Porsche drives in with a modest target

German luxury carmaker Porsche AG announced its entry into India's fast growing car market on Tuesday, but said it expected only moderate sales of its sports cars in a market dominated by minis and hatchbacks. Porsche introduced three versions of its Cayenne sports utility vehicle priced between Rs 47 and 86 lakh, and the Boxster S and the Carrera sports cars priced between Rs 47 and 71 lakh.

Mark Bishop, managing director of Dubai-based Porsche Middle East, told a news conference the firm expected to sell a 100 cars in the next few months but anticipated strong volume sales in the years to come.

"I believe India is ready for Porsche and we expect the bulk of our sales here to come from the Cayenne," Bishop said.

All the three models of the Cayenne SUV was unveiled today, including the entry-level with a V6 engine, the Cayenne S with a V8 engine offering 340 bhp and the top of the range Cayenne Turbo generating 450 bhp.

The Turbo model accelerates from 0-100 in 5.6 seconds and has a top speed of 266 km/h, making it the fastest SUV in the market.

The company has appointed exclusive dealers in New Delhi and Mumbai and is planning to appoint exclusive dealers in other cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore and possibly Chennai by the end of 2005.

Porsche's luxury cars will be imported from the its only plant in Stuttgart, Germany, as fully built units. The firm intends to capture market share using the 'German Engineering' tag.

Gearing up

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• Three versions of Cayenne SUV introduced
• Luxury cars to be imported from Germany as CBUs
• To capitlise the 'German Engineering' tag