Porsche to Boost Research and Development

Despite a claim by angry investment funds there are no economic worries for Porsche as the German carmaker keeps on expanding. Porsche needs more engineers in order to keep up with the development of new cars and their rapidly increasing sales.

In an interview with Automotive News Europe, Wolfgang Hatz — head of Porsche’s Research and Development department — told the Stuttgart based company hired more than 300 engineers last year on top of replacing people who left as part of normal staff turnover. The manufacturer of sports- and luxury cars will hire more than 300 engineers again in 2012, which will increase the R&D staff by nearly ten percent. The Porsche research center in Weissach (25 km west from Stuttgart) currently employs 3,500 people.

Porsche is considering to expand their current line-up of cars in order to meet the targets set for 2018. The carmaker aims to double deliveries to at least 200,000 cars within six years. To meet these targets, the brand is spending more than 10 per cent of its revenue on research and development. This figure is almost twice the number which is common as most carmakers spend between five and six per cent.

Besides the 911 (991), Cayenne and Panamera, Porsche is about the launch the new Boxster and is working on the next generation Cayman. The high performance 918 Spyder is planned for 2013. To further boost the sales a small SUV is planned. The line-up could be expanded even further with a compact sportscar positioned below the Boxster, although it was recently reported development of the spiritual successor of the Porsche 550 could be on hold.

All these developments will result in more demand for people. One month ago, the chief personnel of Porsche Thomas Edig said Porsche will create around 1,000 new jobs a year as part of its business strategy for 2018. This will increase the total workforce by almost 50%. At this moment Porsche provides a job for 13,000 people worldwide, from which more than 10,000 in Germany.