Porsche Automobil SE : opens customer experience centre and company headquarters in USA

Atlanta/Stuttgart. On Thursday evening (7 May local time) in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia, Porsche officially inaugurated its new customer experience centre with company headquarters for North America. Through the 100-million-dollar investment project "One Porsche Drive", the largest foreign investment in the more than 65-year company history, the sports car maker from Zuffenhausen is presenting an internationally unique location with office, training and event facilities supplemented by a test circuit with modular design, a classic car gallery, a restoration workshop and a restaurant. The opening ceremony with the motto "Dream Experience" hosted almost 900 guests, who in addition to customers included partners and employees of the subsidiary Porsche Cars North America as well as the Executive Board of Porsche AG. Porsche CEO Matthias Müller together with the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dr Wolfgang Porsche and Member of the Supervisory Board Dr Hans Michel Piëch was present to welcome the guests of honour, who included representatives of the founder family as well as the Governor of Georgia Nathan Deal and the Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed.

"We are celebrating a special milestone in the history of our company by increasing the visibility of the Porsche brand in North America and hence in the entire world as well. The brand-new location 'One Porsche Drive' offers fascinating opportunities to experience the history and vehicles," said the Chairman of the Executive Board Matthias Müller on the occasion of the opening ceremony.

The Porsche site covering an area of eleven hectares is located in a new industrial area called "Aerotropolis". It borders on the world's largest international air traffic hub - the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport - with some 95 million air passengers annually. Aircraft take off from here to more than 150 US cities. Consequently, some 80 per cent of US customers and Porsche fans live only two and a half hours' flying time away. With more than 47,000 vehicles delivered in 2014, the United States is the largest Porsche market worldwide and also the most important market for the 911 sports car icon, which was delivered to 10,500 customers last year. "We are reasonably confident of crossing the 50,000-delivery mark in the USA in 2015," said Matthias Müller. In no other market does Porsche have fans who are more loyal than in the USA. The Porsche Club of America, which, with some 115,000 members, is the world's largest customer club for only one brand, is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2015.

The Porsche dealer network in the USA covers 189 locations. Added to this are 16 dealers in Canada, who sold over 4,900 Porsche models for the first time in 2014. Roughly one third of the North American customers opt for the two-door sports cars 911, Boxster and Cayman. Of these, the sportiest derivatives - such as the 911 GT3, 911 GT3 RS, Boxster Spyder and Cayman GT4 - are in especially high demand. Furthermore, the plug-in hybrid models of Cayenne and Panamera enjoy an above-average level of popularity with an approximately 16 per cent share of sales.

"As a shop window for the motivation of our employees and everything that our vehicles are capable of and perform, 'One Porsche Drive' is setting new standards for the whole world of Porsche," said Bernhard Maier, Member of the Executive Board for Sales and Marketing of Porsche AG, praising the successful completion of the project after a two-and-a-half-year construction period. Some 450 permanent employees will be working at the location in future, of whom a good 300 will be involved in the vehicle business at Porsche Cars North America (PCNA). Another 150 employees are employed by the subsidiary companies of Porsche Financial Services, Porsche Consulting, Porsche Business Services and MHP Management- und IT-Consulting. In total, approximately 100 new jobs are being created at Porsche in Atlanta. Executive Board Member Maier explained: "Our aim was to establish a company headquarters at 'One Porsche Drive' that would provide a new common home for all the subsidiaries based in the USA. This creates synergies and reinforces the cooperation between all those involved."

Porsche Cars North America is a fully owned subsidiary of Porsche AG and was founded in 1984. Since 1998, the company had been based in rented premises to the north of Atlanta. Detlev von Platen, President and CEO of PCNA, gave an impressive description of the development: "In the beginning in 1950 it was possible to sell three vehicles every month. 65 years later, in April 2015, we have been able to set up a new record with 5,200 new cars." A crucial factor for him is that the Porsche employees should be "in close contact with our customers in the new home". Not least because in the future it will provide training sessions for more than 1,000 technicians from the Porsche Centres every year.

Approximately 30,000 guests per year are expected in the Porsche customer experience centre with its unique architecture and its well-conceived facilities. Customers can come here to collect their new vehicles or have their classic cars restored. Individual visitors as well as companies with their employees and guests can pay to hone their driving skills or hire the perfectly equipped business centre for conferences. Car enthusiasts can additionally view vintage Porsche models, explore the company's history and allow themselves a treat in the "Carrera Café" or the "356" gourmet restaurant. The restaurant owes its name to the first series production Porsche to be delivered to the USA, which went to the New York importer Max Hoffmann in 1950.

"'One Porsche Drive' is the beginning of a new era in the history of Porsche in America," said USA CEO von Platen. The 2.6-kilometre long driver development circuit winds its way across the entire campus through the various areas and courtyards and offers facilities that include six driving modules which can be completed under the supervision of instructors: the handling circuit, the off-road course, the dynamics area, the low friction handling circuit, the low friction circle and the only kick plate in North America. This is where visitors can truly appreciate and feel the conceptual harmony between the engineering design and technology of the vehicles as well as experience the performance of the various Porsche models.

Porsche CEO Müller thanked Governor Deal and Mayor Reed for the tremendous support provided by the administrations of Georgia and Atlanta. Nathan Deal replied: "Porsche is a fantastic ambassador for us in the world and shows how Georgia can be a place to work from successfully." The city of Atlanta can boast the third-highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies and is home to global corporations such as CNN; Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and UPS. "We are proud that Porsche is among them and that this iconic, best-in-class enterprise has chosen Atlanta as its new home," added Kasim Reed. This summer, Mercedes-Benz, the neighbour of Porsche in Stuttgart, is also due to relocate its US headquarters to Atlanta.

The opening of the USA headquarters brought a further surprise in the evening, from which all residents and tourists in the Atlanta region will soon benefit: during the course of the festivities, Dr Wolfgang Porsche handed over a cheque for 500,000 US dollars on behalf of the company as support for the initiative "Atlanta BeltLine". This transport development project is creating a network of public parks, multi-use trails and transit routes along a historic 30-kilometre railroad corridor circling the city centre. Fully in keeping with our tradition of responsibility for nature conservation and the environment, "it is important for us to be able to return a little something to the community that has given us so much," explained Dr Porsche.

Porsche model range 911: combined fuel consumption 12.7-8.2 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 296-191 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): G-F

Porsche model range Boxster: combined fuel consumption 9.0-7.9 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 211-183 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): G-F

Porsche model range Cayman: combined fuel consumption 10.3-7.9 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 238-183 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): G-F

Porsche model range Cayenne: combined fuel consumption 11.5-6.6 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 267-173 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): F-B

Porsche Cayenne S E-Hybrid: combined fuel consumption 3.4 l/100 km, combined energy consumption 20.8 kWh/100 km; combined CO2 emissions 79 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): A+

Porsche model range Panamera: combined fuel consumption 10.5-6.4 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 245-169 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): F-B

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid: combined fuel consumption 3.1 l/100 km, combined energy consumption 16.2 kWh/100 km; combined CO2 emissions 71 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): A+

Porsche model range Macan: combined fuel consumption 9.2-6.1 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 216-159 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): E-B

Porsche 918 Spyder: combined fuel consumption 3.1-3.0 l/100 km, combined energy consumption 12.7 kWh/100 km; CO2 emissions 72-70 g/km; efficiency class (Germany): A+

GO

5/8/2015

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