Porsche laments lack of racing infrastructure

However, firm aims to sell 500 cars by 2010 in India

NEW DELHI: The mention of German car brand Porsche conjures up images of some of the best sports cars available across the globe. No wonder then that Rod Wallace, the managing director of Porsche India and a Porsche veteran, regrets only one thing about the Indian market — the absence of any sort of racing infrastructure.

He points out that, unlike India, the Chinese market has scaled up rapidly
for Porsche — from 80 cars every year to 8,000 within five years — and this is largely because of the Chinese love for motor sports and available infrastructure for such activities.

But these shortcomings haven’t stopped the company from setting its sights firmly on the Indian market. While Porsche cars were being imported into India since 2004, official imports began only a year back when an office was set up in New Delhi.

In 2007, the company managed to sell 101 cars but it has already doubled its target to 200 for this year and aims to sell 500 cars by 2010.

Wallace said Porsche is not eyeing volumes in India just yet and in fact, his team of 20 people from across the globe rarely talks of sales volume. “We are on a two year programme here. During this time, we want to identify ‘owner-driver’ dealers and enhance brand awareness — which is still quite low for the Porsche brand.”

Currently, the company has only one dealer each in Mumbai and Delhi but by beginning of 2010 there should be 11 dealerships across Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Wallace explains his company’s aversion to “big dealerships” by emphasising that Porsche dealers need to be passionate about the cars and be able to manage the business with a hands-on approach.

And while he shrugs off any talk of competition, saying Porsche remains a niche car maker, he does indicate that other German car makers — Volkswagen and BMW for example — could be considered rivals in similar segments. Porsche has brought four of its famous marques to India — Boxster, Cayman, 911 and the Cayenne — priced between Rs 55 lakh and Rs 1.8 crore.

Having opened two showrooms, Porsche is now concentrating on raising brand awareness.

It has lined up a print campaign for select auto magazines, a random campaign for lifestyle publications and also a mega test drive at the Amby Valley near Mumbai in November where its complete product range would be available for prospective customers. At present, 4,500-5,000 luxury cars are sold each year but this figure is expected to double by 2010.

b_sindhu@dnaindia.net