Order intake and volumes of the current Porsche 911 versions have developed far better than the company expected. The company highlights the strong mix and the positive impact on margins, also Cayenne volumes are running strong. New 911 Carrera and 911 Carrera S 911 will come to the market mid July at the same time. Porsche is on track to reach record earnings this year, and analysts are confident to see another strong increase in earnings next year.
Start saving up now: Porsche has announced that its new 911 series Carrera and Carrera S sports cars will be launched in mainland Europe on July 17 and in the UK and US markets in early September. Pretax prices in Germany will be 64,700 Euro and 73,300 Euro respectively.
Bridgestone has supplied its one millionth runflat tyre – more than any other manufacturer, claims the corporation. The first runflats were prod uced in the early 1980s for physically disabled motorists and Bridgestone’s first runflats for a production car were delivered in 1987 for the Porsche 959, then the world’s fastest production car. Since 1999, Bridgestone has supplied runflats as OE for nine vehicle models. The majority of the 1,000,000 runflats have been sold in Europe.
In the first six months of the business year (1st April – 30th September 2003), the German Beru Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigsburg, increased its consolidated sales by 9.6 per cent from 140.3 million Euro to 153.8 million Euro. The company recorded EBIT (before one-offs) of 24.4 million Euro in the first six months, compared with 20.4 million Euro for the same period of the previous year. The newest division — Electronics and Sensor Technology posted the highest growth.
The Bridgestone Turanza™ ER30 N-0 extra load tyre in size 255/55R18 109Y will be supplied as original equipment for the new Porsche Cayenne sport utility/crossover vehicle. Bridgestone has been an original equipment supplier to Porsche for more than 20 years and the company also provides tires for the Porsche 911 and Boxster.
The recently-launched Michelin Pilot Sport tyre will be fitted as standard on the new Porsche 996 GT3. The sizes are 235/40 ZR18 (front) and 295/30 ZR18 (rear).
Beru’s newest business area, Electronics and Sensors, increased its sales over the first nine months of the year by 26.5 per cent to 43.4 million Euros. Sales in the tyre pressure monitoring division increased by 81.1 per cent in the first nine months to 13.4 million Euros, due to rising equipment levels at DaimlerChrysler and the launches of the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne.
Porsche yesterday opened a new 127 million Euros factory at Leipzig, eastern Germany, to produce the new Cayenne SUV, a vehicle developed in conjunction with VW. The new factory, next to a 4km test track and customer centre, will also produce the Carrera GT sports car from the middle of next year.
Tyre manufacturer Continental is producing a special edition of its WinterContact TS 790 V tyre exclusively for Porsche. The tyre – already mounted on the rim – will be distributed in Germany by Porsche dealers only.
Recently in Barcelona the tyre manufacturer Continental introduced its new ultra high performance tyre ContiSportContact 2 to the press. And just like its predecessor, ContiSportContact 1, of the ContiPremiumContact important aspects of the new tyre have been created according to nature, as both the new, highly efficient tyre tread mixture and the bionic shape have been modelled on nature. Geert Roik, leader of the passenger car tyre development, explains, that it was the first time that a tyre has been prepared following the design of a spider’s web, which is both elastic yet firm. The shape has been modelled on a cat’s paw. However, it has always to be remembered that however high the engine performance, its output will be transmitted to the ground over a contact area of a size of four-postcards. The constant improvement of the power transmission over these four small areas in order to adjust it to existing or intended vehicles, develops the tyre engineer’s skills. According to the manufacturer, the ContiSportContact 2 will be a sport tyre, developed on the latest state-of-the-art basis and designed for existing and future high-performance vehicles. According to Dirk Gentgen, Continental’s marketing director for passenger car tyres in Europe, a durable and increasing market is developing because increasingly, tuning and fashion will not stop at tyre selection. Many car drivers think that wide and fashionable tyres as well as fashionable rims are necessary for a sports car to be beautiful. Gentgen is stating the target: “In this segment we want to decisively increase our market share in the coming years.”
Michelin and the Motorsport Division of the Porsche Club Great Britain have signed an agreement whereby Michelin will supply all tyres for the Porsche Cup and the Porsche Classic motor racing championships for the next three seasons. Cup competitors will use slick and wet racing tyres, while Classic racers will use specially-developed, road-legal Pilot Sport Cup race tyres.
Bridgestone has won Porsche’s Supplier award for 1999. The tyre company was also assessed by Porsche as Top Best for product quality and delivery; the only tyre manufacturer to achieve this ranking. The award was presented to Michael Conrad, OE sales manager for Bridgestone/Firestone Deutschland, and Stephen Rambow, engineering account manager in charge of Porsche affairs, at a ceremony attended by senior representatives of Europe’s auto industry.
US auto sales in 1999 reached 17.4 million; a 9.1% increase over 1998. Audi car sales rose 39% to 65,959, Porsche sold 17,243 cars (+21%) and Mercedes 189,437 (+11.3%). Chrysler “only” achieved an increase of 5.1%.
Once more German Car Producers were successful in the USA becuase DaimlerChrysler, VW, Audi, BMW and Porsche have increased their shares of the world’s biggest car market in April. Leader in the growth rates is the VW-brand Audi with an increase of 43.7 p.c. The complete US car market grew 10.9 p.c. in April.
Hayes Lemmerz International is going to acquire the Schenk foundry in Germany in order to expand its suspension presence in Europe. Klaus Jünger, President European Chassis Components Group said that “this is an excellent base for our expansion in Europe.” Major customers of Schenk are Audi, BMW, Opel and Porsche.
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