its model lineup electric, it has to be asked as to whether the market is ready to embrace the high-performance German brand’s transition into a new era when it extends beyond just one model.
Porsche Cars Australia’s head of public relations, Chris Jordan, told CarExpert that a Porsche, regardless of its powertrain, will always be a Porsche. As such, the demand for the cars will continue.
“If we keep doing what we keep doing, we are quietly confident that the demand is out there,” Mr Jordan said.
The Taycan will be followed by a range of electric vehicles from Porsche, notably the next-generation Macan SUV that will be unveiled later in 2022.
As confirmed recently, the 718 Cayman and Boxster will also be battery-powered by the middle of the 2020s.
Strong sales for models like the Taycan have proven demand for electric mobility is not limited to the mainstream, Porsche says.
“The key has been, we have really positioned [Taycan] as a true Porsche sports car with a familiar range structure and roll out, training all our staff and Porsche centres to make sure they embrace the product on the sale and service side with the owners and those that are interested, because it shouldn’t be an outlier. It needs to be a true Porsche,” Mr Jordan said.
“So far with Taycan, it is showing that in the Australian car market there is demand for Porsche sports cars be they petrol or electric. First and foremost it is a Porsche,” Mr Jordan said.
“Going forward increasingly more options are going to be electric,” he said.
As it stands, just under half of Taycan customers in Australia are new to the Porsche brand. For a significant number of them, it’s also their first electric vehicle.
Jordan believes although plenty of customers are still buying internal-combustion Porsches, the talk from customers is that they’re looking to make it their last petrol car before they switch go electric.
“Some are very interested in the EV market, sitting in the sideline assessing where the market will be. The interest in electric cars far surpasses the sales of EVs,” Mr Jordan said.
