Porsche has had another banner year, with the luxury sports car maker reaffirming its position as one of the world’s most profitable car makers.
In 2023, Porsche made a profit of €7.3 billion ($12.1 billion), an improvement of 7.6 per cent or around €500 million over the previous year. Revenue grew by a similar percentage to €40.5 billion ($67 million).
Its profit margin on sales remained stable at 18.0 per cent. This is a remarkable number considering most mainstream manufacturers would consider margins of around 8.0 per cent to be exceptional.
Although the Volkswagen Group has yet to release its final financial figures for 2023, it’s probably safe to assume that, once again, Porsche is the automaker’s crown jewel and the conglomerate’s most profitable division.
Last year Porsche delivered 320,221 cars around the world, an increase of 10,337 units or 3.3 per cent.
To put these latest figures into context, in 2002 — the year it began production of its first crossover, the Cayenne — Porsche sold just 54,234 cars.
And in a narrative that bucks one trend and follows another, the uplift was all due to its sports car models, and its all-electric model.
While crossovers still constitute a majority (54.6 per cent) of sales, their share of sales and overall numbers fell on back of the flagship Cayenne.
Possibly affected by changeover to a facelifted model, unveiled at the end of 2023, sales of the Cayenne fell by over 8000 units. The large crossover just managed to keep its title as the brand’s number one model, edging out the aging Macan by a mere 198 units.
Despite being a shade under 10 years old, the Macan managed to improve its sales ever so slightly by 631 cars.
Across the automotive world dedicated sports and sporty car lines have been winnowed down to a small handful, but Porsche’s biggest sales improvement came from the signature 911 line. The venerable two-door saw sales rise by 9736 or 24.1 per cent.
The smaller, more affordable 718 series, encompassing the Boxster convertible and Cayman coupe, also recorded a jump, improving by 2315 sales over 2022.
Porsche’s second largest sales increase came from the electric Taycan, which rose 5828 or 16.7 per cent.
| Region | 2023 | 2022 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 102,659 | 92,197 | +11.3% |
| USA & Canada | 86,059 | 79,260 | +8.6% |
| China | 79,283 | 93,286 | -15.0% |
| Rest of the World | 52,220 | 45,141 | +15.7% |
Geographically speaking, Europe was the region where most Porsches are sold, with 32,430 sold in Germany alone, a 9.9 per cent increase over 2022. Overall, the European region accounted for 32.0 per cent of brand’s sales.
Thanks to a large fall in its China numbers, the world’s most populated country fell from being Porsche’s top region to third place, behind an improving North America, which strangely doesn’t include Mexico.
