Porsche sales defy economic gravity as luxury cars outpace recession fears

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Porsche has reported a jump in sales and profits in the first nine months of the year thanks to strong performances from its bestselling Cayenne series and all-electric Taycan.

Sales revenue rose 12.6 per cent to €30.13bn (£26.27bn) on the back of near 10 per cent year-on-year rise in deliveries to 242,722.

The revenue increase helped pre-tax profits come in at €5.6bn between January and September, up from €5.3bn in 2022.

The Cayenne remained the marque’s bestselling series with sales reaching 69,461, while its electric Taycan rose significantly to 29,204, up over 11 per cent.

But Porsche warned it continues to face a “challenging macroeconomic environment with supply chain security and parts availability, generally rising cost levels and geopolitical tensions posing additional challenges.”

The luxury carmaker flagged continued turbulence in the European energy and commodity markets, while noting “restrictive monetary policies” across the continent to curb high inflation in its morning update.

Luxury car brands have remained largely unperturbed by the difficult global backdrop, with many raking in bumper profits in 2022 and early 2023 as rich consumers continued to splurge cash.

However carmakers have since flagged a possible slowdown in demand for luxury makes in the latter half of the year. Bentley’s CEO Adrian Hallmark warned of “challenging conditions” ahead in July, following a record year in 2022.

Analysts at UBS had forecast weaker sales due to a dip in performance from the Macan model, but Porsche confirmed its annual outlook of a 17 to 19 per cent return on sales of €40bn to €42bn.